[Verse 1] Stanley drank until the morning, While the old ghosts walked the floor. A little boy lost in the darkness, A soldier home from war. He carried winter in his shoulders, Kept the thunder in his chest. Every time the world got closer, He reached for something strong instead. [Pre-Chorus] Nobody asked what he remembered. Nobody stayed to hear him speak. So he buried every answer In the bottle by his feet. [Chorus] Oh, Stanley, where’d the years go? What became of all your dreams? You were drowning in the memories Of things nobody had seen. Oh, Stanley, did you know You were worth more than your pain? You spent your life trying to forget What time brought back again. [Verse 2] He had a woman once who loved him, Said she saw beneath the scars. But love can’t live inside a silence Built from locked and rusted doors. He watched his children grow like strangers, Heard them whisper down the hall. He wanted to become their father, But he didn’t know how at all. So he gave them what he’d been given: A hard hand, a colder room. Then he cursed the blood inside him When he saw it coming through. [Chorus] Oh, Stanley, where’d the years go? What became of all your dreams? You were drowning in the memories Of things nobody had seen. Oh, Stanley, did you know You were worth more than your pain? You spent your life trying to forget What time brought back again. [Bridge] Some nights he spoke to someone Who had been gone for years. He’d say, “I tried to save you,” Then disappear behind his tears. Maybe he was still that little boy Waiting by the bedroom door, Listening for a voice to tell him He was not alone anymore. But the night kept turning slowly, And the years kept taking more. He became the very silence He had been afraid of before. [Guitar Solo] [Verse 3] Now the house is full of echoes, Dust is sleeping on the chair. There’s a photograph of Stanley With a young man’s eyes still there. The bottle’s empty on the table. The room is cold and blue. All the things he never told us Are the things we carry too. I don’t know if he found forgiveness. I don’t know where lost souls go. I only know he needed someone Long before we came to know. [Final Chorus] Oh, Stanley, where’d the years go? What became of all your dreams? You were drowning in the memories Of things nobody had seen. Oh, Stanley, did you know You were worth more than your pain? You spent your life trying to forget What time brought back again. [Outro] The bottle’s empty. The room is cold. A young man’s gone, An old man’s soul. And somewhere underneath the silence, Where the wounded children hide, A voice is saying, “You were loved,” Though it came too late to save his life. Oh, Stanley… You deserved a little more.
