I was young when I left home And I've been all round and round, But I never wrote a letter to my home, To my home Lord, Lord to my home, And I never wrote a letter to my home It was just the other day, I was bringing on my pay, I met an old friend I used to know, Said, "Your mamma's dead and gone, Baby sister's all gone wrong And your daddy needs you home right away." Not a shirt on my back, Not a penny to my name, Lord I can't go home this way. If you miss the train I'm on, Count the days I'm gone, You'll hear that whistle blow a hundred miles. Hundred miles honey bean, Lord, Lord, Lord... You'll hear that whistle blow a hundred miles. And I'm

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