Exact Change

Name: Exact Change
Duration: 294 s
Description: Exact Change by mBaileyz. From the artist’s lyric sheet: “And the toll don't take cards, don't take cash, don't take time, it just takes who you was when you…”

No artist release note is published for this song yet.

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Words from the artist’s archive

Exact Change lyrics

Artist-supplied lyric sheet, matched by title. The sheet may differ from this released performance. Production notes and alternate promotional cuts are omitted.

Read the lyric sheet

Intro

MacArthur at three a.m., no booth, just the seam in the dash.

Verse 1

New key in a new cylinder, it turned like it never knew my hand, brushed-steel box climbing slow, caught a stranger where the old me used to stand. Forty-one up over Brickell, Biscayne poured out flat and tarred, set two plates from a single box, the second chair shipped standard, off-guard. Salt slid through the slider seam, dried the 786 right off my throat, Government Cut let a freighter groan, low, like it billed me a note, hung the whole skyline on the drywall, left the boxes in the hall to rot.

Pre-chorus 1

And the toll don't take cards, don't take cash, don't take time, it just takes who you was when you signed.

Chorus

Toll wanted exact change, I paid in frames. Toll wanted exact change, I paid in games. Booth blinks green every time I roll back over alone, toll wanted exact change, I paid in flames.

Verse 2

Screen used to flare at every red light down the I-95 on-ramp, third "I'm good" it went black for good, no charge left, just damp. Girl who halved the gas to Hollywood found a lane that skips my exit, left a toothbrush by the faucet, took the GPS as exhibit. Old circle pinging "miss you" from the corner where we used to post, funny how the causeway floods the one night I'm the host. They came up for the slip, not the swim, the address, not the man, read it in the way they palmed the glass and never shook a hand.

Pre-chorus 2

And the toll don't take cards, don't take cash, don't take time, it counts who quit answering since you signed.

Chorus

Toll wanted exact change, I paid in frames. Toll wanted exact change, I paid in games. Some debts hit the statement, some hit the second chair, toll wanted exact change, I paid in flames.

Verse 3

Caught the glass at dusk doing me back in a softer frame, watch on a wrist I don't know, same scar, brand-new name. Who signed for this, who initialed here, who agreed to the silent terms, the one who crossed first still pacing in the chrome like he learned. Keep the thermostat at sixty-eight so the cold's a thing I chose, talk back to the freight horns, they answer slower than the friends that froze. Salt on the forearm same as the bus bench at sixteen, back then the bench held three of us, now the balcony's clean.

Bridge

Here's the line nobody bills you for: cross it enough and you turn into the booth. Somebody younger idles at your name now, exact change, and they don't know the truth.

Verse 4

Marina full of plus-ones like the slip came with a guest, smile for the rooftop carousel, bounce before the tide undressed. New money asks the square-foot like the number rents a soul, I quote 'em back the silence and they fold up like a toll. The real ones that I lost would've cussed me out then helped me move, these like the sunset, tag the glass, ghost before they prove.

Verse 5

Small hand one day gonna point where the bay meets cruise-ship steel, ask what it cost to stand this high, what closed the deal. Hand her the brochure, the hero with the skyline behind, or the receipt with the names scratched out and the reason I signed. Bridge takes its toll both directions, I'll teach her that slow: cross with your people boxed in tight, don't ship a chair to go. She crosses with a full car, A1A humming the same name.

Pre-chorus 3

And the toll don't take cards, don't take cash, don't take time, it just saves who you'll owe down the line.

Chorus

Toll wanted exact change, I paid in frames. Toll wanted exact change, I paid in games. One day a small hand counts it, and I pick the version she gets, toll wanted exact change, I paid in flames.

Outro

MacArthur still up off the bay, exact change. Some tolls you pay one time, then they auto-draft for life.

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Inside the recording

96 sampled loudness windows · 294 seconds. The white line follows the player; this is a local recording matched by title and duration, not a verified YouTube audio fingerprint.

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01 / The opening