Pennywise is an American punk rock band from Hermosa Beach, California, for… Read Full Bio ↴Pennywise is an American punk rock band from Hermosa Beach, California, formed in 1988. The band took its name from the antagonist in Stephen King's horror novel It known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Between their 1991 self-titled debut and 2005's The Fuse, Pennywise released an album every two years on Epitaph Records, a label owned by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. To date, the band has released twelve full-length studio albums, one live album, two EPs and one DVD. Although their first two studio albums were critically acclaimed, Pennywise would not experience worldwide commercial success until the 1995 release of their third studio album, About Time, which peaked at number ninety-six on the Billboard 200, and number fifty-five on Australia's ARIA Charts. The band's mainstream success coincided with a growing interest in punk rock during the 1990s, along with fellow California bands NOFX, Rancid, Blink-182, Bad Religion, Green Day, The Offspring, Lagwagon and Sublime. By 2007, the band had independently sold over three million records worldwide.

Pennywise's current line-up consists of Jim Lindberg (vocals), Fletcher Dragge (guitars), Randy Bradbury (bass) and Byron McMackin (drums). They had kept their original line-up together until bassist Jason Thirsk died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1996, due to issues with his alcoholism, after which Bradbury joined as his replacement. In August 2009, Lindberg decided to leave the band; he was replaced in February 2010 by Ignite singer Zoli Téglás. With Téglás, the band recorded their tenth studio album All or Nothing, which was released on May 1, 2012. Lindberg rejoined the band later that year after Téglás was sidelined by a back injury.

Full Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennywise_(band)

Studio albums
Pennywise (1991)
Unknown Road (1993)
About Time (1995)
Full Circle (1997)
Straight Ahead (1999)
Land of the Free? (2001)
From the Ashes (2003)
The Fuse (2005)
Reason to Believe (2008)
All or Nothing (2012)
Yesterdays (2014)
Never Gonna Die (2018)

Nowhere Fast
Pennywise Lyrics

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And so you spread your lies, won't face reality
And endless fight a struggle to be free
Close minded fools and their hypocrisy
The endless time you take away from me
I don't need your sympathy
Why do you think your better than me
Idleness antipathy
Why do you want to stop our scene

Your way of life the paths you choose
You will never try so you can only loose
Broken mirrors shattered glass
You can sell your soul but you are going nowhere fast
And so you exercise your own free will
I exercise my fucking right to kill
Vicious lies you propagate your swill
Of you're whole kind I've had my fill
You're so transparent you don't think I can see right through you all
Of your venom directed reflected right back on yourself
Give your opinion to anyone who will listen to you
But I wish you would just give it to someone else
All I get from you is some bullshit attitude
I see it in your eyes but you don't realize
I'm waiting for the day when you'll see a better way
We may not be so kind to you next time
And so you spread your lies, won't face reality
And endless fight a struggle to be free

Close minded fools and their hypocrisy
I've got ideals you can't take away from me

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Pennywise's song Nowhere Fast are a scathing critique of close-mindedness, hypocrisy, and lies that are harmful to individuals and to society as a whole. The song is about someone who is spreading falsehoods and refusing to face the reality of the situation, which creates an endless fight that takes away time from others. The singer calls out these behaviors as being antithetical to freedom and being, in essence, a waste of time. The song speaks to the frustration of seeing people believe in lies and refuse to open their minds to alternative perspectives.

The song's message is that everyone has the right to exercise their own free will, but that doesn't mean they have the right to spread lies and harmful attitudes. The singer is someone who has had enough of the hypocrisy and close-mindedness that they see around them and is calling for a change. The chorus, "And so you spread your lies, won't face reality, and endless fight a struggle to be free, close-minded fools, and their hypocrisy" sums up the frustration that the singer feels towards those who refuse to see the truth.

Line by Line Meaning

And so you spread your lies, won't face reality
You choose to spread lies instead of facing reality

And endless fight a struggle to be free
You fight endlessly to be free from your own self-imposed limitations

Close minded fools and their hypocrisy
You call out close-minded fools and their hypocritical ways

The endless time you take away from me
You take up all my time with your unimportant nonsense

I don't need your sympathy
I don't need your fake sympathy

Why do you think your better than me
Why do you have to think that you are better than me?

Idleness antipathy
You are full of lazy antipathy

Why do you want to stop our scene
Why do you want to stop the scene we have built?

Your way of life the paths you choose
You have chosen a way of life and it's your path to take

You will never try so you can only loose
You will never attempt anything, so you can only lose

Broken mirrors shattered glass
Everything is broken and shattered beyond repair

You can sell your soul but you are going nowhere fast
You can try to sell your soul, but you won't succeed in anything

And so you exercise your own free will
You exercise your own free will, thinking it makes you powerful

I exercise my fucking right to kill
I exercise my own right to call you out on your nonsense

Vicious lies you propagate your swill
You only propagate vicious lies and nonsense

Of you're whole kind I've had my fill
I'm done with dealing with people of your kind

You're so transparent you don't think I can see right through you all
Your attempts to deceive me are so transparent, I can see right through you

Of your venom directed reflected right back on yourself
The venom you direct back at me is only reflected back at you

Give your opinion to anyone who will listen to you
You give out your opinion to anyone willing to listen to you, regardless of your lack of knowledge

But I wish you would just give it to someone else
I wish you would stop giving out your opinion completely

All I get from you is some bullshit attitude
All I get from you is your shitty attitude

I see it in your eyes but you don't realize
I see it in your eyes, but you are too oblivious to realize it

I'm waiting for the day when you'll see a better way
I'm waiting for the day when you see the error of your ways and do better

We may not be so kind to you next time
We will not be so kind to you if you continue with your nonsense

And so you spread your lies, won't face reality
You continue to spread lies and refuse to face reality

And endless fight a struggle to be free
You will continue to struggle endlessly to be free

Close minded fools and their hypocrisy
You will always call out close-minded fools and their hypocritical tendencies

I've got ideals you can't take away from me
My ideals are something that you can never take away from me

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Byron C. McMackin, Fletcher Douglas Dragge, James William Lindberg, Randy James Bradbury

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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