Monday, January 26, 2009

Old Enough to Re-paint

Neil Young's song "Tell Me Why" popped into my head while I was in the car, so I started to sing it. Realizing I couldn't recall all the lyrics, when I got I home I looked them up. That's when I saw that all these years I have been mis-hearing one of the lines.
The correct line is:
Tell me why
Is it hard to make arrangements with yourself
When you're old enough to repay, but young enough to sell.

I had always thought he was singing:
When you're old enough to re-paint, but young enough to sell.

Wow. This makes a big difference. I've spent the better part of my life believing that when you get old enough, you get to choose: whether to re-paint or whether to sell. Now it all makes more sense. Because really, if you are going to sell, you are probably going to re-paint first. Then again, if you re-paint, you are then free to either sell or not.
This whole episode has turned my world upside down today.
I like to keep things in perspective.
Tell me why. Tell me why.

2 comments:

Allison said...

awesome...I've had this experience with other songs before

Anonymous said...

LOL! your comments floor me, yet I have to laugh at this one!