Well I was born in 1965 That was a hell of a good time to be alive Except that by the age of ten The music had turned crap again Now people say they wanna bring back the 70's I say hey give the bad music of today a chance
Punk came round, that was pretty scary It was like a contemporary Peter, Paul and Mary Shocking! And before the 80's got too far It was time for me to pick up my guitar Picked it up Looked good!
All my friends turned up their noses At Freewheelin' and For The Roses Preferring image over substance A hairstyle for a musical influence All those Ultravox records, they're gathering dust But me, I'm still listening to Live Rust And if the 90's are the 60's turned upside down Then the 80's were the 60's the right way up Only with half the top cut off? If you think about it!
And in the town where I did live There was no-one I could do hoot night with So I sat alone with my six strings And I learned how to play and sing Woody Guthrie's guitar killed fascists and crime But in Hastings, East Sussex, South of England My guitar killed time?
And I got gigs opening for bands And things would get outta hand Cos big men would yell out their derision So I developed humor as a defense mechanism? The main band of the night would be?.. And I'd go on first and I'd get carried away? Literally
And I moved to the big old smoky city Just after University And I got a gig opening for a friend of mine Where I happened to be playing my ace in the right place at the Right time? So I gave up my PhD To become a dustbowl folky That's Phil Ochs not Phil Oakey
And then I learned the Folksinger's Prayer and it goes like this:
Our Father Who art on Folkways Ramblin' Jack be thy name Thy Folk City come Thy will be done On CD as it was on vinyl Give us this day our daily gig And forgive us our protest As we forgive those who protest against us And lead us not into electricity But deliver us from commercialism For Prine is the kingdom The power of the story Forever be clever A minor?
So hey everybody the time is near The Folk revival's coming here But it's a tough thing to revive today Cos it never really goes away That's cos it's a good thing So everyone it's time to come and claim your share It's time to re-iron your hair It's time to relearn Scarborough Fayre And in 5 years time you're gonna look back You're gonna say 'I was there' At the return of the great folk scare