Enter Misguided

Enter misguided aspiring mogul
He's handing me a card, he wants to put out a single
And that's the way it's working in the marketplace
If you can talk a better mousetrap, you're buying office space
And the world beats a pathway to your basement door

And I'm no smarter than they were
No more clever than they
And my face was as shiny
That's why I watch what I say
And I avoid rose-colored backwards-glancing cliches
So in all this perfection, who's going to make a brilliant mistake?

Can I save one speck for innocence? Can I tell you off with tact?
Can I give you all your pound of flesh and then show you my back?
'Cause when they took it over, we fell in line like perfect dupes
Yeah we were so impressed to finally catch their interest
That we mortgaged more than we could ever recoup

Is it something in the water, something's missing in their eyes
Substituting strategy for content or surprise
A singular obsession with a narrow sort of fame
Though everyone that came before them also had a name
They agreed to these concessions before looking once around
And digging their own pitfalls with gold shovels layin' around
Like the ends are just so marvelous to justify a means
That depends upon anemic distillation of extremes

And when they took it over, we held our nose and opened wide
The kind of bitter pill you swallow like an landfill
A mess of overkill and rationalize
And when they took it over, we fell inline like target ducks
Wearing the bravest face, waiting patiently to get our taste
Of the fifteen minutes that they'd lined up for us

Can I save one speck for innocence? Can I tell you off with tact?
Can I give you all your pound of flesh and then show you my back?
And I know there's nothing black and white, you're not an enemy
But something in this bitterness, it just tastes bad to me