Bonnie "Prince" Billy – Look Backward On Your Future Look Forward To Your Past (Guitar)

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Richard was a stout-hearted man

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He'd been through the bulk of his live

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He no longer spoke to most of his folks

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And was abandoned by his wife

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Rolling down the road one night alone

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He came upon a terrible sight

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An older woman laid bleeding in the road

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And her screams about filled the night

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She said "Look backwards on your future,

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And look forward to your past

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Everything upon which you base your faith

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Is made of vapour and it won't last

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It's only everything in your shared reality

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That keeps our souls held fast

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So look backwards on your future

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And look forward to your past"

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Richard woke the next morning and spoke

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He said "There's something i feel i must do!"

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He called up all of his natural-born kids

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And all his money from the bank he withdrew

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He changed his mind about everything

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He'd ever felt about what's bad and good

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He fixed a loudspeaker to the roof of his car

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And he sang to everyone he could

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He sang "Look backwards on your future

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and look forward to your past

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Get your sense of time from the acient Hawaiians

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Your sense of self from the hydrogen blast

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You'll be what came before, you were what is is to come!"

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He bellowed out to everyone he past

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So "Look backwards on your future

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and look forward to your past!"

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Richard got arrested in Laredo

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He was causing too much mischief for the sisters

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He spent an evening in the clink and they went home and turned to drinking

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And gave his all, yes he was a double-fister

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The issue was the kind of past he had behind him

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Most of what he lived was wasted days

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The history he faced was an ocean made of empty

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And a destiny you wouldn't want to save

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Still I say "Look backwards on your future,

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and look forward to your past

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If you haven't gone and made a mess of yourself

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You just might end up with the last laugh

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Every little dot of [pe-pe-]presence and thought

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For another will give you life class

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So look backwards on your future,

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and look forward to your past"

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This particular assemblage of molecules and memories

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Someday soon may just run out of gas

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So look backwards on your future

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And look forward to your past