Steppenwolf - The Balance Lyrics
Words and music by John KayNineteen-hundred-sixty-fourWe were kids, didn't know about the warStill wasting time in schoolThere were Joe and Sue, Jack and JimA couple more in the second stringAll the rest just weren't coolAh, we'd hang around in our little gangHaving dreams, making plansFor the outside worldBut when I see us nowI really find it strangeHow little, how much we've changedIn the years gone byI guess it's meant to be that wayJimmy always played the clownIt was his way of hanging on to the crowdBut when he was down he'd come aroundTo get his hands on every agent known to manNo matter how from aspirin to zylatollCrazy Jimmy tried them allAnd he was dying but now he's fineFor he gets up at five o'clockRuns ten miles in the L.A. smogStill crazyI've heard him say that anything worth really doingShould be done until you're falling downAnd though he left the road to ruinHe's found a new way to the groundHe still ain't found his balanceJoe was never hard to pleaseWhen they said "Go" he went overseas into battleHe stuck it out to the bitter endLived like a dog, fought like a man in the saddleAnd when he came home from VietnamThey said "The war did him no harm"They're lyingHe's known to cry and scream at times, in his dreamsHolding off the nightmares that he seesTime may heal the nightly screamingBut the scars will still remainHe fights so hard to kill his demonAt times the pain drives him insaneTrying to regain his balanceJack and Susie lost no tomeThey went to college and carried signs in the rallyAnd finally with cap and gownThey tied the knot and settled down in the valleyOh but now they've got two little boysThe place is filled with broken toys and dreamsFor it seems that Jack, in spite of his degreeMoonlights at night, in the factorySusie's got the house and the childrenBut no time for her to growAnd Jack is making their first millionAnd until they can't let goI guess they'll owe the balanceWe don't talk much anymoreSeems our little gang is bored with callin'Anyway we're too busy with gettin' onAnd looking out for number oneIs all we got in commonWith business, home, familyAre we ever all that we could be?Trading in our fantasyWe live this part time lifeOf false securitySeems to me that doers never dream enoughAnd dreamers often do nothing at allAnd to find that middle ground is roughBut I'll be damned if I let goStop looking for the balance 1983 Rambunctious Music (ASCAP)
