Free

Tommy’s Song (1988) – The next and last song on this album starts with the line, “I wrote my first good song on a pink guitar with just two strings…” This is it. It was written for our first guitarist who couldn’t bring himself to leave his hometown when the rest of us wanted to run away and become rock stars.

Lyrics

Tommy’s Song
Tommy wanted to be someone’s hero
It’s all he needed to feel like a man
He said, “Don’t be afraid,
don’t say a word, don’t let them in…”
They all said Tommy had nothing to offer
No post-industrial dreams, no high school degree
But as he walked with her and talked of some great escape
the steam bellowed on like a laugh in its song
through the streets of debris
“It’ll be all right…”
And nobody seemed to see that they only wanted to be
Like the rest of the world…
The Greyhound dropped them off on the corner
With a pink slip in his hand and a lie for the phone
He said, “Don’t be afraid, don’t say a word, don’t let them in…”
And he picked himself back up
And swallowed more of his back luck
To face the “I told you so”s
To tell them all that he’d come home
“It’ll be all right…”
And with a touch of her hand he knew
That their nightmares had all come true
Like the rest of the world…
“It’ll be all right…”
He said, “Don’t be afraid,” it’ll be all right
“don’t say a word” it’ll be all right…
Tommy wanted to be someone’s hero