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83 Lyrics

I have these dreams I'm walking home
home where it used to be
everything is as it was
frozen in front of me

here I stand six feet small
romanticizing years ago
well it's a bittersweet feeling
hearing "Wrapped Around Your Finger" on the radio

and these days
I wish I was six again
oh make me a red cape
I wanna be Superman
oh if only my life was more like 1983
all these things would be more like they were at the start of me
I had it made in 83

thinking about my brother Ben
I miss him everyday
he looks just like his brother John
but on an eighteen month delay

here I stand six feet small
and smiling cause I'm scared as hell
kinda like your life is like a sequel to a movie
where the actors' names have changed

well these days
I wish I was six again
oh make me a red cape
I wanna be Superman
oh if only my life was more like 1983
all these things would be more like they were at the start of me
if my life was more like 1983
plot a course to the source of the purest little part of me

and most my memories have escaped me
or confused themselves with dreams
if heaven's all they want it to be
send your prayers to me care of 1983

you can paint that house a rainbow of colors
rip out the floorboards
and replace the the shutters
but that's my plastic in the dirt

whatever happened to my
whatever happened to my
whatever happened to my
whatever happened to my lunchbox
when came the day when it got
thrown away
don't you think I should have had some say in that decision

more like
more like
more like 1983
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41 Meanings

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Cover art for 83 lyrics by John Mayer

This song is so endearing. All the mass of worries we have now didn't exist when we were 6... How come we hurry to grow up and then wish we were small again?

Cover art for 83 lyrics by John Mayer

i love "kinda like my life is like a sequel to a movie where the actors names have changed oh well" so true. i mean, do you get it? his life is just replaying itself over and over making the same mistakes and the only difference is it's with different people (aka actors)...i feel that. its so me.

Cover art for 83 lyrics by John Mayer

"you can paint that house a rainbow of colors rip out the floorboards and replace the the shutters but that's my plastic in the dirt"

This strong strikes me for a number of reasons: I was 5 in 1983 so the references hit home...I remember watching the Wrapped Around Your Finger video on MTV (when they still played music). The last bit gets me because yes, someday my boyhood home will be sold but no matter how it changes, my GI Joes are still buried in various places around it. I think on a deeper level, it says that no matter what changes in our lives, there are some things about us, call them memories or what have you that will never change.

Cover art for 83 lyrics by John Mayer

I agree. Being six, carefree, innocent, pure and happy. Those were the days.

(There are two versions of Room for Squares?)

Cover art for 83 lyrics by John Mayer

i really wish i could be six no worries no girls or schoolwork i would just love to go back and ride my bke up and down my street playing cops and robbers with my neighbor sometimes i would go to the park with my grandfather those were the good days

Cover art for 83 lyrics by John Mayer

when he says that he mixes his memories up with dreams...its so true i do it all the time and sometimes i just wish i could live the memories all over again. i totally realte to him...

Cover art for 83 lyrics by John Mayer

I love the way he has taken such simple stuff and made it into an amazing song. "thats my plastic in the dirt." you know what? Whatever happend to my lunchbox. A question that does not get asked enough...

Cover art for 83 lyrics by John Mayer

This song just makes me wish i was six again, when i didn't have anything really to worry about, except waking up late on saturday morning missing cartoons. I don't know, this song is great just like the entire room for squares cd - both versions.

I can admit, the first time I heard this song I just thought that it was one of those "easy to listen to" songs. It certainly is, but it's also a lot more than that. This song is one of my favorites from the Room for Squares album. The first time I heard it I thought "Wow, it doesn't get much better than that". "Plot a course to the source of the purest little part of me"...brillant. I love when he mentions his younger brother Ben, it really paints a picture of John Mayer as a little 6 year old...

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Cover art for 83 lyrics by John Mayer

Yeah there was a release on aware records (different mixes of some songs) and after that sony picked him up, and re-mixed the cd, adding the track "3x5."

Cover art for 83 lyrics by John Mayer

i guess its just one of those great mysteries of life..