Back When I Was Four
Jeffrey Lewis

Back when I was 4 and I knew the name of every dinosaurnI knew how to read ROM comic booksnMy babysitter said I was really smartnWhen the lights went out everything changednThe radio music made me feel strangenAnd I had a real bad dream about a gorilla in the bathroomnnBack when I was 6 I took everything real serious nAnd I thought that every song that came on the radionWas referring to strange sexual actsnBecause they thought I wouldn't know the factsnAnd being small is hard and no one ever tells you hownnAnd back when I was 8 I'd sit outside on an old milk cratenAnd look out at the world from the stoop across the streetnThe boomboxes and the hot concretenAnd every Halloween they hungnA million rubber skeletons across ninth street.nnBack when I was 12 or so I swear to god I never felt so lownEveryone but me was making out and eating cookiesnI had more than my brain could standnI threw my life in a garbage cannI felt so weird nI had to disappearnIn crying suicide disease.nnAt 15 getting stoned felt good and it sent me back to childhoodnAnd nothing ever mattered to me more than that.nnBut then 16 became eclipse nMy brain became apocalypsenI was lost and found and I've never been the same.nnBack when I was 22 I left the best thing that I knewnand I gave it up for fortune and for famenI played like I didn't know hownI shocked the world nI wowed the crowdnBut I deserved more than what they gavennBack when I was 27 still nothing had been forgivennClay turns into rock and rock just sitsnSo sitting on a crowded beachnI'd pretend I was a leachnAnd stick to things here and there for a little bitnnBack when I was 31 I knew I'd become what I'd becomenNothing left to revealnAnd nowhere else to turnnSo shocked and withered dumb and bitternAnd in need of a babysitternI'd gladly let my hand fall off and burn burn burnnnBack when I turned the big 4-0 I realized just how much there was to gonAnd I started to think that being alone forevernWasn't where it was atnSo I pulled my head out of the windownAnd I taught myself how to love real fastnI started talking about painting nWith a woman in the laundromatnnBack when I was 50 and my first wife had just left menI felt okay and I sang my daughternFunny little songsnAnd just when I thought the best was pastnI fell in love for real at lastnAnd it didn't even matter that it had taken me so longnnBack when I was 63 the public rediscovered menMy comic books and records had all become rare cult-collector itemsnBoth my parents were deceasednSo they didn't see my records get re-releasednAnd I got a dog for the first time in my lifennBack when I was 74 my dog died and I got two morenI still felt really good about my daughternAnd also about my girlfriendnAnd I'd sing and draw a little bitnBut mostly I'd wake up early and sitnAnd hang out with the puppies and wish that I could live forevernnBack when I was 87 my grandson had just turned elevennMy woman was deadnAnd my dogs were getting pretty oldnMy body didn't work quite like it shouldnBut overall things were pretty goodnI was getting decent royalties from the reissued comic books and recordsnnBack when I was 106 nMy only friendnWas one goldfishnEveryone I ever knew was dead and gonenThe goldfish never had a namenAnd the neighbors thought I was insanenAnd I flushed it down the toilet when I saw it floating upside down*nnBack when I was 128 I would sit outside on an old milk cratenAnd look out at the world from the stoop across the streetnThe boomboxes and the hot concretenAnd every Halloween they hung nA million rubber skeletons across 9th streetnEvery Halloween they hung nA million rubber skeletonsnEvery Halloween they hung nA million rubber skeletonsnEvery Halloween they hung nA million rubber skeletonsn

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Lyrics by Jeffrey Lewis

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