Paint by Numbers

On the playground you learned how to share with the kids
 But you still didn't feel you fit in
 How fitting, in confusion when you turned sixteen
 You knew how to paint by numbers
 But you knew it wasn't rock and roll
 You learned tight pants, spray-paint and eyeliner
 You said glam-rock would save your soul
 But you didn't grasp that the rebellion you wanted wasn't something you can ever be sold
 And I never understood how someone could be so willing to be absorbed
 Into what I never though could be passed for identity
 And I always felt bad for the kids who had to share their faces
 With sad teenagers across the world
 Found something to fill their loss, without ever adjusting the cause
 I heard a speech pattern imitated exactly by a girl in Seattle and a gang in Minneapolis
 So I guess he must of learned that from T.V.
 You said you'd find yourself for real but feel far out from the goal
 You had to paint by numbers but knew it wasn't ro-ro-ro-ro rock and roll!