Punk Rock Saved My Life

D E F#m E D C# B C#

[Verse 1]

F#m                  Bm       E                       A
My dad sold women's shoes and travelled nine months a year
 F#m                  Bm      Dm             E
When he left my mom in ’71 I didn't shed one tear
  F#m                      Bm              E      A
He was a man who married a teenage girl when he was 39
   F#m                  Bm             Dm            E
A man like that doesn't want a wife, he wants a concubine

[Refrain]

  F#m              D                   B           A
He moved her to Boston, away from her friends and family
  F#m              D                      E
He isolated her, so in turn, she isolated me
   F#m             D                  B                 A
She went to bars and house parties, and left her infant all alone
    F#m          Bm                  D         E    Dm                            E
She joked that it was all right, ’cause in my crib she left the receiver of the phone

[Verse 2]

   F#m                           C#m
He was a shithead father, who created a vengeful wife
    B                              D
It's why I proudly say: When I was 14
        A             Em            F#m
And saw X and the Subhumans at the Whiskey
 F            D                      F                          F#   D F# E
That was the night – it may sound trite, but punk rock saved my life

[Refrain]

   F# D                    E               F#
At 35, when my father said he never wanted me
                   D                 A           C#
I remember that I didn't know him as well as his TV
   F#m           D             E         C#m
Other weekends I spent in my granddad's Pontiac
    F#m                 D                 A                C#
At least he was proud to introduce me to his friends at the race track

[Bridge]

     Bm                          D
He let me bet two-buck trifectas, and his friends became my teachers
    A          E                           F#m                      D
I didn't know I was the only eight-year-old in the Santa Anita bleachers
                                          Dm   A F# B A D A Bm D C#
Because a child doesn't know what normal is

[Verse 3]

    F#m                 Bm      E7            A   E
In Beverly Hills, I grew up feeling like a tourist
    F#m                          Bm              Dm           E
'cause my friends' parents were millionaires, my mom was a manicurist
     F#m              Bm           E         A
She’d hang with the Factors and the Westside bourgeoisie
  F#m                 Bm                  Dm            E
Since she’d go out five nights a week, she got me my own TV

[Refrain]

  F#m               D             Bm       G#       A
I found her porn and sex toys and began to realize then
   F#m                    D               A
After she cooked dinner, she'd go out to fuck older wealthy men
    F#m            D          Bm  G#    A
I never had a babysitter, I had a latchkey
    F#m               D                                   E
It’s so embarrassing: But she never threw me one birthday party

[Outro]

     Dm                              E
So I spent my nights going to every punk show I could find
      F#m                   E
My new home was Hollywood, around Selma and Vine
    B                            D
The Cathay, the Olympic, and the Vex
               A                          F#m             F
You see, punk rock was never just music to me, it was my life
      D                              F               F#m
My parents were just relatives, my family was always NOFX