All I Want Lyrics
Okay! Ya ya ya ya ya!
[Verse 1]
Day after day (Your home life's a wreck)
The powers that be just breathe down your neck
You get no respect (You get no relief)
You gotta speak up and yell out your piece
[Pre-Chorus]
So back off your rules, back off the jive
'Cause I'm sick of not living to stay alive
Leave me alone, askin' a lot
I don't wanna be controlled
[Chorus]
That's all I want
That's all I want
That's all I want
That's all I want
Ya-ya-ya-ya-ya!
[Verse 2]
How many times (Is it gonna take)
'Til someone around you hears what you say?
You've tried bein' cool (You feel like a lie)
You've played by their rules, now it's their turn to try
So back off your rules, back off your jive
'Cause I'm sick of not living to stay alive
Leave me alone, not asking a lot
Just don't want to be controlled
[Chorus]
That's all I want
That's all I want
That's all I want
That's all I want
[Bridge]
I said it before, I'll say it again
If you could just listen, then it might make sense
[Pre-Chorus]
So back off your rules, back off your jive
'Cause I'm sick of not living to stay alive
Leave me alone, not asking a lot
Just don't want to be controlled
[Chorus]
That's all I want
That's all I want
That's all I want
Ya-ya-ya-ya-ya!
About
“All I Want” is one of the singles from The Offspring’s album Ixnay on the Hombre.
The band originally composed the song for Epitaph Records and Bad Religion. Originally titled “Protocol”, the song contained a complex vocabulary, similar to Bad Religion’s music. The song was about how people were acting like robots, doing what they were told to do. However, when the band got a less-than-neutral reply from Bad Religion’s guitarist Brett Gurewitz (“play it on acoustic later or something”), Dexter Holland altered the music, lyrics, and the song title.
The song’s meaning is identical to the second track off the same album The Meaning of Life. Dexter talks about how society is giving him rules to live his life, and he doesn’t like being told how to live.
In the music video, a alien-looking man can be seen playing the piano. It was later revealed that the person is Buzz Osborne.
The song is probably best known for its use in the game Crazy Taxi, as one of the game’s in-game songs. The next song on the album Way Down the Line also makes an appearance in the game as well.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
I like what “All I Want” is about. Rather than getting all bummed out about how screwed up life is… you can write a song about how people are always keeping you down and making you live by their rules, or you can say, “Leave me the fuck alone” and go do your own thing. We don’t like to get all preachy in our lyrics. The lyrics are kinda secondary. It’s nice to sing about things you feel strongly about, but we don’t want to get up on a soap box. We don’t want to use the stage as a pulpit. People interpret stuff however they want. We get a lot of misinterpretations, but most of them are favorable. It’s not like they’re reading Satanic messages into them.
- 7.Light It Up
- 8.Want You Bad
- 9.Gone Away
- 11.Hit That
- 13.The Fall Guy
- 14.All I Want
- 19.Half-Truism
- 20.Truth in Fiction
- 22.Americana
- 24.Coming for You
- 25.She’s Got Issues
- 26.No Brakes
- 27.Can’t Repeat
- 30.Have You Ever
