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Boomer Anthems: “My Life” (The story version.)

Once upon a time, I stumbled onto an old barn somewhere near a small French village. I was en route to the French town of Cognac where every garage was a distillery and all the whites of the people’s eyes were red. Outside the barn was a battered band van with the word “CIRQUE” scrawled on its side in rough lettering. On top of the van there was a chimpanzee in diapers chained to a couple of steel rods on the roof. He was not a happy chimp but I never did get his back story. Inside the barn was a French rock band trying to learn “My Life” from a cassette. Since Billy Joel can tend to slur a lot the French couldn’t understand all the lyrics. They had bread, cheese, a lot of wine, hashish, and some groupies lying around on the bales of hay. They used all of these items to draft me into teaching them Billy Joel’s late 70’s English. I spent three hours around midnight teaching them the words to this song. After they learned it they took me on a four-day tour of their gigs in the south of France. The chained chimp rode on the roof and the other drivers on the road were careful not to tailgate us. But that’s a tale for another time.

Got a call from an old friend we’d used to be real close
Said he couldn’t go on the American way
Closed the shop, sold the house, bought a ticket to the west coast
Now he gives them a stand-up routine in L.A.

I don’t need you to worry for me ’cause I’m alright
I don’t want you to tell me it’s time to come home
I don’t care what you say anymore this is my life
Go ahead with your own life leave me alone

I never said you had to offer me a second chance
I never said I was a victim of circumstance
I still belong
Don’t get me wrong
And you can speak your mind
But not on my time

They will tell you you can’t sleep alone in a strange place
Then they’ll tell you can’t sleep with somebody else
Ah but sooner or later you sleep in your own space
Either way, it’s O.K. you wake up with yourself

I don’t need you to worry for me ’cause I’m alright
I don’t want you to tell me it’s time to come home
I don’t care what you say anymore this is my life
Go ahead with your own life leave me alone

I never said you had to offer me a second chance
I never said I was a victim of circumstance
I still belong
Don’t get me wrong
And you can speak your mind
But not on my time

I don’t care what you say anymore this is my life
Go ahead with your own life leave me alone

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Larry Geiger December 28, 2018, 5:47 AM

    Theme song to the television show “Bosom Buddies”. Two guys living as women to rent an apartment.

  • jwm April 24, 2019, 5:11 PM

    You must have had the mother of all earworms after that. Just reading the title sets it off.

    JWM

  • H April 24, 2019, 6:48 PM

    “They used all of these items to draft me into teaching them ”

    Dang. When I grow up, I want to be like Van der Leun.

  • Kurt Miller April 24, 2019, 8:55 PM

    Can’t wait for the long version of this story…

  • Skorpion April 25, 2019, 9:30 AM

    Billy Joel — Dean of *Douche Rock*. That’s a genre that includes such figures as Jon Bon Jovi, Huey Lewis, Brian Setzer, and Kid Rock.

  • Anonymous April 25, 2019, 10:15 PM

    “I never said you had to offer me a second chance

    Go ahead with your own life leave me alone”

    Except, it seems to me, there are so many who do want a hand-out and a cry-room, and won’t leave us alone.

  • Janet Miller April 27, 2019, 8:44 PM

    Billy Joel–total genius!

  • Christopher L Hunt April 28, 2019, 8:53 AM

    Billy Joel, like many of his contemporaries, is a condescending prick.