John Cage: Living room music (1940)

Jeffrey Lewis - Back When I Was Four

Back when I was 4 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 8 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 12 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 15 getting stoned felt good and it sent me back to childhood And nothing ever mattered to me more than that. But then 16 became eclipse My brain became apocalypse I was lost and found and I've never been the same. Back when I was 22 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 27 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 31 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 4-0 I 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 50 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 63 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 74 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 87 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 106 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 128 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