Where the Good Life Begins
& Nature's Song
& Nature's Song
Words & music by Terry Gray
(These two songs go together. The result became my retirement anthem --written 40 years before I retired!)
-----------------
Where the Good Life Begins (1975) © T. E. Gray
AGDEm AGDEm GFBm7E
A G D Em
Weekday mornings all the freeways are jammed
People talk about the death of the land
G F
But the sign by the side of the road still says
Bm7 E
"Where the good life begins"
Now, what's the use in tradin' that life
for an American Dream you've got to lock up at night?
Behind the door to your soul it's still back as coal
So who are you foolin' with that care-laden face?
Your subscription's run out to the human race
You thought you renewed when you paid your United Way dues
But where will you go when your computer resigns
And the clock on your desk finally runs out of time?
You've got to be... You've got to be... Just be...
Alive again. A child again. Home again.
Well it's tough to plan for tomorrow's demands
if the stars won't stop to obey your commands
--and the only light you've ever seen comes from your TV screen
You had the will to live and the heart to give
'til you buried the questions you found as a kid
in that rhinestone-encrusted shrine you call your mind
You've been around for thousands of years
but your future remains a history of fears
now, isn't it time you started to find
where the good life begins?
But where will you go when your computer resigns
And the clock on your desk finally runs out of time?
You've got to be... You've got to be... Just be...
Alive again. A child again. Home again.
Nature's Song (1975) © T. E. Gray
(Also part 2 of my "retirement anthem", following Where the Good Life Begins)
AE..AEm..AG..A.. etc
Seems like I've been talkin' for a hundred years
--still haven't said a thing
I'm thinking that it's time to free my mind
--learn to hear the birds sing
Twenty years of school hasn't made the way plain;
Two thousand years of man hasn't lessened his pain
EG
But the wind is still blowin'
waves keep rollin'
Nature's song is never broken
Winter birds headin' south toward warmer days
Graceful shadows flyin' through the city's haze
Fly away 'til morning' comes
let your wings find brighter suns
Soar above the restless sea
--let me follow and be free
AEmAG
Seems like I've been talkin' for a hundred years
--still haven't said a thing
I'm thinking that it's time to free my mind
--learn to hear the birds sing
--learn to hear the birds sing
--learn to hear the birds sing