When We Were Young (philo Version)

When we were kids we used to climb over the back wall

into old Dan's scrap yard, then into the snooker hall

where most of us kids were barred. And into the Roxy

and the Stella where film stars starred. That's were me

and Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rodgers got drunk, and

jarred we might have been the saviours of men, the

captured captain in the devil's dealing den, and we

might have been the magic politician in some kind of

tricky position, but like an old old master musician we

kept on wishing, we were headed for the number one hit

country again.

There's an old photograph of Dan I wish you could've

seen, of him and the boys, poised, standing in St.

Stephen's Green. Y'see they were part of the great

freedom dream, but they were caught and detained and

are still locked inside the frame of the photograph.

And he might have been, the clever con, the good

Samaritan, the Rascal___ man, and he might have been

the loaded gun, the charlatan of the tap dancing fan,

but like an old old pioneer from outer Afghanistan he's

headed for the number one hit country again.

Old Dan the Raincoat hums the very special notes of his

long lost favourite melody. It reminds him of a love

affair when he was young and did not care. And the

parting, so soft so sadly that he might have been the

laughing cavalero, the wise old commenchero, the

desperado, the gigolo from Glasgow, the good looking

Rudolph Valentino, but like an old old hunter in search

of the female buffalo, he's headed for the number one

hit country again.

And it's true, true blue, Irish blue, and it's true,

and sometimes it reminds me of you.

Cos up til now my youthful age was a useless wage, a

torn out page, a worn out gauge, a dirty shade, a big

charade, a has been made. And honesty was his only

excuse. I took your love and I used it, and honesty was

his only excuse.