This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
When I was a boy I used to live in corduroy
OP shirts and slip-on Vans.
My life was so simple
I had not one pimple,
My everyday was made up of these plans:
To ride my bike to Thrifty's,
Run past the balls and ice cream and
find the Star Wars figurines.
Thinking of my action men,
Kung-Fu grip and all,
What happened to them all?
(Chorus)
Running through my old life
Looking for my lost toys
Where has all my fun gone?
Now that we're all older
Before we grow much colder
Let's all look forward to the new dawn
An anthem for all lost toys
Now that we're all big boys
We'll stand together and sing this song
We'll sing this song
It's not too long
So everybody sing along
When I was a little man
Playdough came in a little can
I was Star Wars' biggest fan
Now I'm stuck without a plan
GI Joe was an action man
Shaggy drove the mystery van
Devo was my favorite band
Take me back to my happy land
Now my brothers and sisters
I don't mean to make a scene
But I lost my action figures
and it makes me want to scream
Greedo, Chewbacca, Luke, R2, and Han,
3PO, Yoda, Bobafett, Obi Wan
Green Machine, Suckerman
Silly Putty, Lincoln Logs
Sitting in my Underoos
Reading christmas catalogs
What happened to my action men and all?
What happened to it all?
Running through my old life
Looking for my lost toys
Where has all my fun gone?
Now that we're all older
Before we grow much colder
Let's all look forward to the new dawn
An anthem for all lost toys
Now that we're all big boys
We'll stand together and sing this song
We'll sing this song
It's not too long
So everybody sing along
When I was a little man
Playdough came in a little can
I was Star Wars' biggest fan
Now I'm stuck without a plan
GI Joe was an action man
Shaggy drove the mystery van
Devo was my favorite band
Take me back to my happy land
Take me back to my happy land
Take me back to my happy land
Take me back to my happy land
Take me back to my happy land
OP shirts and slip-on Vans.
My life was so simple
I had not one pimple,
My everyday was made up of these plans:
To ride my bike to Thrifty's,
Run past the balls and ice cream and
find the Star Wars figurines.
Thinking of my action men,
Kung-Fu grip and all,
What happened to them all?
(Chorus)
Running through my old life
Looking for my lost toys
Where has all my fun gone?
Now that we're all older
Before we grow much colder
Let's all look forward to the new dawn
An anthem for all lost toys
Now that we're all big boys
We'll stand together and sing this song
We'll sing this song
It's not too long
So everybody sing along
When I was a little man
Playdough came in a little can
I was Star Wars' biggest fan
Now I'm stuck without a plan
GI Joe was an action man
Shaggy drove the mystery van
Devo was my favorite band
Take me back to my happy land
Now my brothers and sisters
I don't mean to make a scene
But I lost my action figures
and it makes me want to scream
Greedo, Chewbacca, Luke, R2, and Han,
3PO, Yoda, Bobafett, Obi Wan
Green Machine, Suckerman
Silly Putty, Lincoln Logs
Sitting in my Underoos
Reading christmas catalogs
What happened to my action men and all?
What happened to it all?
Running through my old life
Looking for my lost toys
Where has all my fun gone?
Now that we're all older
Before we grow much colder
Let's all look forward to the new dawn
An anthem for all lost toys
Now that we're all big boys
We'll stand together and sing this song
We'll sing this song
It's not too long
So everybody sing along
When I was a little man
Playdough came in a little can
I was Star Wars' biggest fan
Now I'm stuck without a plan
GI Joe was an action man
Shaggy drove the mystery van
Devo was my favorite band
Take me back to my happy land
Take me back to my happy land
Take me back to my happy land
Take me back to my happy land
Take me back to my happy land
Lyrics submitted by evilmprss
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