[00:00:03] There Was Only One Choice - Harry Chapin [00:00:08] There's a kid out on my corner hear him strumming like a fool [00:00:13] Shivering in his dungarees but still he's going to school [00:00:17] His cheeks are made of peach fuzz his hopes may be the same [00:00:21] But he's signed up as a soldier out to play the music game [00:00:26] There are fake patches on his jacket [00:00:28] He's used bleach to fade his jeans [00:00:30] With a brand new stay pressed shirt [00:00:32] And some creased and wrinkled dreams [00:00:34] His face a blemish garden but his eyes are virgin clear [00:00:38] His voice is Chicken Little's but he's hearing Paul Revere [00:00:44] When he catches himself giggling [00:00:46] He forces up a sneer [00:00:48] Though he'd rather have a milk shake [00:00:50] He keeps forcing down the beer [00:00:53] Just another folkie late in coming down the pike [00:00:57] Riding his guitar he left Kid brother with his bike [00:01:04] And he's got Guthrie running in his bones [00:01:06] He's the hobo kid who's left his home [00:01:08] And his Beatles records and the Rolling Stones [00:01:10] This boy is staying acoustic [00:01:12] There's Seeger singing in his heart [00:01:15] He hopes his songs will somehow start [00:01:17] To heal the cracks that split apart [00:01:19] America gone plastic [00:01:23] And now there's Dylan dripping from his mouth [00:01:26] He's hitching himself way down south [00:01:29] To learn a little black and blues [00:01:32] From old street men who paid their dues [00:01:36] 'Cause they knew they had nothing to lose [00:01:38] They knew it so they just got to it [00:01:43] With cracked old Gibsons and red clay shoes [00:01:46] Playing 1 4 5 chords like good news [00:01:49] And cursed with skin that calls for blood [00:01:52] They put their face and feet in mud [00:01:56] But oh they learned the music from way down there [00:02:00] The real ones learn it somewhere [00:02:02] Strum your guitar sing it kid [00:02:08] Just write about your feelings not the things you never did [00:02:13] Inexperience it once had cursed me [00:02:17] But your youth is no handicap it's what makes you thirsty [00:02:24] Hey kid you know you can hear your footsteps [00:02:31] As you're kicking up the dust [00:02:33] And the rustling in the shadows tells you secrets you can trust [00:02:37] The capturing of whispers is the way to write a song [00:02:41] It's when you get to microphones the music can go wrong [00:02:52] You can't see the audience with spotlights in your eyes [00:02:56] Your feet can't feel the highway from where the Lear jet flies [00:03:00] When you glide in silent splendor in your padded limousines [00:03:04] Only you are crying there behind the silver screen [00:03:11] Now you battle dragons but they'll all turn into frogs [00:03:15] When you grab the wheel of fortune you get caught up in the cog [00:03:27] First your art turns into craft then the yahoos start to laugh [00:03:31] Then you'll hear the jackals howl 'cause they love to watch the fall [00:03:35] They're the lost ones out there feeding [00:03:37] On the wounded and the bleeding [00:03:39] They always are the first to see the cracks upon the walls [00:03:55] When I started this song I was still thirty-three [00:04:00] The age that Mozart died and sweet Jesus was set free [00:04:03] Keats and Shelley too soon finished Charley Parker would be [00:04:08] And I fantasized some tragedy'd be soon curtailing me [00:04:15] Well just today I had my birthday I made it thirty-four [00:04:19] Mere mortal not immortal not star-crossed anymore [00:04:23] I've got this problem with my aging I no longer can ignore [00:04:28] A tame and toothless tabby can't produce a lion's roar [00:04:35] And I can't help being frightened on these midnight afternoons [00:04:39] When I ask the loaded questions [00:04:41] Why does winter come so soon [00:04:44] And where are all the golden girls that I was singing for [00:04:47] The daybreak chorus of my dreams serenades no more [00:04:55] Yeah the minute man is going soft the mirror's on the shelf [00:04:59] Only when the truth's up there can you fool yourself [00:05:03] I am the aged jester who