Story Behind The Song

This songwriter was raised to be something other than a songwriter, and it took him a very very long time of working hard to be the other thing before it dawned on him that it wasn't his own life he was leading. -BB

Song Description

A model son struggles to awaken from a life of other people's expectations, and to free himself from the will of its providers, spurred on by the heady touch of something from the outside.

Lyrics

It's been seventeen years and fourteen days
That I have been made wise in your ways
You gave me everything that you wanted for yourself
Now I'm you in heaven and you're me in hell
Yours or mine, only time will tell

Get out get out get out get out
It's been seventeen years in boredom's haze
That I have been displaced in this place
I keep calm when it's my turn to listen
I keep calm when it's my turn to talk
And I see the boxes piling up
On the sidewalk
I see myself

But something else
Has caught my eye
I don't know
What it means or why
But if it's my life
And I know what I like
Then I like something else

Get out get out get out get out

I keep calm when it's my turn to listen
I keep calm when it's my turn to talk
I'm a keep-calm pile of boxes there
Out on the sidewalk
I am everything that you asked for
When you went down hard on your knees
I say thank you say I'm sorry
I say please say cheese
I make my sell

But something else
Has caught my eye
Green it grows
On the other side
It's your life
Do what you like

You can lay me out
For all I care
I've got something
Else to spare
You can have it all
You can lay me bare
Something else
Will still be there

Can't explain it
But something else
Has caught my eye
Green it grows
On the other side
Pick your fights
Choose your sides
I'll do what I believe is right
It's my life
I'll live it by myself

Everything you wanted
Oh I know
You think I don't
Everything to seal my fate
All I'm supposed to love
And hate