Jethro Tull – From A Dead Beat To An Old Greaser

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From a dead beat to an old greaser, here's thinking of you
You won't remember the long nights;
Coffee bars; black tights and white thighs
In shop windows where blonde assistants fully-fashioned a world made
Of dummies (with no mummies or daddies to reject them)
When bombs were banned every Sunday and the Shadows played FBI
And tired young sax-players sold their instruments of torture
Sat in the station, sharing wet dreams of Charlie Parker,
Jack Kerouac, René Magritte, to name a few of the heroes
Who were too wise for their own good left the young brood to
Go on living without them

Old queers with young faces who remember your name,
Though you're a dead beat with tired feet;
Two ends that don't meet
To a dead beat from an old greaser
Think you must have me all wrong
I didn't care, friend I wasn't there, friend,
If it's the price of pint that you need, ask me again

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Lyrics submitted by Philadelphia Eagles

Track duration: 04:10

"From a Dead Beat to an Old Greaser" as written by Ian Anderson

Lyrics © CHRYSALIS MUSIC GROUP

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From A Dead Beat To An Old Greaser song meanings
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    General Comment:This song is the bartender talking to the character Ray from the Too Old to Rock and Roll concept abulm. The bartender is reminiscing about his youth and how times have changed.. The lyric about bombs being banned every sunday is a throwback to the 60's in london when people would protest Nukes on sunday afternoons. British musicians were heavily influenced by the beat movement in america and is represented in the lyrics about sax players and famous beat artists like Parker, Kerouace, and Magritte.. the bartender was part of the movement as he refers to himself as a "deadbeat". Not the deadbeat of american origin, but deadbeat representing a person who was part of the beat movement which is now ended. The bar tender is now an old greaser.. At the end of the song, Ray, who is from a later generation of rocking bikers, tells the bartender that he wasn't part of that life and that he doens't care.....

    Lovely song... one of the true gems from that album.
    Flag Ovichsanon January 31, 2005   Link

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