The Year That He Was Cool

from Ruby by Catfish

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lyrics

The Year That He Was Cool

I can see him now by the poolroom door in 1965
Answering only to his own sweet law
Deadpan and alive
He could surf the curl on a barmaid’s lip
He could surf a yard of beer
He surfed the break down the Queensland coast
For six months of that year
Back in a time of innocence
He did not suffer fools
He put aside all childish things
In the year that he was cool

They said he’d screwed a meter maid
The girls said it wasn’t true
He knew a guy who knew Pete Zuber
From “The Shades of Blue”
Many of the same girls claimed to have spent the night
In his panel van
He’d shake his head and we’d admire
The politeness of the man
They said he’d smoked raw opium
The line was hard to rule
Between the facts and legend in
The year that he was cool

Now its hard to believe how twenty five years
Have underlined that face
Undermined that special time
That ties him to this place
To see his eyes it’s hard to say
Just when the lights were drowned
There ain’t much else to do besides decay
In this six-pack town

Now he’s seen all the pricks who stayed at school
Come home with law degrees
The girls who once were his to choose
Have travelled overseas
And he harbours such a hatred
He drinks in such a rage
But the target’s hard to focus on
Approaching middle age
Now he stands outside the bowling club
Barfing like a mule
No-one recalls or wants to know
About the year that he was cool.

credits

from Ruby, released January 30, 2017

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Don Walker Sydney, Australia

donwalker.com.au

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