It's the sad-eyed, goodbye, yesterday moments I remember It's the bleak
street, weak-kneed partings I recall It's the mistier mist
The hazier days
The brighter sun
And the easier lays
There's all the more reason for laughing and crying
When you're younger and life isn't too hard at all

It's the fantastic drowse of the afternoon Sundays
That bored you to rages of tears
The unending pleadings, to waste all your good times
In thoughts of your middle aged years
It's a vertical hold, all the things that you're told
For the everyday hero it all turns to zero
And there's all the more reason for living or dying
When you're young and your troubles are all very small

Out here on the street
We'd gather and meet
And scuff up the sidewalk with endlessly restless feet
Half of the time
We'd broaden our minds
More in the poolhall than we did in the schoolahll
With the downtown chewing-gum bums
Watching the nightlife, the lights and the fun

Never wanted to be the boy next door
Always thought I'd be something more
But it ain't easy for a downtown boy
It ain't easy at all
Thinkin' it right, doin' it wrong
It's easier from an armchair
Waves of alternatives wash at my sleepiness Have my eggs poached for
breakfast I guess [see below for words to the spoken ending]