Fight Song (School of Hard Knocks) (FAWM 2026-7)

Am C G Am You’re not dead until you are / That’s the motto of our school Am C G Am Do not fear another scar / Experience is a teacher, cruel G D C G Leave the chrysalis behind / Pick yourself up off the ground Am C D G A lesson you can hope to find / From the toughest class around G D C G Pick yourself up from the dirt / Put on a bloody crown D C G D G We struggle to survive each test / Life cannot keep us beaten down G D C G D Pick a goal and choose your team / Learn to drive beyond the rocks C G D C G These are the lessons we must learn / From the street school of hard knocks Am C G Am Nature red in tooth and claw / Do not think the jungle ends Am C G Am Just because it’s cloaked in law / And time the currency it spends G D C G With knuckles bare and broken bones / Hope and grit and strength of mind Am C D G We face the furious storm alone / Each lesson learned we choose to find G D C G Pick yourself up from the dirt / Put on a bloody crown D C G D G We struggle to survive each test / Life cannot keep us beaten down G D C G D Pick a goal and choose your team / Learn to drive beyond the rocks C G D C G These are the lessons we must learn / From the street school of hard knocks Am C G Am It used to be in times long past / When Darwin won most ev’ry test Am C G Am Until some overcame at last / And showed us how to be the best G D C G Evolution stakes its claim / Descendants we of battles won Am C D G That left the victors sore and lame / With battles yet to be, undone G D C G Pick yourself up from the dirt / Put on a bloody crown D C G D G We struggle to survive each test / Life cannot keep us beaten down G D C G D Pick a goal and choose your team / Learn to drive beyond the rocks C G D C G These are the lessons we must learn / From the street school of hard knocks Am C G Am In cherished home or prison cell / Upon the street or in the field Am C G Am How well we learn these truths will tell / The time to fight, the time to yield G D C G To live another day and try / These hard won victories apply Am C D G When giving up means we shall die / But standing, we can learn to fly G D C G Pick yourself up from the dirt / Put on a bloody crown D C G D G We struggle to survive each test / Life cannot keep us beaten down G D C G D Pick a goal and choose your team / Learn to drive beyond the rocks C G D C G These are the lessons we must learn / From the street school of hard knocks