Hippie Boy - The Flying Burrito Brothers

I was walking down the street the other day

And a sight came before my eyes

It was a little hippie boy, I must have been twice his size

His appearence typified his strange breed

Gaudy clothes, long stringy hair hanging down

I’d seen perhaps a thousand in my early trips to town

As he walked beside me on down the block

I noticed no unpleasing smell

He might have been on the weed or even LSD

But if he was I couldn’t tell

So we walked together that way through this neighborhood

Finally he turned around to me

And he said friend, you know we’re a million miles apart

But you know something we can enjoy the sunshine and the weather

So why don’t we put our differences aside

And just talk to each other

You see this box beneath my arm

To you it’s plain, it has no charm

But to someone dearest to my heart this box has played a tragic part

This little one can’t tell you himself about his life and how he died

But if anyone else could speak for him I guess I’m qualified

This boy was in Chicago, he didn’t know why he was there

He was with his family and friends and he didn’t really care

You might have been one of those

Who saw the struggle there on your television screen

The tragic thing is so much else happened

That no one else could have seen

A stranger handed this boy a dollar to do a simple chore

To carry a package to a nearby hotel

And when he returned he’d get two more

But when he came back he sort of lost his way walking thru the crowd

One of them things you ask yourself, how the Lord allowed

But when he was found he was like he is now

Dreaming sweet and still

And in his little hand was a crumpled dollar bill

Now you can take that dollar

Get four cents on it compound it quarterly at any downtown bank

So they can back some hot new tank or atom bomb

Well, what I’m going to tell you now, you can stay or you can leave

You kind of listened to my story so far but just one more thing

It’s the same for any hippie, bum or hillbilly out on the street

Just remember this little boy and never carry more than you can eat

Now could you help us sing this song, please

There will be peace in the valley for him now we pray

I will think of the little hippie boy that way