Rochester

I was born in Rochester to a book-making man

Had a fake cigar shop with the games on in the back

See them coming and going letting it ride on thorough breads

The police chief and Tom Hall wondering what was the spread

I carried rich mans bags through brier trying to chase down a little white ball

Learned that any soft place wasn’t good for me at all

Daddy’d come home fired up looking for some sort of release

He’d beat the hell of Timmy and Timmy’d beat the hell out of me

I would hop the fence out to those government fields

Run till there was nothing left to feel

Lying there, watching, just disappear

Knowing one day I’m gonna fly on out of here

The same police chief came knocking my first freshman day

Put my daddy in handcuffs and his picture on the front page

Took every one of his suits and all my dignity

I’d walk the halls of Irondequoit looking for any punk to set me free

I would hop the fence out to those government fields

Run till there was nothing left to feel

Lying there, watching, just disappear

Knowing one day I’m gonna fly on out of here

Got that call to Vietnam, just like everyone else I knew

So scared of the hand grenades, threw them farther than any other troop

Came home like an iron fist, and Timmy tried to take my keys

Ripped open his from pocket, that was the last time he touched me

Moved to an island out west and up to Breckenridge

Met a mermaid on a glass boat, and she promised me some kids

Bought a house in Oregon where you could touch both of the walls

Had a son named Benjamin, and I was so scared of it all

Well, Benjamin walked in the front room where I was cutting up my hash

Looked into his deep blue eyes wondering why I’d been so mad

Flushed a quarter pound down the drain, praying for the mercy to confess

Trying to rip the boy from Rochester right out of my chest

We’re gonna walk right out into those heavenly fields

Run like there was no more time to steal

My three boys and the grace of god revealed

Knowing one day you’re gonna take me out of here

Knowing one day you’re gonna take me out of here