Apehead's brother wants to beat up Paul
The boys have gone to watch
Some of the girls are down at the mall
Justine's got cherry cola and scotch
Later on it's everyone around to Beck's
Her parents are away in New York
Sara, well, she just can't bear
The stupidity, the boredom, the grind
She stays at school so that she can hear
The sound of the life of the mind

And it's noisy up there
It rocks me like a mother
Rosa Parks and DNA
Joan of Arc and JFK
But it's noisy up there
(Noisy up there)
It rocks me like a mother

Oh, ohh, oh, ohh
Oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh

She's cut 'em all out of her social circle
Won't introduce them to Lincoln or Frost
Doesn't want to let them get to know Keats or Studs Terkel
They'll never know what they have lost
But Sara, well, she just can't bear
The stupidity, the boredom, the grind
She stays at school so that she can hear
The sound of the life of the mind

And it's noisy up there
(Noisy up there)
It rocks me like a mother
Copernicus and Fortune's Wheel
Plato, Glenn Gould and the New Deal
And it's noisy up there
(Noisy up there)
It rocks me like a mother

Sara already knows pretty soon she'll be leaving
Well, she's hoovered up whatever she can find
But she doesn't want to hear about
Pregnancies, foam fights, TV, take-outs, have sex, weddings
The sound of the life she'll leave behind

Yeah, it's noisy up there
(Noisy up there)
It rocks me like a mother
Oh, ohh, oh, ohh
Oh, oh, oh
And it's noisy up there
(Noisy up there)
It rocks me like a mother
Oh, ohh, oh, ohh
Oh, oh, oh