Since I Gave Up Hope I Feel A Lot Better
![[Image: 'I Predict 1990' Front Cover]](/images/music/albums/ip1990-front-cover.png)
Sections:
Lyrics
Enter the young idealist
Chasing dragons to slay
Exit the hustler
Packing up his M.B.A.
Freshmen scream in a classroom
Was there a sound?
First degree in the vacuum
I'm on college ground
Took a class, big fun
Modern ethics 101
First day learned why
Ethics really don't apply
Prof says, "One trait
Takes us to a higher state
Drug free, pure bliss
Get your pencils, copy this"
"Life unwinds like a cheap sweater
But since I gave up hope I feel a lot better
And the truth gets blurred like a wet letter
But since I gave up hope I feel a lot better"
Top of the class sits Ernest
He was brightest and best
Till the professor lured him
To the hopeless nest
Now he lives for the shortcut
Like a citizen should
Tells the class with a wink
"Only the young die good"
He says, "Ideals? Uncouth
Fatalism needs youth
Eat well, floss right
Keep the hungry out of sight"
"Save face--nip and tuck
Praise yourself and pass the buck
And don't forget the best advice
Everybody's get a price"
"Life unwinds like a cheap sweater
But since I gave up hope I feel a lot better
And the truth gets blurred like a wet letter
But since I gave up hope I feel a lot better"
"While the world winds down to a final prayer
Nothing soothes quicker than complete despair
I predict by dinner I won't even care
Since I gave up hope I feel a lot better"
Nazis plead in a courtroom
"Pardon me, boys"
Profits fall in a boardroom
Did they make a noise?
Someone spreads an affliction
Company's nice
Someone sells an addiction
Puts your soul on ice
Half wits knock heads
Candidates in double beds
Good guys defect
"I can't precisely recollect"
Teacher's pet theory's fine
If you're born without a spine
Can't you spell wrong?
Sing it to him Papa John
"While the world winds down to a final prayer
Nothing soothes quicker than complete despair
I predict by dinner I won't even care
Since I gave up hope I feel a lot better"
"Life unwinds like a cheap sweater
But since I gave up hope I feel a lot better
And the truth gets blurred like a wet letter
But since I gave up hope I feel a lot better"
"Life unwinds like a cheap sweater
But since I gave up hope I feel a lot better
And the truth gets blurred like a wet letter
But since I gave up hope I feel a lot better"
Recorded Appearances
About The Song
From Clone Club News Flash Winter 1988, Winter 1988:
A rather satirical song (something of a departure for me, don't you think?), this one takes a look through the wide eyes of a college freshman at existentialism and nihilism, the philosophies that fuel much of contemporary American thought.
From Ever Unpredictable, Notebored, January/February 1988:
The most fun I've ever had in one day was when we brought in Papa John Creach of Jefferson Airplane to play on a song called "Since I Gave Up Hope I Feel a lot Better". He's somewhat feeble looking, kind of bent over, he bounces when he walks and he is very friendly. Dave (Perkins) had played in his band for about a year, a few years back and always kept a real good relationship with him. We brought him into the studio to do this song. It would have taken hours to teach him all the changes on the chords, because the song is fairly complex. Instead we just put the phones on him and did a combination of a pick-up on his fiddle and a room mike. He just started playing as he heard things. The cool thing was he'd play along he would hit a note and yell along with his playing. It was a real interesting texture that we got because it wasn't just his fiddle its his voice as well. Watching him play was just the most fun I've ever had in the studio.
From Kansas City, MO, April 30th, 1988:
How many of you guys are students? The real students are the ones that raised their hands, aren't they? This song is for all of you students. It's about a wide-eyed college freshman that enrolls in the state university. He gets to his Ethics 101 class, finds out that the professor doesn't even believe that there is such a thing as ethics. The professor's philosophy of life can best be summarized as, "life unwinds like a cheap sweater, but since I gave up hope I feel a lot better."
From Now The Truth Can Be Told Liner Notes & Song-By-Song Essays, Now The Truth Can Be Told Insert Booklet, August 23rd, 1994:
I could bore you with trivia by telling you that of all my song titles, this one has the most words. I could drop famous names by mentioning the improvisatory prowess on this track by famed Jefferson Airplane fiddler Papa John Creach. But I think I'll just dare you to go digging by saying that of all the songs I've written, this one is perhaps most rewarded by a careful reading of the words.
