Oh, run me out on a rail or a ship
And knock out my teeth and sew up my lips
And if that doesn’t do it, just rip out my tongue
If I’m an old man talking about when he was young
New signs cropping up all over the place
Claim they’re inventing a new human race,
and I hope that they do
But I suspect they don’t know
They’ll sing all the same songs we sang long ago
I want to know all the things I’m going to know
I want to get there as fast as I can possibly go
Man, I get tired of the strains of the young
Want to look back and laugh at the songs we had sung
Man, I get tired of being labeled a grouch
I want a woman who doesn’t dress up like a couch
And all of the people who depended on me
now dread the prospect of my company
I want to get in trouble, and not for moving too slow
Want to pay a visit to a shaman I know
And steal some wine, and play video games
With kids who don’t expect me to remember their names
I can’t wait for the day my enthusiasm’s been curbed
I’m on drugs if I’m smiling, if I’m not I’m disturbed
Want to sit on my hands and watch them all spin their wheels
Make old people angry, so they know how it feels
The neighborhood lads always tromp through my yard
I remember the brilliance in my own regard
I remember the surge of being the man,
saying ‘it’s okay if you can’t do it,
Let me see if I can’
They promised me pictures from before they were grown
To view with a gadget I don’t even own
To view by myself, to brighten my day
I promise you it wasn’t always that way
I didn’t ask for a thing, and the answer’s still no
And I still can’t forgive the debt that is owed
to the branches that are swinging low
For the weasel watching, eyes aglow
I’ve got some kind of tuft growing out of my ear
And I mark the passage of each lunar year
Well I’ve got my two bags, and I’m gripping my ticket
Get away from me boy, or you won’t like where I stick it
Now, run me out by rail or ship
And hide my teeth and seal my lips
And if that doesn’t work, just rip out my tongue
An old man reminiscing of when he was young