Thomas Anderson

singer, songwriter, rock 'n' roller

Norman, Oklahoma

by Thomas Anderson

from the album Norman, Oklahoma

I wasted the eighties in Norman, Oklahoma,

I might as well have spent 'em just lying in a coma,

Could've and I should've but I didn't see through it,

Ten years were gone before I even knew it.

I heard the bands and I checked out the scene,

Hardcore and reggae--playin' in the streets.

Reggae was nothin' but a tourist draw

And the punk tattoos read "School of Law".

   So here's a song for my friends,

   Don't look for me again,

   Walkin' down your streets tryin' to believe.

   See what there is to see,

   Don't you try and tell me

   That it's just me and my negativity.

I wasted the Eighties tryin' to make sense,

Seein' my friends sittin' on a fence;

Everyone swearin' they'd make their stand,

A million guitars and a million plans.

Everything opened, everything closed,

The money disappeared up somebody's nose;

Just for a moment they reached for the sky,

Then shrugged their shoulders and said "We tried".

   Well here's a song for my friends,

   Don't look for me again,

   Walkin' down your streets with somethin' to find.

   Here's a word to the wise,

   Here's some friendly advice,

   Waste your time if you want--don't waste mine.

Here's where I lived and played in the band,

A parking lot now where the house used to stand;

Here's a street named for a man

Once a grand wizard in the Ku Klux Klan.

Here's where the football team lost the game,

They raped, they shot, they sold cocaine.

Here was a home for the mentally ill,

They put 'em on the streets with a handful of pills.

   And here's a song for my friends,

   Don't look for me again,

   Walkin' down your streets tryin' to pretend.

   And when we meet someday

   You won't have to say,

   And I won't have to ask if anything's changed.