Story Behind the Song
Met a patron while I was bartending in college who told me the story of his life. This song is based upon those ups and downs and his advice to "don't take things for granted".
Lyrics
WHEN I WAS A YOUNG MAN by Owen Frederic
Man breaks down at the corner booth, said he came in to find the truth,
In the bottle of whiskey that I was pouring.
He said I have been rich and I have been poor, but there has got to be something more,
To the reason that we are all living.
I set them up and he knocked them down, soon enough he began to smile,
And talk of the days that he had been thinking.
He said it was not that long ago, lines in my face did not show,
All the tears that I have been crying.
Chorus
He said,
When I was a young man, I held my dreams high,
When I was a young man, I pushed my fear aside,
When I was a young man, no one ever really cried,
Because,
When I was a young man, no one ever died.
Blonde hair boy and a blonde hair wife, all the finer things in life,
More than anyone could ever hope for.
But he worked all his life, just so he could pay the price,
And buy yet another front door.
They died late one night, he was on a midnight flight,
Trying to make it home for the weekend.
Nobody saw that black train, in the night and in the rain,
Coming so fast it would be the end.
Chorus
Man stayed till the bar closed, I said old friend now you have got to go,
I am heading home to see my baby.
He said hold her tight and hold her strong, because it sure as hell will not last long,
And all you will have left is maybe.
So we shuffle off into the night, he went his way and I went mine,
But I took him home in my memory.
I listen to him when I go wrong, when another summer is gone,
And I come home alone feeling empty.
Chorus
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