I Wanna Learn A Love Song

(album: Verities & Balderdash - 1974)

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, more than a little bit crazy

And 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 wannalearn a love song
Won't you let me hear you sing?"

She said, "I wanna learn a love song
Wanna hear you play"
She said, "I, 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 and the den was dark
And she met me at the door
And we sat on the couch and we sang and talked
'Til I could not sing no more

You know, the silence kept on building
And her eyes grew much too wide
I could hear both of our heartbeats
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
Wanna hear you play"
She said, "I wanna learn a love song
Before you go away"

Guess, you know what happened
My God, I never been so clean
Yeah, 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
Wanna hear you play"
She said, "I wanna learn a love song
Before you go away"
I guess you know, I stayed