Flashback Blues - John Prine

While window shopping through the past

I ran across a looking glass

Reflecting moments remaining in a burned out light

Tragic magic prayers of passion

Stay the same through changing fashions

They freeze my mind like water on a winter’s night

Spent most of my youth

Out hobo cruising

And all I got for proof

Is rocks in my pockets and dirt in my shoes

So goodbye nonbeliever

Don’t you know that I hate to leave here

So long babe, I got the flashback blues.

Photographs show the laughs

Recorded in between the bad times

Happy sailors dancing on a sinking ship

Cloudy skies and dead fruit flies

Waving goodbye with tears in my eyes

Well, sure I made it but ya know it was as hell of a trip.

Spent most of my youth

Out hobo cruising

And all I got for proof

Is rocks in my pockets and dirt in my shoes

And ten times what it grieves you

That’s how much more I hate to leave you now

So long babe, I got the flashback blues.

Spent most of my youth

Out hobo cruising

And all I got for proof

Is rocks in my pockets and dirt in my shoes

So goodbye nonbeliever

Don’t you know that I hate to leave here

So long babe, I got the flashback blues.