Class Of '58 (Long Version) Lyrics

Old jazz guys being interviewed Thirty years beyond their prime With memories of road shows from the Golden age of swingtime The piano player strikes a chord, leans forward on his stool And though they've all seen better days. They have that air of faded cool It's an entrée to a different world. One of tailcoats and victrolas And one day they'll make TV shows On ageing rock-and-rollers In the beginning there were session musicians Backing cabaret singers Who were masquerading as teenage stars Doing bad cover versions of American hits With a whole lot of echo and borrowed riffs on jazz guitars For all this false enthusiasm they don't seem alive In this brand new world, you will be old at twenty-five Old at twenty-five, and there's no where to turn And it's a hard, hard, hard lesson to learn Then came the kid with the red Colorama And the Watkins copycat echo chamber and the toothy grin With one hand glued to the tremolo arm While the singer moves around like an Elvis clone They really pack them in And every song was short and sweet and every beat was fast And every paper in the land said rock and roll won't last You know it just can't last, it's such a rapid burn And it's a hard, hard, hard lesson to learn Well what are you going to do when it's all over? What are you going to do right now? What are you going to do when it's all over? Will you get along somehow? I just don't know Feeling like I do right now Ask me tomorrow From a bare-bones start, no skill, just heart It's strange but a little sophistication is creeping in With a little Mick Green and a little Hank B. And an organ sound that they borrowed from Johnny and the Hurricanes And there's a man who's a producer, and he puts their record out But the song comes out on Oriole and it does not make the charts No, it does not make the charts, and it feels like the end And it's a hard, hard, hard lesson to learn Well what are you going to do when it's all over? What are you going to do in life? Will you get yourself a steady job, Will you get yourself a wife? I just don't know Feeling like I do right now Ask me tomorrow And oh, you drift awhile but the itch won't go away You find yourself another band, one that can really play And it all just clicks one day Oooh-wah, now I'm on a package tour Oooh-wah, gonna have a hit for sure Brian Epstein says we've got talent to spare I've got a flip-side co-write, my name's right there Oooh-wah, now I'm on a package tour Oooh-wah, now I'm on the radio Oooh-wah, even 'Ready, Steady, Go' I've met Andrew Loog Oldham and Cathy McGowan At the Scotch of St. James, it's a party town Oooh-wah, now I'm on the radio I may not know much, but I do know I'm partial To an E-major chord through a stack of Marshalls Then came the first American tour And an endless succession of motel rooms And sleepless nights From the ramshackle clubs in the back of beyond To fourth on the bill with the Kinks and the Hollies And the Dave Clark Five And it's a long, long way from Liverpool to Sunset Boulevard When everybody says you're cool life doesn't seem so hard It doesn't seem so hard, it's like it's all been earned And it's a hard, hard, hard lesson to learn I think I'm falling over myself to get to the other side And traces of the past just get in my way Gonna leave them all behind There's a palm tree growing in front of my house Underneath a yellow sky And the local girls won't leave me alone And I can't even tell you why It is all sha-la-la-la la la la lah There's nothing that I'd really change It's just sha-la-la-la la la lah Though the band are acting kind of strange Sha-la-la-la la la la lah I think I'm gonna get up soon Sha-la-la-la la la la lah It's the middle of the afternoon But there's nothing that I have to do I am in a large tin can on wheels and we are rolling Over miles and miles of empty countryside We've been doing this for months and we are Getting on each other's nerves. And there is nowhere left to hide And now I'm in an airport with a bag of dirty laundry Waiting for a plane that's endlessly delayed The mantra of the road is just eat, sleep, Complain, complain And that is what I do until it's time to play I let it go, just let it go The band broke up in a screaming fit And they were trying to say that it was my fault, But you know that isn't right at all I took the first plane out and went back To the High Street Apartment where I used to live. You know it's funny that it seems so small And they're probably all still out there Getting old and crotchety But when I think about us now, it's how we used to be How we used to be, in that first light of dawn And it's a hard, hard, hard lesson to learn What are you going to do when you're over thirty And you haven't got a car? Will you be a roadie or a driver? Will you work in A and R? I just don't know Feeling like I do right now Ask me tomorrow Red guitar, red guitar You know I really miss that red guitar Red guitar, red guitar You know I really miss that red guitar And you can write this on my tombstone This must be my fate I'm a graduate of rock-and-roll Class of '58 '58, 58, I'm a graduate of the class of '58 Red guitar, '58, I'm a graduate of the class of '58 And there's no use analysing these anthems that were sung Rock-and-roll's not good or bad It's just the sound of being young And it's a long, long way from pompadours And doo-wop and payola And one day they'll make TV shows on ageing rock-and-rollers On ageing rock-and-rollers