[Chorus]
Why stay in college? Why go to night school?
Gonna be different this time
Can't write a letter, can't send no postcard
I ain't got time for that now

[Verse 4]
Trouble in transit, got through the roadblock
We blended in with the crowd
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines
I know that that ain't allowed

We dress like students, we dress like housewives
Or in a suit and a tie
I changed my hairstyle so many times now
I don't know what I look like

[Verse 5]
You make me shiver, I feel so tender
We make a pretty good team
Don't get exhausted, I'll do some driving
You ought to get you some sleep
Burned all my notebooks, what good are notebooks?
They won't help me survive

My chest is aching, burns like a furnace
The burning keeps me alive

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Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

What did Talking Heads say about "Life During Wartime"?
Genius Answer

I wrote this in my loft on Seventh and Avenue A. I was thinking about Baader-Meinhof. Patty Hearst. Tompkins Square. This a song about living in Alphabet City.“
–Bowman, David (2001). *This Must Be the Place: The Adventures of Talking Heads in the Twentieth Century. *

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