[Intro: lone harmonica, warm acoustic guitar, tape hiss] [Male, raspy everyman, soft] We were the kids who learned to look away~ [Verse 1: Male, raspy everyman, warm and nostalgic, acoustic only] Daddy hung his helmet on a nail and hung his voice beside it Ask about the island and he'd change the channel, hide it Under the desk for the Bomb when the siren had its say Sugar cube on a spoon, and the polio went away Four days in front of the Zenith, thirty-one hours straight Watched a president fall and a caisson roll through the gate Daddy said nothing, so the TV raised the kids Every supper at six, it told us what the war did [Verse 2: 1960s protest folk, fingerpicked guitar, harmonica breaks, Male, rising, defiant] Seventy-three million watched the mop-tops on a Sunday night We let our hair grow past the collar and we let it start a fight A congressman reached in a jar and pulled September fourteen Daddy's war came by telegram, mine came on the TV screen Seventeen thousand drafted boys came home inside a box Ninety-seven from the Guard, where the waiting list had locks Thirteen seconds in Ohio, four kids down on the grass Four hundred thousand in the mud, we thought the war would pass Put a man up on the moon Couldn't bring the boys home soon [Chorus: full band, highway chorus, gang vocals] DON'T TRUST ANYONE OVER THIRTY~ That's what we sang in the street Started out clean, wound up dirty~ Look who's holding every seat DON'T TRUST ANYONE OVER THIRTY~ (Youngest is sixty-two~) [Verse 3: glossy early-80s rock, Hammond organ, Male, confident, a little smug] Paid my tuition with a summer job and a pickup truck Told you pull your bootstraps, called the rest of it bad luck Signed at eighteen percent with a baby on my knee Don't you call it easy, just don't check what it's worth to me Turned on, tuned in, dropped out, then we cashed in for the gold Traded beads for a briefcase, and the greed was good, we're told [Pre-Chorus: Male, sly] Voted in the cowboy, cut the top rate down to twenty-eight Kept my pension in the drawer and handed you a 401(k) [Chorus: full band, highway chorus, gang vocals] DON'T TRUST ANYONE OVER THIRTY~ Sang it barefoot at the fair Started out clean, wound up dirty~ Now it sells the jeans we wear DON'T TRUST ANYONE OVER THIRTY~ (Youngest is sixty-two~) [Verse 4: half-time, Hammond and acoustic, Male, quieter, guilty] My father's air was clean, but I grew up breathing lead Then I filled your tank with it and tucked you into bed Heard a scientist in '88 say the thermostat was set Thirty-eight years in the boardroom, and we haven't turned it yet [Bridge: tempo drops, sparse acoustic, Male, sheepish] Bought a trophy for the baby, then we mocked him for the shelf Left the middle kid a latchkey and a TV for himself [Female, flat, bored, unbothered] ...whatever. [Verse 5: stripped acoustic and harmonica, Male, raspy, tired, honest] Yeah, I'm holding every key, three bedrooms gathering dust Tax is frozen if I stay, so I stay because I must House got quiet like my daddy, and I swore it wouldn't be Now I never call my children, and they never call on me Seventy-eight cents in thirty-two, it's coming for me too Never thought the bill we passed would ever really come due [Chorus: full band, highway chorus, gang vocals, slower and heavier] DON'T TRUST ANYONE OVER THIRTY~ Now our hair's gone gray Started out clean, wound up dirty~ Still won't hand the mic away DON'T TRUST ANYONE OVER THIRTY~ (Youngest is sixty-two~) [Break: band drops out, radio static] [Male, old-time radio announcer, crackly AM filter] ...its silence [Female, flat, bored] Whatever [Female, bright, anxious, fast] I did everything you told me [Male, young, sad weary tenor] OK, boomer [Child voice, deadpan] Six-seven [Bridge 2: Male, raspy everyman, breaking] Never learned the words my daddy didn't say So I handed you the silence, and I looked the other way [Outro: harmonica, acoustic thinning out] [Male, raspy, slowing] Watched the old man freeze at the podium, then I took the microphone Biggest generation, in the biggest house, alone~ [Male, whispered] We were the kids who learned to look away... [Harmonica fades] [End]
