Sing Your Own Song - John Wesley Harding

Long ago I had a dream

A man came up to me

He gave me paper and a pen

And a cast-iron guarantee

He said «Write six words, make the next line rhyme

Learn four basic chords

When you’ve got the third line, well, in next to no time

You’ll be wanting more»

Well, I didn’t wanna know about a quid pro quo

Or why he was picking on me

Guess he didn’t know that I was tired of school

And bored of poetry

So I played along, stifled a yawn

Perhaps he was wrong in the head

And when I woke, I found a note

And this is what it said:

You can write your own words

You can sing your own song

And it doesn’t really matter if you’re out of tune

Or if no one sings along

You can write your own words

And you can make your own rules

And it doesn’t really matter how cool you are

Or what grades you got at school

When you sing your own song

So I took the advice, suffice it to say

That the rest is mystery

And if anyone out there’s nervous or scared

I suggest you listen to me

You can write your own words

You can sing your own song

And it doesn’t really matter if you’re out of tune

Or if no one sings along

Cos if you do what you like

And you like what to do

Then someone somewhere knows you’re there

And the world may come to you

When you sing your own song

Now I’m married and I have two kids

And we sing songs all the time

My four-year-old just makes them up

Sometimes with explanatory mime

No one’s told her that it’s difficult yet

That isn’t in her head

So we sing her song all evening long

Right until it’s time for bed