SONGS FROM THE UNOFFICIAL TOXICITY SOUNDTRACK
TRACK 3
“21st Century (Digital Boy)” by Bad Religion
PROLOGUE PART 3
“Fun with Grapes”
Imagine your family is a few weeks away from being evicted. You have no money, your mother is mentally insane, your father can’t light his pipe on the first try, and your brother is too fat to get off the couch. In fact, your dog, Zooey Deschanel, is the only decent member of your dysfunctional family. Life is shit, and in your head, it will only get shittier.
Then, your mother suddenly wins the lottery, and you’re transformed into the lifestyle of the rich and famous. You get a big house, a giant chocolate fountain in your kitchen, and you go to a new school for hipsters and Microsoft prodigies. You have taken a severe 180.
Such is the dramatic turn of events for Johnny Desperation in the closing section of Toxicity’s prologue. He has gone from a ghetto kid to a new, upgraded 21st century digital boy. Johnny is a cynic at heart, and this new lifestyle does not sit well for him. He looks at his new peers, and all he can see is their utter bullshit. Nothing is real. He’s living in a condiment society, in an Apple-branded planet. Johnny is now an iLifer, and there’s no getting out.
LYRICS
I can’t believe it, the way you look sometimes
Like a trampled flag on a city street, oh yeah
And I don’t want it, the things you’re offering me
Symbolized bar code, quick ID, oh yeah
[Chorus:]
See I’m a 21st century digital boy
I don’t know how to read but I’ve got a lot of toys
My daddy’s a lazy middle class intellectual
My mommy’s on Valium, so ineffectual
Ain’t life a mystery?
I can’t explain it, the things you’re saying to me
It’s going yayayayayayaya, oh yeah
[Chorus]
Tried to tell you about no control
But now I really don’t know
And then you told me how bad you had to suffer
Is that really all you have to offer?
[Chorus]
[outro]
Cat’s foot, iron claw
Neurosurgeon, scream for more
Innocence raped with napalm fire
Everything I want, I really need.
[fade out]
21st century schizoid boy
21st century video boy
21st century digital boy…