My Career As A Homewrecker

(album: Having A Party With Jonathan Richman - 1991)

Well, I had just met the girl and her boyfriend
She was ready for leaving him
And I was the way, I was the key
I was her way to say, "I'm free"

And he would never talk about it
Which made me sad
I didn't see what we'd done
That was so bad

We were all about twenty one
My career as a home wrecker
Had just begun

I was thinking about the Boston rock scene one fine day
And found it too conservative, you might say
I knew her well, I knew him terrific
What's wrong if we wanted something specific?

He never talked about it
Which hurted me
I never saw why such sorrow
Had to be

I was now about twenty four
And I was called homewrecker
Once more

If someone's mad at me, why can't they tell me so?
Why do they just avoid me?
If someone's mad at me, why can't they tell me so?
Because I would want to know

Meanwhile out on the West Coast, I started wrecking homes
Trying to convince girlfriends to leave and roam
Now I didn't touch 'em, 'cause I didn't want 'em
But I wanted to affect 'em, I wanted to haunt 'em

And this was the following year
My career as a homewrecker
Was in third gear

Another case of homewrecking I half did
Was the girl who loved me
No matter what she said
She tried to hide it as long as she could
To save her boyfriend pain but it did no good

You see I have certain trades and certain wants
Sometimes I'll try a certain thing to provoke a response
Sometimes I'll break a rule just to see who looks
Sometimes I'll knock on a door just to see what cooks

My career as a homewrecker is not yet through
There's all these homewrecking things to do
Sometimes I'll break a rule just to see who cares
Sometimes I'll knock just to see who's there