Back When I Was Four

Back when I was four and I knew the name of every dinosaur

I knew how to read ROM comic books

My babysitter said I was really smart

When the lights went out everything changed

The radio music made me feel strange

And I had a real bad dream about a gorilla in the bathroom

Back when I was 6 I took everything real serious

And I thought that every song that came on the radio

Was referring to strange sexual acts

Because they thought I wouldn't know the facts

And being small is hard and no one ever tells you how

And back when I was eight, I'd sit outside on an old milk crate

And look out at the world from the stoop across the street

The boomboxes and the hot concrete

And every Halloween they hung

A million rubber skeletons across ninth street

Back when I was twelve or so I swear to god I never felt so low

Everyone but me was making out and eating cookies

I had more than my brain could stand

I threw my life in a garbage can

I felt so weird

I had to disappear

In crying suicide disease

At fifteen getting stoned felt good and it sent me back to childhood

And nothing ever mattered to me more than that

But then sixteen became eclipse

My brain became apocalypse

I was lost and found and I've never been the same

Back when I was twenty-two I left the best thing that I knew

and I gave it up for fortune and for fame

I played like I didn't know how

I shocked the world

I wowed the crowd

But I deserved more than what they gave

Back when I was twenty-seven still nothing had been forgiven

Clay turns into rock and rock just sits

So sitting on a crowded beach

I'd pretend I was a leach

And stick to things here and there for a little bit

Back when I was thirty-one I knew I'd become what I'd become

Nothing left to reveal

And nowhere else to turn

So shocked and withered dumb and bitter

And in need of a babysitter

I'd gladly let my hand fall off and burn burn burn

Back when I turned the big fortyI realized just how much there was to go

And I started to think that being alone forever

Wasn't where it was at

So I pulled my head out of the window

And I taught myself how to love real fast

I started talking about painting

With a woman in the laundromat

Back when I was fifty and my first wife had just left me

I felt okay and I sang my daughter

Funny little songs

And just when I thought the best was past

I fell in love for real at last

And it didn't even matter that it had taken me so long

Back when I was sixty-three the public rediscovered me

My comic books and records had all become rare cult-collector items

Both my parents were deceased

So they didn't see my records get re-released

And I got a dog for the first time in my life

Back when I was seventy-four my dog died and I got two more

I still felt really good about my daughter

And also about my girlfriend

And I'd sing and draw a little bit

But mostly I'd wake up early and sit

And hang out with the puppies and wish that I could live forever

Back when I was eighty-seven my grandson had just turned eleven

My woman was dead

And my dogs were getting pretty old

My body didn't work quite like it should

But overall things were pretty good

I was getting decent royalties from the reissued comic books and records

Back when I was a hundred and six

My only friend

Was one goldfish

Everyone I ever knew was dead and gone

The goldfish never had a name

And the neighbors thought I was insane

And I flushed it down the toilet when I saw it floating upside down

Back when I was a hundred and eight I would sit outside on an old milk crate

And look out at the world from the stoop across the street

The boomboxes and the hot concrete

And every Halloween they hung

A million rubber skeletons across 9th street

Every Halloween they hung

A million rubber skeletons

Every Halloween they hung

A million rubber skeletons

Every Halloween they hung

A million rubber skeletons