A long, long time ago... I can still remember when
Computers used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance,
I'd make those small beige speakers dance,
And maybe I'd be happy for a while.

July 2000 angered me,
And other fans of MP3,
Bad news I'd collected...
Just couldn't get connected...
I remember my first day,
With Windows 3, and MAplay,
The corporate lawyers got their way,
The day that Napster died.

So, ..Bye, bye, had a very last try,
Sent some packets to the server, but it didn't reply
So the good ol' boys slowly e-mail their files
Saying this will be the disc that I buy
this will be the disc that I buy.

Do you know TCP/IP?
And can you code in ANSI C?
Get those Napster clones ready to go....

Do you believe in Metallica's goals?
Can Dr. Dre save your mortal soul?
And does Napster really make the LAN so slow?

Well I thought it all was pretty grand
when I dumped my modem, got broadband
My transfer rates were swell
The lawyers could go to hell!

I was a lonely teenage music fan
with an 3-click fix for the Metallica ban
And I knew the shit had hit the fan
The day Napster died.
I started singin'...

Bye, bye, had a very last try,
Sent some packets to the server, but it didn't reply
So the good ol' boys slowly e-mail their files
Saying this will be the disc that I buy
this will be the disc that I buy.

Now for many weeks we've ignored the threat
And we haven't solved the problem yet
But that's not how it used to be...

The artists, slaves to the industry,
Exploited like no-one should be,
Only making a few cents per sold CD,
The fat execs were looking pleased,
Preserving near-monopolies,
The courtroom was adjourned,
The verdict was returned.

So Gnutella tried it peer-to-peer,
The lawyers then had more to fear,
But the protocol was flawed,
The system was ignored,
and we were singin'...

Bye, bye, had a very last try,
Sent some packets to the server, but it didn't reply
So the good ol' boys slowly e-mail their files
Saying this will be the disc that I buy
this will be the disc that I buy.

The media megacorps go to war,
Want more control than ever before,
The Internet begins its rapid death

Load IE5, to search on Yahoo!
But find that that's been shut down too!,
So what's a bored computer nerd to do?

I've still got all my MP3s
On discs and tapes and burned CDs
We still try to log on
We just want one more song...

Cause the R-I-A-A took the field,
And Hilary Rosen refused to yield.
Do you recall what was revealed,
The day Napster died?
We started singing...

Bye, bye, had a very last try,
Sent some packets to the server, but it didn't reply
So the good ol' boys slowly e-mail their files
Saying that might be a disc that I'd buy,
that might be the disc that I'd buy.

There we were all in a state
A generation - really late
With no time left to start again.

We tried going back to IRC, and ICQ and FTP,
Encrypting songs with PGP,
The battle lost, the war had just begun?
But dot-com stocks fall through the floor,
The advertisers all withdraw,
The Internet, it was no more
Destroyed by corporate greed and clueless laws.

The memories fade, into the night,
Of downloading those sacred bytes,
Then listening with delight.
The day Napster died.

I met a girl on IRC,
We traded songs via DCC,
And chatted of the good old Napster days,

I went down to the PC store,
Where I'd first seen Winamp, years before
But the man there said the new songs wouldn't play.

Behind their screens, the geeks, they screamed,
The 'w@r3z d00dz' cried and the coders dreamed,
The lawyers, they has spoken.
The Napster client was broken.

And the three things I connect to most
The Website, LAN, and Napster hosts
Every single one was toast
The day Napster died.
And they were singin'...

Bye, bye, had a very last try,
Sent some packets to the server, but it didn't reply
So the good ol' boys slowly e-mail their files
Saying' let the music industry die!...'
'Let the music industry die!....'