Free Electric Band

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

They both stick up
for liberty and they
both would go to war

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 oiled hair

The school was big
and newly built and
filled with light and air

And the teachers
taught us values that we
had to learn to keep

And they clipped
the ear of many idle kids
who went to sleep

My father organised
for me a college in the
East

But I went to
California, the 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

'Cause 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
Berkeley 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

But 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

Ooh and the
free electric band