You Had to Be There - Kenny Rogers

He sat down, picked up the phone said boy, I’m your old man

He touched the glass between the two as if to shake his hand

The boy he didn’t budge, not even so much as a blink

The man said

Oh, come on better late than never, don’t you think?

He said I read it in the paper, can’t believe you’re 21

Can’t believe some son of mine could do the things I hear you’ve done

He went on like some big hero who flew in to save the day

And the boy said, If you’re here to scare me right man, it’s too late

You had to be there

And I’m talkin' from day one

That’s the only time a man should talk through glass to his new son

And you’d have to go back and teach me how when I was nine

'Cause my mama couldn’t throw a ball even if she had the time

And I should have been learnin' how to fish instead of learnin' how to smoke

I bet if you’d have whooped my tail I’d never thought it was a joke

He said sometimes the will for doin' wrong is way too strong for any Mama’s

prayers

You had to be there

The man said boy, I’m sorry that you hate me like you do

The boy said, dry it up, man, we ain’t makin' this about you

It’s about a teenage girl against the world who was left there high and dry

About a kid who might have stood a whole lot better shot at life

But you had to be there

And I’m talkin' from day one

That’s the only time a man should talk through glass to his new son

And you’d have to go back and teach me how when I was nine

'Cause my mama couldn’t throw a ball even if she had the time

I should have been learnin' how to fish instead of learnin' how to smoke

I bet if you’d have whooped my tail I’d never thought it was a joke

He said sometimes the will for doin' wrong is way too strong for any Mama’s

prayers

You had to be there

Before the boy hung up the phone

He said, they say I’m out of time

And it hit the man right there and then

My God, son, so am I