When I was a young boy I would look up at the stars
And dream of being a spaceman, and of traveling to mars
And beyond,
Or back in time to see some dinosaurs.
And sometimes I’d pretend to be a soldier in a war,
My friends and I would take turns feigning death in our backyard
Battlefield,
It didn’t matter what we were dying for.
It’s the same old story,
It’s the same old song;
It’s a shame and it’s a glory,
And it’s a long hard row to hoe.
When I was a teen-age boy I thought I knew it all,
I loved to play the rebel and to do things that would gall
My mom and dad,
And Pink Floyd spoke right to me from The Wall.
And when I was a young man I learned to drink and drive,
I became a pleasure addict as I continued to strive
To kill the pain,
It’s a wonder that I’m still alive.
It’s the same old story,
It’s the same old song;
It’s a shame and it’s a glory,
And it’s a long hard row to hoe.
Now that I’m an older man you’d think that I’d be wise,
But I’m still just a dreamer disillusioned by the lies
We all believed,
While the truth burned brightly right before our eyes.
Looking up the road now I see darkness and strife,
But still I hold on to my dreams because I know that life
Will find a way,
Sometimes it just calls for Mack the Knife.
It’s the same old story,
It’s the same old song;
It’s a shame and it’s a glory,
And it’s a long hard row to hoe.
credits
from Banned from Eden,
released February 2, 2020
Music and lyrics by Jim Coffman
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