Ben's My Friend

I woke up this morning, August 3rd

It's been a pretty slow and uneventful summer

Went to visit a friend in Santa Fe

Went to New Orleans and went to see my family

Woke up this morning and it occurred

I needed one more track to finish up my record

I was feeling out of fuel and uninspired

Laid on my bed too long, a little down, a little tired

Met my girl and we walked down Union Street

I was scattered and my head was in a bunch of places

Bought a $350 pair of lampshades

And we ate at Perry's and I ordered crab cakes

Blue crab cakes

Blue crab cakes

Blue crab cakes

She said I seemed distracted and asked what was going on with me

I said, "I can't explain it, it's a middle age thing"

She said, "Okay" and ate her eggs Benedict

And I looked at the walls cluttered with sports bar shit

Sports bar shit

Sports bar shit

Sports bar shit

Got on the phone and I called my mother

And called my father, talked a little bit with my sister

She's got a new boyfriend, he's a deer hunter

And she's getting used to venison

And my dad's still fighting with his girlfriend

About his flirting with the girls in Panera Bread

My mom is good but sounded out of breath

I worry so much about her, I worry to death

I worry to death

I worry about her to death

I worry to death

The other night I went and saw The Postal Service

Ben's my friend but getting there was the worst

Trying to park and getting up the hill

And find a spot amongst the drunk kids staring at their cells

Standing at the back with the crowd of eight thousand

I thought of Ben when I met him in 2000

At a festival in Spain

He was on the small stage then and I didn't know his name

Now he's singing at the Greek and he's busting moves

And my legs were hurting and my feet were too

I called him after, said I'll skip the backstage hi/bye

But thanks for the nice music and all the exercise

And we laughed and it was alright

And we laughed and it was alright

And it was alright

There's a fine line between a middle-aged guy with a backstage pass

And a guy with a gut hanging around like a jackass

Everybody there was twenty years younger than me

I'll leave with this, not my fondest memory

I carried my legs back down and then I gave

My backstage passes to two cute asian girls

I drove to my place near Tahoe

Got in my hot tub and I thought well that's how it goes

And it was quiet and I was listening to the crickets

And Ben's still out there, selling lots of tickets

And though I’m contented, there’s a tinge of competitiveness

But Ben's my friend and I know he gets it

Then in a couple of days my meltdown passed

Back to the studio doing twelve hours shifts

Singing a song about one thing or another

Another day behind the microphone this summer

This Tenderloin summer

This Tenderloin summer

This Tenderloin summer