The Balance

Nineteen-hundred-sixty-four

We were kids, didn't know about the war

Still wasting time in school

There were Joe and Sue, Jack and Jim

A couple more in the second string

All the rest just weren't cool

Ah, we'd hang around in our little gang

Having dreams, making plans

For the outside world

But when I see us now

I really find it strange

How little, how much we've changed

In the years gone by

I guess it's meant to be that way

Jimmy always played the clown

It was his way of hanging on to the crowd

But when he was down he'd come around

To get his hands on every agent known to man

No matter how from aspirin to zylatoll

Crazy Jimmy tried them all

And he was dying but now he's fine

For he gets up at five o'clock

Runs ten miles in the L.A. smog

Still crazy

I've heard him say that anything worth really doing

Should be done until you're falling down

And though he left the road to ruin

He's found a new way to the ground

He still ain't found his balance

Joe was never hard to please

When they said "Go" he went overseas into battle

He stuck it out to the bitter end

Lived like a dog, fought like a man in the saddle

And when he came home from Vietnam

They said "The war did him no harm"

They're lying

He's known to cry and scream at times, in his dreams

Holding off the nightmares that he sees

Time may heal the nightly screaming

But the scars will still remain

He fights so hard to kill his demon

At times the pain drives him insane

Trying to regain his balance

Jack and Susie lost no tome

They went to college and carried signs in the rally

And finally with cap and gown

They tied the knot and settled down in the valley

Oh but now they've got two little boys

The place is filled with broken toys and dreams

For it seems that Jack, in spite of his degree

Moonlights at night, in the factory

Susie's got the house and the children

But no time for her to grow

And Jack is making their first million

And until they can't let go

I guess they'll owe the balance

We don't talk much anymore

Seems our little gang is bored with callin'

Anyway we're too busy with gettin' on

And looking out for number one

Is all we got in common

With business, home, family

Are we ever all that we could be?

Trading in our fantasy

We live this part time life

Of false security

Seems to me that doers never dream enough

And dreamers often do nothing at all

And to find that middle ground is rough

But I'll be damned if I let go

Stop looking for the balance