won't gracefully retire [00:05:07] A clumsy clown without a net caught staggering on the high wire [00:05:11] Yesterday's a collar that has settled round my waist [00:05:14] Today keeps slipping by me it leaves no aftertaste [00:05:18] Tomorrow is a daydream the future's never true [00:05:22] Am I just a fading fire or a breeze passing through [00:05:39] Hello my Country I once came to tell everyone your story [00:05:51] Your passion was my poetry [00:05:59] And your past my most potent glory [00:06:08] Your promise was my prayer [00:06:16] Your hypocrisy my nightmare [00:06:22] And your problems fill my present [00:06:31] Are we both going somewhere [00:06:46] Step right up young lady [00:06:48] Your two hundred birthdays make you old if not senile [00:06:53] And we see the symptoms there in your rigor mortise smile [00:06:57] With your old folks eating dog food and your children eating paint [00:07:02] While the pirates own the flag and sell us sermons on restraint [00:07:10] And while blood's the only language [00:07:12] That your deaf old ears can hear [00:07:14] And still you will not answer with that message coming clear [00:07:18] Does it mean there's no more ripples in your tired old glory stream [00:07:23] And the buzzards own the carcass of your dream [00:07:30] Oh B U Y Centennial [00:07:32] Sell 'em pre-canned laughter [00:07:34] America Perennial [00:07:36] Sing happy ever after [00:07:47] There's a dance band on the Titanic [00:07:52] Singing nearer my God to thee [00:07:56] And the iceberg's on the starboard bow [00:08:01] Won't you dance with me [00:08:12] Yes I read it in the New York Times [00:08:14] That was on the stands today [00:08:16] It said that dreams were out of fashion [00:08:18] We'll hear no more empty promises [00:08:20] There'll be no more wasted passions [00:08:22] To clutter up our play [00:08:24] It really was a good sign [00:08:27] The words went on to say [00:08:29] It shows that we are growing up [00:08:31] In oh so many healthy ways [00:08:33] And I told myself this is exactly where I'm at [00:08:38] But I don't much like thinking about that [00:08:51] Harry are you really so naive [00:08:54] You can honestly believe [00:08:57] That the country's getting better [00:08:59] When all you do is let her alone [00:09:03] Harry can you really be surprised [00:09:07] When it's there before your eyes [00:09:09] When you hold the knife that carves her [00:09:11] You live the life that starves her to the bone [00:09:17] Good dreams don't come cheap [00:09:21] You've got to pay for them [00:09:25] If you just dream when you're asleep [00:09:29] There is no way for them to come alive to survive [00:09:50] It's not enough to listen it's not enough to see [00:09:53] When the hurricane is coming on it's not enough to flee [00:09:57] It's not enough to be in love we hide behind that word [00:10:01] It's not enough to be alive when your future's been deferred [00:10:13] What I've run through my body what I've run through my mind [00:10:17] My breath's the only rhythm and the tempo is my time [00:10:21] My enemy is hopelessness my ally honest doubt [00:10:25] The answer is a question that I never will find out [00:10:33] Is music propaganda should I boogie rock and roll [00:10:37] Or just an early warning system hitched up to my soul [00:10:40] Am I observer or participant or huckster of belief [00:10:44] Making too much of a life so mercifully brief [00:11:07] So I stride down sunny streets and the band plays back my song [00:11:12] They're applauding at my shadow long after I am gone [00:11:17] Should I hold this wistful notion that the journey is worthwhile [00:11:22] Or tiptoe cross the chasm with a song and a smile [00:11:31] Well I got up this morning I don't need to know no more [00:11:35] It evaporated nightmares that had boiled the night before [00:11:41] With every new day's dawning my kid climbs in my bed [00:11:44] And tells the cynics of the board room your language is dead [00:11:53] And as I wander with my music through the jungles of despair [00:11:58] My kid will learn guitar and find his street corner somewhere 404

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