Keeping an Eye on Time

Time in Song - #4




One of my favorite tid-bits of wisdom on the Aphorisims & Folk Wisdom page warns that, "Youth is wasted on the young." I know of no other song that better personifies that sentiment than Yesterday When I Was Young.

Here is #4 in my Time in Song countdown  - Roy Clark - Yesterday When I Was Young




Yesterday When I Was Young - Roy Clark circa 1964


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 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






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