I took the shades off
The world looked oh-so-bright
The world looked oh-so-right
It seemed oh-so-wrong
Like there for so, so long
I changed myself for so long
Cos now I see the
Cos now I see the
I see the

[Chorus with backing vocals]
I see the beauty when the shades come off
The brights look brighter
Sometimes when brights look brighter
It makes the darks look darker
When some of the blues look bluer
And some of the greens look red
I gotta free my head, my head, my head

[Verse]
It had to be cooler than cool
The harder to find my heart and my mind
Were caught up in trying to be a bosser
And then nobody heard of a calling it mine
And I could spend all of my time
Ignoring the shiny ball in the sky
Keeping my colour and all in the line
Sticking so deep it distorted my mind
It seemed to get sorted with time
Proceeded to walk in the line
Discovered the things I was into
Before I got caught up and all but went blind
A whole different world could be mine
The planets in orbit defined
The pigeon is out of it's hole
So I'm calling it huh! I'm calling it mine

I took the shades off
The world looked oh-so-bright
The world looked oh-so-right
It seemed oh-so-wrong
Like there for so, so long
I changed myself for so long
Cos now I see the
Cos now I see the
I see the

[Chorus with backing vocals]
I see the beauty when the shades come off
The brights look brighter
Sometimes when brights look brighter
It makes the darks look darker
When some of the blues look bluer
And some of the greens look red
I gotta free my head, my head, my head
My head, my head
My head, my head
My head, my head
Ma-ha-ee-ah
My head, my head
My head, my head
My head, my head
Ma-ha-ee-ah

[Verse]
I had my walkman on
But what could I hear with my head in my ass
I just keep walking on like
One of the square they get in the trash
Get in the class and learn the rules
Now we was a bunch of discerning fools
There's only so much you can learn in schools
Of thought and taught the rights and wrongs
Of writing songs and keeping it real
But keep it real, I'm eating a meal
And beating up (?), I beat that up (?)
And I don't need nothing to sweeten the deal
And speaking of skill I got it (for days?)
Speaking it I'll when I drop it, (it's?)
And speaking of shades I got prepared
To drop my pair and cop the glare
(I got prepared to cop the glare)

[Instrumental break - 8 bars]

I had my shades on
The world's got better, yeah
Yeah, it's no or no
There's no buts about it
You're (better?) than me, I doubt it
You (liking the nine?) about it
It's bigger than that, I doubt it

[Chorus with backing vocals]
I see the beauty when the shades come off
The brights look brighter
Sometimes when brights look brighter
It makes the darks look darker
When some of the blues look bluer
And some of the greens look red
I gotta free my head, my head, my head

[Instrumental coda - 20 bars]