Long Story Short - The Avett Brothers

Here I am standing, ten feet between us

Beside me, the door that I just came through

Where I walked past an overweight cop in an alley

With a beer gut bursting from a bullet proof jacket

Who thinks to himself, «I've got to get back

To the man that I was when I was a dreamer»

With a partner in crime named Brandy McGill

A girl with a love of life bigger than normal

Who still wonders when her life will begin

Her best friend Maria who seems to have everything

Tells her she probably just needs a vacation

Away from the stress of her husband’s vocation

While Maria is talking, Brandy is drifting

Staring at John who just got the job

Busing tables to pay for Community College

An Associates degree in x-ray technology

John is too old to still be in college

He doesn’t like class and sometimes doesn’t go

Long story short, his family was broken

He was freed from a past life as a kid on Skid Row

He notices Brandy, but stares at Maria

Her beauty well-practiced in casting a spell

Imagining her naked, he spills dirty dishes

On the lap of an elderly woman named Belle

A lady who won’t live to see her next birthday

But shares a warm smile regardless of that

The mess that unfolds completely surrounds her

Not one bit of urgency enters her soul

She reaches for Roy, her husband forever

In love and connection, her small hand, he holds

And nothing comes of it but a managers' anger

Not for the mess, but her father’s remark

About a bad grade that she had as a child

So she takes her revenge out by firing John

Who now wonders when his life will begin

Ain’t it confusing to search for the will

And learn when you find it that you’ve lost your way?

Long story short, he saw a commercial

That said that the 20s are the prime of your life

But that doesn’t seem to be true at this moment

As he cleans out his locker and calls his best friend

Who’s too busy to talk cause he’s prepping with lawyers

To keep money from his ex-wife, the mother

Of their only son who’s naturally drawn

To guns and sharp objects who now has no father

Except for on weekends, two times a month

No need to worry, I’m told we’re protected

By the men passing laws in the House and the Senate

From people who mix up the truth and reality

With movies and games and ridiculous scenarios

Long story short, best I can tell

Children can’t be left to raise themselves