I was young when I left home An' I been out ramblin' 'round An' I never wrote a letter to my home To my home, Lord, to my home An' I never wrote a letter to my home It was just the other day I was bringin' home my pay When I met an' old friend I used to know Said, your mother is dead an' gone Every sisters all gone wrong An' your daddy needs you home right away I have a shirt on my back Not a penny on my name But I can't go home this way This way, Lord, Lord, Lord An' I can't go home this way If you miss train, I'm on Count the days, I'm gone You'll hear that whistle blow hundred miles Hundred miles, honey baby, Lord, Lord, Lord An' you'll hear that whistle blow hundred mile I've playin' on a track, ma would come an' woop me back On 'em trusses down by Ol' Jim McKay's When I pay the debt I owe to the commissary store I will pawn my watch an' chain an' go home Go home, Lord, Lord, Lord I will pawn my watch an' chain an' go home Used to tell my ma sometimes When I see them ridin' blind Gonna make me home out in the wind In the wind, Lord, in the wind Make me home out in the wind I don't like it in the wind I wanna back home again But I can't go home this way This way, Lord, Lord, Lord An' I can't go home this way I was young when I left home An' I been out ramblin' 'round An' I never wrote a letter to my home To my home, Lord, Lord, Lord An' I never wrote a letter to my home

Rooms were so much colder then My father was a soldier then And times were very hard When I was young When I was young I smoked my first cigarette at ten And for girls I had a that yen And I had quite a ball When I was young When I was young it was more important Pain more painful and laughter not louder, yeah When I was young When I was young I met my first love at thirteen She was brown and I was pretty green And I learned quite a lot When I was young When I was young When I was young it was more important Pain more painful and laughter not louder, yeah When I was young When I was young My faith was so much stronger then I believed in fellow men And I was so much older then When I was young When I was young When I was young When I was young When I was young When I was young When I was young

It seems the love I've known has always been The most destructive kind I guess that's why now I feel so old Before my time Yesterday when I was young The taste of life was sweet as rain upon my tongue I teased at life as if it were a foolish game The way the evening breeze may tease a candle flame The thousand dreams I dreamed, the splendid things I planned I always built to last on weak and shifting sand I lived by night and shunned the naked light of the day And only now I see how the years ran away Yesterday when I was young So many happy songs were waiting to be sung So many wild pleasures lay in store for me And so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see I ran so fast that time and youth at last ran out I never stopped to think what life was all about And every conversation I can now recall Concerned itself with me and nothing else at all Yesterday the moon was blue And every crazy day brought something new to do I used my magic age as if it were a wand And never saw the waste and the emptiness beyond The game of love I played with arrogance and pride And every flame I lit too quickly, quickly died The friends I made all seemed somehow to drift away And only I am left on stage to end the play There are so many songs in me that won't be sung I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue The time has come for me to pay For yesterday when I was young