[Verse 1]
I came home from school on Tuesday
To find my mother gone
Why she left? I'll never know
It seemed like they got along
But, one of these days, I'd like to know
Just where it all went wrong
A woman torn to tears asks
Who the real criminals are
When they told her her husband died
Fightin' in another country's drug wars
She said "It isn't the kids on the streets without a dream
Shootin' up the dealers' smack
It's them red tape politicians takin' all the drug lords' kickbacks"
Isn't it funny what power and money
Can do to the soul of a man?

[Chorus]
And give me somethin' to believe in, yeah
If there's a Lord above
Ah, give me somethin' to believe in, yeah
If there's a Lord above

[Verse 2]
He got a second job at night now
Just to help pay the bills
And there he worked for the rest of his life
Because his wife had taken ill
Now he lives on a bottle of courage
He buys at the liquor store
He did his family real good
Until he couldn't do it anymore
Whatever he found or why he broke down?
No one's really sure
[Chorus]
Just needed somethin' to believe in
If there's a Lord above
He needed somethin' to believe in, yeah
Oh, Lord, arise

[Bridge]
The tracks of society's race show on the old man's face
His eyes, blood red, laid to waste

[Instrumental Break]

[Verse 3]
Well, the mirror tells a different story
Than the one that's playin' in my mind
Every time, I swear, I'm lookin' younger
The more lines that I find
I guess I learned to trade youth for wisdom
And lust in for romance
It's all written in the stages and phases
Of life's little dance
But when I want to bitch about growin' old
I think, 'How many never had a chance?'

[Chorus]
It gives me somethin' to believe in, yeah
Oh, Lord, arise
It gives me somethin' to believe in, yeah
Oh, Lord, Lord, arise
Somethin' to believe in
Oh, Lord above
It gives me somethin' to believe in, yeah
Oh, Lord, arise
[Outro]
Sometimes, I wish I didn't know now things I didn't know then
And give me something to believe in, yeah-yeah