Memory Lane [Spoken Intro] Funny how the past comes back— not in order, not when you ask, but one song, one smell, one summer night at a time. [Verse 1] Fifteen years old on a Main Street night, Closing up pizza beneath the neon light. Two weary strangers came in from the West, One all the way and one veggie request. California gold, quarter drafts till three, A brand-new two-forty Z waiting for me. I climbed in laughing, too wrecked to see— That was the start of Murphy and me. Then came the Shoe Leather Express, Thumb in the wind and mud on our steps. Walking to work, to girls, to shows, Getting halfway wherever the highway goes. [Chorus] Take me down Memory Lane, Past the laughter, smoke and rain. Past old friends and younger days, The ones who left, the ones who stayed. Every scar still knows my name, Every song relights the flame. I can’t go back, but now and then Memory Lane takes me there again. [Verse 2] Red eyes burning beneath school lights, Paranoid mornings and endless afternoons. Watching that clock like a prisoner waits, Three-oh-five at the freedom gates. Quit when sixteen finally came, Worked old furniture and forgotten names. Pink Church Antiques, dusty floors— Made more sense than school ever did before. Half a sheet called Eternity Got soaked in a summer storm on me. By the kegger I was gone somewhere, Staring two hours at a clock on the wall. Wet tabs swimming in orange juice, Ten young fools with nothing to lose. The rain moved on by morning light, But part of us never left that night. [Chorus] Take me down Memory Lane, Past the laughter, smoke and rain. Past old friends and younger days, The ones who left, the ones who stayed. Every scar still knows my name, Every song relights the flame. I can’t go back, but now and then Memory Lane takes me there again. [Verse 3] Then Moore Road glowed through the Green Swamp trees, Screened-in porch and smoke on the breeze. Hot-tub steam, a fire by the pond, A floor-truss bridge we kept walking on. Buzzette sleeping close to the light, Till one sad road took her one dark night. Bud and Joan by the bonfire glow, Still making us laugh all these years ago. Later came rooms full of sodium gold, Rockwool roots and stories untold. Five in the morning, the front door came down, Buried money and federal gowns. They took the houses, boats and lights, Took years away and changed our lives. But what we learned beneath that glow Was one damn thing they could never own. [Bridge] Some came home. Some never did. Some stayed young inside my head. Some names fade, some faces remain. Some nights still fall like tabs in the rain. And every now and then, when an old song plays, the dead sit down beside the living— on Memory Lane. [Final Chorus] Take me down Memory Lane, Past the laughter, smoke and rain. Past old friends and younger days, The ones who left, the ones who stayed. Every mile still knows my name, Every loss became a flame. I can’t go back, but now and then Memory Lane takes me there again. Take me past the two-forty Z, Past Moore Road and old Murphy and me. Past three-oh-five and Pink Church days, Past every wild and reckless phase. Time moves on, but memory stays— Waiting down Memory Lane. [Outro] One road. A thousand stories. And every one of them still leads home.
