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The Free Electric Band Lyrics

Our father is a doctor, he's a family man
My mother works for charity whenever she can
And they're both good clean Americans who abide by the law
And they both stick up for liberty and they both support the war
My happiness was paid for when they laid their money down
For summers in a summer camp and winters in the town
Our future in the system was talked about and planned
But I gave it up for music and the free electric band

I went to school in hand-washed shirts with neatly ordered hair
And the school was big and newly built and filled with light and air
And the teachers taught us values that we had to learn to keep
And they'd clip the ear of any idle kid who went to sleep
And my father organized for me a college in the east
But I went to California, the sunshine and the beach
My parents and my lecturers could never understand
Why I gave it up for music and the free electric band

Well, they used to sit and speculate upon their son's career
A lawyer or a doctor or a civil engineer
Just give me bread and water, put a guitar in my hand
'Cause all I need is music and the free electric band

My father sent me money and I spent it very fast
On a girl I met in Berkeley in a social science class
Yes, and we learned about her body but her mind we didn't know
Until deep-rooted attitudes and morals began to show
She wanted to get married even though she never said
And I knew her well enough by now to see inside her head
She'd settle for suburbia and a little patch of land
So I gave her up for music and the free electric band

Ooh, the free electric band
Da, ba, da, ba, da, da, dee, dee with the free electric band
Da, ba, da, ba, da, da, dee, dee with the free electric band
Da, ba, da, ba, da, da, dee, dee with the free electric band
Da, ba, da, ba, da, da, dee, dee with the free electric band
Da, ba, da, ba, da, da, dee, dee with the free electric band
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Cover art for The Free Electric Band lyrics by Albert Hammond

Surely Father is a family man, not a familiar one? That's certainly what it sounds like, and it makes more sense.

Positive
Subjective
Enjoyment
Interpretation
Lyrics
Understanding
Clarity
Context
Cover art for The Free Electric Band lyrics by Albert Hammond

Oh, and also: the teacher taught US values which we had to learn to keep. Not necessarily his values, though no doubt they looked as if they were. And the girl from Berkeley surely had DEEP-ROOTED attitudes and morals, not, of all things, the brutal ones!

Negative
Subjective
Disgust
Values
Teaching
Morals
Attitudes
Criticism
Cover art for The Free Electric Band lyrics by Albert Hammond

Best lyrics I've heard in a good while. Admittedly this song sounds quite cheesy but the sentiment is undeniably what it is all about. I just want to play this to every workaholic, every lawyer and businessman who looks down on anyone with an inferior income, everyone who doesn't appreciate music and every Paris Hilton type in the world....maybe they'd all listen and be inspired to change the way they live.....probably not though....still, I'd like to play it to them anyway.

@badge been there (finance, not law), done that, have the t-shirt, wish you'd played this to me a decade ago

Cover art for The Free Electric Band lyrics by Albert Hammond

Such a free, happy sound.

 
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