I Want to Learn a Love Song - Harry Chapin

I come fresh from the street, fast on my feet

Kinda lean and lazy

Not much meat on my bones and a whole lot alone

And more than a little bit crazy

The old six string was all I had, to keep my belly still

And for each full hour lesson I gave

I got a crisp ten dollar bill

You see, she was married for seven years

To a concrete castle king

She said she wanted to learn to play the guitar

And to hear her children sing

So I’d show up about once a week in my faded tight legged jeans

With a backlog full of hobo stories and dilapidated dreams

She said «I wanna learn a love song

Full of happy things»

She said «I wanna learn a love song

Won’t you let me hear you sing?»

She said «I wanna learn a love song

I wanna hear you play»

She said «I wanna learn a love song

Before you go away»

So I tried to teach her a couple of chords and an easy melody

But it always turned out she’d rather listen to my guitar and me

I could hear her old man laughing in the den

Playing stud poker with the boys

While I sang so soft in the living room, too scared to make much noise

I came one week, the den was dark and she met me at the door

And we sat on the couch and we sang and talked till I could not sing no more

You know the silence kept in building

Her eyes grew much too wide

And I could hear both of our heart beats, but there was no place to hide

She said «I wanna learn a love song

Full of happy things»

She said «I wanna learn a love song

Won’t you let me hear you sing?»

She said «I wanna learn a love song

I wanna hear you play»

She said «I wanna learn a love song

Before you go away»

Well, I guess you know what happened

God I, I never been so clean

Yes, I feel like i’m working in a Hollywood movie

Or living out a good bad dream

And all them pin up girls in that tinsel world

Never touched me like she can

It took another man’s wife in the real world life to make this boy a man

She said «I wanna learn a love song

Full of happy things»

She said «I wanna learn a love song

Won’t you let me hear you sing?»

She said «I wanna learn a love song

I wanna hear you play»

She said «I wanna learn a love song

Before you go away»

I guess you know i stayed