When I was a Young Man

 

When I was a young man hitch-hiking I would go

I'd get picked up by older men who'd ask if they could blow

Me, I'd say "No thank you, though I'm flattered to be sure

I'm just going down the road, that's it and nothing more".

 

When I was a young man I liked to dress in black

Folks'd see the eyeliner and try to sell me smack

I'd say, "I like Johnny Thunders, sure I like Lou Reed

But I don't have to break the skin to prove that I can bleed".

 

To get to the gig I had to rent an S.U.V.

It was a magnet to the squeegee kids and they all ran after me

Then the yuppie police said "Now, let's see some ID

You don't have credentials to be driving one of these".

 

'Twas the season of St. Patrick's, the year two-thousand-three

There were seventeen George Bushes on seventeen T.V.s

Some eejit gave us sixty bucks to play him Danny Boy

Then he wiped out on our gear, and a banjo did destroy.

 

Later at the break a woman offered me a rail

Said "Don't worry 'bout my boyfriend, though he's just out of jail"

I said "No thank you very much, though a Happy St. Pat's to you

I can find me plenty of trouble without any help from you".

 

Patrick Hutchinson © 2004 SOCAN