They caught me back in '85
When they dropped a net down from the sky
In the jungle, I was so alive
Now I just survive
Twelve monkeys in this cell with me
Eight of them are family
I fathered them in captivity
Prisoners from the start
 Smeared glass cage
 As we spend our days on stage
 And it's all they'll know
Nylon ropes and plastic slides
A concrete world for abstract minds
It's all controlled by man's designs
Nothing here is real
And we're all just keeping busy
In this everlasting zoo
And we're all just killing time
Because there's nothing else to do
 [chorus]
I see, the life that used to be
The dancing of the leaves
As I'm swinging through the trees and I am
Searching, for a place to pay my head
The forest is my bed
Till the ring a bell to feed us
And they flash a light to lead us, in this
 [chorus]