Younger Than Me

Some people fear losing their hair That's not me, though I've lost my share Some people fear death from cancer And though I wouldn't like that, it wouldn't be my answer You wanna know what scares me? You wanna know what really scares me? You wanna know what scares me? Well, here goes People younger than me, they really scare me People younger than me, they really scare me People younger than me, they really scare me to death This eighteen-year-old kid, she says to me "I hear you like Johnny Cash, I like Johnny Cash as well" So I smile and I'm like, "Oh man, yeah that's great, he's great Do you know that song he does called 'The Long Black Veil?' " And she thinks for a second and she's like, "No I don't know that one But I'm quite fond of his one Jesus ode" So I think for a minute and I'm like "You mean, 'Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?' " She says, "No, I mean 'Personal Jesus.' " "But that's a song by Depeche Mode" I say, and then she says "Who's Depeche Mode?" People younger than me, they really scare me People younger than me, they really scare me People younger than me, they really scare me to death So the other day In my last apartment, I came home And my roommate was watching MTV with his girlfriend And they're You know, they're both the same age as me So they don't scare me to death or anything But, as I said, they were watching MTV and that's the point But the point isn't what you think it's going to be Which is, "Oh! They don't show videos on MTV anymore" Even though that's true And I guess I am old enough to remember when they did show videos on MTV Like I remember that one Toadies video "Do you wanna die?" And I remember that I learned the phrase grunge music by watching MTV I tuned in one day and they were having the Smells Like Grunge countdown And of course number one was the Nirvana song That they ripped the title of their countdown off of Not a hard choice there And, uh, what was the point? Oh yes, my roommate and his girlfriend are watching MTV And they're watching this show called My Super Sweet Sixteen Which, I don't know if you've ever seen it But it's this reality show Where these extremely wealthy teenagers Are rewarded by their extremely wealthy parents For being able to survive sixteen years By getting, like, really expensive gifts Of like sports cars and their own islands in the Pacific And they get these extravagant parties And basically it's thirty minutes of watching rich people shop And like I got this really old person thought As I was watching about five minutes of it And I was like "What is this doing to the youth of America?" And normally, I don't bother myself with the youth of America But I was thinking "What is this doing to the youth of America?" Because, you know in my day, we had Beavis and Butthead And, you know, Beavis and Butthead might get you to burn down a building But it was probably full of asbestos and needed to go anyway So it was really a public service, Beavis and Butthead was But this shit with the consumerism and wanting to consume That seemed pretty fucking harmful And you could say, like, "Well a lot of people watch that show To make fun of those people, not to yearn for that" But that's not much better either You know, you should You shouldn't be satisfied feeling better than the people on TV You should strive to be better than the people that make TV You know, create your images and get them out there Or something Now I know what you're thinking Where's the next verse? Well, if you can figure out a way to distill what I just said Into four or five lines And make some of them rhyme Let me know Some people fear losing their grip Realizing they're no longer hip Some people fear becoming irrelevant As rare as the dodo or the great pink elephant But you know what scares me? You wanna know what really scares me? You wanna know what scares me? I think you know People younger than me, they really scare me People younger than me, they really scare me People younger than me, they really scare me to death