My
father is a doctor, he's a family
man
My mother works for charity
whenever she can
They're both good clean Americans
who abide by the law
And they both stick up for liberty
and they both support the law
My happiness was paid for when
they laid their money down
For Summers in a summer camp and
winters in the town
My future in the system was talked
about and planned
But I gave it up for music and the
free electric band
I went to school in hand washed
shirts with neatly ordered hair
And the school was big and newly
built and filled with light and
air
And the teacher taught us values
that we had to learn to keep
And they clipped the ear of any
idle kid who went to sleep
And my father organized for me a
college in the east
But I went to California for
sunshine and the beach
My parents and my lecturers could
never understand
Why I gave it up for music and the
free electric band
Well they used to sit and
speculate upon their son's career
A lawyer or a doctor or a civil
engineer
Just give me bread and water put a
guitar in my hand
'Cos all I need is music and the
free electric band
My father sent me money and I
spent it very fast
On a girl I met in Berkley in a
social science class
Yes and we learned about her body
but her mind we didn't know
Until deep rooted attitudes and
morals began to show
She wanted to get married even
though she never said
And I knew her well enough by now
to see inside her head
She'd settle for Suburbia and a
little patch of land
So I gave her up for music and the
free electric band
