Of Mice and Men
The System Has Failed
2004
Duration: 4:04
Track number: 10
Writers
Lyrics by: Dave Mustaine
Music by: Dave Mustaine
Theme
Inspired by the John Steinbeck novella, this track explores the theme of **failed plans** and the bitterness of unfulfilled ambition and betrayal over a lifetime. The narrator reflects on the gap between youthful idealism ('simple plans of mice and men') and the harsh reality of growing older, facing loneliness, and surviving continuous setbacks.
Lyrics
The **fire burns on and on**
That drives me on till all is gone
Except the simple plans
Of **mice and men**
Back when I was just **seventeen**
I thought that I knew everything
I could make it in this scene
To be a rising star that only gleamed
But all the answers disagreed
With the questions held for me
I was legal now at **twenty-one**
I knew the way the world should run
My God just look what I had done
Simply drunk and having fun
Looked for friends, but I found none
All alone at twenty-one
The **fire burns on and on**
That drives me on till all is gone
Except the simple plans
Of **mice and men**
The **fire burns on and on**
That drives me on till all is gone
Except the simple plans
Of **mice and men**
At **twenty-five** I was surprised
That I was still even half alive
Somehow I managed to survive
I felt my body's doing time
And In my back a hundred knives
From friends at twenty-five
And now as **Gabriel sounds my warning bell**
I'd buy your life, if you would sell
A year or two, if less compelled
So live your life and live it well
There's not much left of me to tell
I just got back up each time I fell
The **fire burns on and on**
That drives me on till all is gone
Except the simple plans
Of **mice and men**
The **fire burns on and on**
That drives me on till all is gone
Except the simple plans
Of **mice and men**
The **fire burns on and on**
That drives me on till all is gone
Except the simple plans
Of **mice and men**
The **fire burns on and on**
That drives me on till all is gone
Except the simple plans
Of **mice and men**
The **fire burns on and on**
That drives me on till all is gone
Except the simple plans
Of **mice and men**
The **fire burns on and on**
That drives me on till all is gone
Except the simple plans
Of **mice and men**
