Back When I Was Four - Jeffrey Lewis (lyrics)

Back When I Was Four - Jeffrey Lewis

back when I was four

and I knew the name of every dinosaur

I knew how to read rom comic books

my baby sitter said I was really smart

when the lights went out

everything changed

and the radio music made me feel strange

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

and back when I was six

I took everything real serious

I thought 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 I know

and no one tells you how

and back when I was eight

I would sit outside on an old mill crate

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

the boom boxes and the hot concrete

and every Halloween they hung a million rubber skeletons across ninth street

and back when I was twelve or so

I swear to god I've 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

and 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 never been the same

 and back when I was twenty two

I left the best thing that I knew

and I gave it all 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

and 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 would pretend I was a leech

and I'd stick to thing here and there for a little bit

and back when I was thirty one

I knew I'd become what I'd become

nothing left to reveal and there was nowhere left to turn

so shocked and withered 

dumb and bitter and in need of a baby sitter

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

back when I turned the big four-O

I realized how much there was to go

and I figured being alone forever wasn't where it was at

so I took my head out of the window and taught myself how to love real fast

I started talking about painting with the woman in the laundromat

and 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

and back when I was sixty three

the public rediscovered me

all my comic books and albums had all become rare cult collectors items

and both my parents were diciest

so I didn't see my records get re-released

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

and back when I was seventy four

my dog died and I got two more

I still felt really good about my daughter and also my girlfriend

and I would sing and draw a little bit

but mostly I would wake up early and sit

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

and back when I was eighty seven and my grandson had just turned eleven

my woman was dead and my dogs were getting pretty old

my body didn't work quiet like it should

but overall things were pretty good

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

and back when I was

one hundred and six

my only friend

was one goldfish

everyone I ever knew was dead and gone

and 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

and back when I was one hundred and twenty eight

I'd sit outside on an old mill crate

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

the boom boxes and the hot concrete 

and every Halloween they hung

a million rubber skeletons across ninth street

and every Halloween they hung

a million rubber skeletons

every Halloween they hung

a million rubber skeletons

every Halloween they hung

a million rubber skeletons

--------------------------------------

4/5