Lyrics I Want to Learn a Love Song - Harry Chapin

I Want to Learn a Love Song

I come fresh from the street, fast on my feet
Kinda lean and lazy
Not much meat on my bones and a whole lot alone
And more than a little bit crazy
The old six string was all I had, to keep my belly still
And for each full hour lesson I gave
I got a crisp ten dollar bill
You see, she was married for seven years
To a concrete castle king
She said she wanted to learn to play the guitar
And to hear her children sing
So I’d show up about once a week in my faded tight legged jeans
With a backlog full of hobo stories and dilapidated dreams
She said «I wanna learn a love song
Full of happy things»
She said «I wanna learn a love song
Won’t you let me hear you sing?»
She said «I wanna learn a love song
I wanna hear you play»
She said «I wanna learn a love song
Before you go away»
So I tried to teach her a couple of chords and an easy melody
But it always turned out she’d rather listen to my guitar and me
I could hear her old man laughing in the den
Playing stud poker with the boys
While I sang so soft in the living room, too scared to make much noise
I came one week, the den was dark and she met me at the door
And we sat on the couch and we sang and talked till I could not sing no more
You know the silence kept in building
Her eyes grew much too wide
And I could hear both of our heart beats, but there was no place to hide
She said «I wanna learn a love song
Full of happy things»
She said «I wanna learn a love song
Won’t you let me hear you sing?»
She said «I wanna learn a love song
I wanna hear you play»
She said «I wanna learn a love song
Before you go away»
Well, I guess you know what happened
God I, I never been so clean
Yes, I feel like i’m working in a Hollywood movie
Or living out a good bad dream
And all them pin up girls in that tinsel world
Never touched me like she can
It took another man’s wife in the real world life to make this boy a man
She said «I wanna learn a love song
Full of happy things»
She said «I wanna learn a love song
Won’t you let me hear you sing?»
She said «I wanna learn a love song
I wanna hear you play»
She said «I wanna learn a love song
Before you go away»
I guess you know i stayed