Back when I was 4 and I knew the name of every dinosaur

I knew how to read ROM comic books, my babysitter said I was really smart

When the lights went out, everything changedThe radio music made me feel strange

And I had a real bad dream about a gorilla in the bathroom

And back when I was 6, I took everything real serious

And I thought that every song that came on the radio was referring to strange sexual acts

Because they thought I wouldn′t know the facts

And being small is hard, and no one ever tells you how

And back when I was 8, I would sit outside on an old milk crate

And look out at the world from the stoop across the street

The boomboxes and the hot concrete

And very Halloween, they hung a million rubber skeletons across ninth street

And back when I was 12 or so, I swear to God, I never felt so low

Everyone but me was making out and eating cookies

I had more than my brain could stand, I threw my life in a garbage can

I felt so weird, I had to disappear in crying suicide disease

And at 15, getting stoned felt good, and it sent me back to childhood

And nothing ever mattered to me more than that

But then 16 became eclipsed, my brain became apocalypse

I was lost and found, and I've never been the same

And back when I was 22, I left the best thing that I knew

And I gave it up for fortune and for fame

I played like I didn′t know how

I shocked the world, I wowed the crowd

But I deserved more than what they gave

And back when I was 27, still nothing had been forgiven

Clay turns into rock and rock just sits

So sitting on a crowded beach, I'd pretend I was a leech

And I'd stick to things here and there for a little bit

And back when I was 31, I knew I′d become what I′d become

Nothing left to reveal, and there was nowhere else to turn

So shocked and withered, dumb, and bitter, and in need of a babysitter

I'd gladly let my hand fall off and burn, burn, burn

And back when I turned the big 4-0, I realized just how much there was to go

And I started to think that being alone forever wasn′t where it was at

So I took my head out of the window, and I taught myself how to love real fast

I started talking about painting with a woman in the laundromat

And back when I was 50, and my first wife had just left me

I felt okay and I sang my daughter funny little songs

And just when I thought the best was past, I fell in love for real, at last

And it didn't even matter that it had taken me so long

And back when I was 63, the public rediscovered me

My comic books and albums had all become rare cult-collector items

And both my parents were deceased, so they didn′t see my records get re-released

And I got a dog for the first time in my life

And back when I was 74, my dog died and I got two more

I still felt really good about my daughter, and also about my girlfriend

And I would sing and draw a little bit, but mostly I'd just wake up early and sit

And hang out with the puppies, and wish that I could live forever

And back when I was 87, and my grandson had just turned eleven

My woman was dead, and my dogs were getting pretty old

My body didn′t work quite like it should, but overall, things were pretty good

I was getting decent royalties from the reissued comic books and records

And back when I was 106, my only friend was one goldfish

Everyone I ever knew was dead and gone

And the goldfish never had a name, and the neighbors thought I was insane

And I flushed it down the toilet when I saw it floating upside down

And back when I was 128, I'd sit outside on an old milk crate

And look out at the world from the stoop across the street

The boomboxes and the hot concrete

And every Halloween, they hung a million rubber skeletons across ninth street

Every Halloween, they hung a million rubber skeletons

Every Halloween, they hung a million rubber skeletons

Every Halloween, they hung a million rubber skeletons