There's a girl in my past,
Found her freedom at last
Made her home on the street,
Lots of people to meet
And I'll tell you she always had lots of "good friends" around her
And she never was forced to play with the children her own age
Fifteen. Fifteen.
Hanging around with the dealers and peelers
She always got off in her own little world
Toured the country and always had people
Around her
Life was a dream and the men who were scheming
Would always get beat up and no one would
Find out
'Til one day that she noticed the magic was gone
Girl you better beware. Girl you better beware.
Met a man in black,
Drove a big Cadillac.
Put her out on the street,
Kept her on her back.
And she noticed that time was leaving her lonely and helpless
And she watched as her friends were leaving her circle,
Discarded.
Sixteen. Sixteen.
Nightmares kept her awake when she slept,
She was out 'til dawn then she came home and wept.
Stealing and cheating and lying and losing her way.
Sick and tired of demure and naughty
And people mistook her for a woman of 40.
She packed up her few things and headed for home.
She could always go home.
You can always go home.
When she came back to me,
I just couldn't believe
that the girl that I knew
Was the girl I could see.
'Cause before she was always laughing and smiling and happy
But she came back a cold and hard little street girl
And bitter.
Eighteen. Eighteen.
Then she descended into the abyss
Of depression and drugs and more of this
She left and came back and she left and came back into my life.
Carried a child and an STD
I just couldn't believe when she said to me
She wanted to stay in the world of mystery.
When she died like a knife in my side,
And I tossed and I turned and I wept and I cried,
Tried to deny all the things that I knew that she was.
One thing I learned is that life goes on
And what doesn't kill you can make you strong
She was my first love and now she's gone.
Oh yeah, beware.
Beware the lure
Oh yeah, listen what I say.
Beware. Beware. Beware.
Listen what I say, oh yeah, beware
Don't go, don't go out on your own
Oh yeah beware, stay alive, don't go dont go stay home.
(fade out)
Yeah, beware of the street. Beware of people that are your "good friends". Beware of thinking you know everything when you are 15. 16. 18.
This song was actually chosen to be the theme song for a street mission that specialized in getting girls off the street. The song was featured at a memorial service for missing street girls in Calgary, attended by almost 100, unfortunately my "manager" at the time slept in and missed a crucial meeting about performing it live at the Hard Rock, and... lost that one.
This is based on someone I did know.
And for the record, "all the things that I knew that she was" included stripper, hooker, and pathological liar. Seems I meet a lot of that last.
From the album "The Castle".
Recorded in fall of 1993 on a Tascam 8-track cassette recorder, mastered to DAT, transferred to digital via analog out.
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