Years Gone By

I cut another tree down to pass the time

While I watch a lifetime pass me by

Looking back on old days, glassy-eyed

Watching years go, like my aunties mind

We used to sit up in the car park and rhyme

Now a night like that is hard to find

Looking back on old times, I can't rewind

Talking in my old friends that aren't alive no more

The years gone by

Talking about years gone by

Now lets take it all the way back to '84 (yeah, yeah)

Lets hear it for the boy playing through the wall (yeah, yeah)

Lets hear it for the boy crawling on the floor

In an Orwellian Estate Hall he walked

In '85, he ran and in '86 we flew

From a kingdom united into a land in two

In '87 we settled, In '88 we moved

Into a place called Avondale, first day in school

In '89, it was me myself and I

'Cause my mother couldn't find my baby brother

Must have lost him like that time at the supermarket

Five candles on my Donatello cake

Celebrate life, cellotape up on my Hammer tape

1990, I was a plumber with a pipe dream, side of screen

Hunting for mushies that were lime green, lightspeed

To '91, that was the year I met this girl and fell in love

Her name was Chun, and then we jump

Jump jumped in bootleg pumps

In '92 my drunk dad jumped ship on mum

In '93 I won my first fight, like a D O double G

Still mad at the man I wanted to be

In '94 I got a hiding and I tried to hide

But you can't keep running away, In '95

So I dried my eyes, the 'All Eyez On Me' Number 9 on rewind

Stacking my pocket money up to 96, Blew it all on 64

Blew my Ocarina loud, swinging swords with the force

'97 hit the court, got slicker with the sauce

The vocal cords dropped and, I got slicker with the broads

Figure four in '98, hit the floor in '99

Doing 90's in my clydes, tryna rhyme on the side

Way back, when I had the red and black Swanndri

In my Mazda hatchback travelling back in time

Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa

Talking years, gone by

Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa

Years gone by

Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa

Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa

Yeah the year was 2001, I bumped that 2001

Moved out of my mum's house, flunked out like a bum

First year I got something was that first year I got sprung

Next year I got dumped, and that whole year I got drunk

That was '02 then '03 my old man got done

For some dumb shit, got one year and that year I got numb

Then '05 he got out and got out of it at once

Then '06 my homie hung in the park where we all hung

Yeah my shit got fucked up that year, my shit got real rough that year

Horsed it on my bruv that year, fuck that year, fuck that year

That taught me, who the people that care for me

From the people that just corny, when the phony homie disowned me then call me when they saw me

On the cover of some magazine: Up to brother, how you been

It's been a minute, I ain't seen you since we were

Set the screen and roll on into 20 0 7, and it's all a blur from then to 2011

I was on a bender that went on four years long

Celebrating for the first win I ever got

That was the same year LeBron won

A short run in the long run

Woke up when the swan sung her song, I hit the gong, I was gone

They shot me down from the top of the poppy

Got too cocky, that melancholy got me

And they forgot me, but everybody need somebody

Every Bobby need some Whitney

So when I met her I asked her to ring me

Gave her the ring and asked her to king me

That was 2013, we moved out of the city

Had about 2014 problems in 2015

Hit me hard, losing Ziggy

But the middy stuck with me through the dark

Then my son came out, I called him Quincy

And now I watch his eyes watching mine

Watching life on rewind, too divine to define in one line

In the same neighbourhood I walked in in '89

Raising beers for the cheers

Saying here's to the years gone by

Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa

Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa

Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa

Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba baaaa