After the Parade

Had to park on Bay State Road

'Cause Fenway's all aglow

Up Brookline Ave to Lansdowne Street

Guitar in hand and a summer heat

The faithful in their red and blue

A crowd outside the House of Blues

I'm dodging vendors, hawkers, and rock band stalkers

In my way

Breaking strings on cheap guitars

Close my eyes, pretend we're stars

Across that alley seems so far

But tonight it could all be ours

The soundman brought his harp to play

The doorman lends a smile away

One and two and three and four

Heads perk up, we couldn't ask for more

Breaking strings on cheap guitars

Close my eyes, pretend we're stars

Across that alley seems so far

But tonight it could all be ours

Cheap guitars, beat-up bars

No we ain't stars, but someday, someday

Someday we'll climb that stage

Across that alley, beyond that velvet cage

Until then, here we'll remain

With our singing, stringing, ringing ways

Breaking strings on cheap guitars

Close my eyes, pretend we're stars

Across that alley seems so far

But tonight it could all be ours

Breaking strings on cheap guitars

Close my eyes, pretend we're stars

Across that alley seems so far

But tonight it could all be ours

Tonight it could all be ours

Tonight it could all be ours

It was the kind of kiss

You'd best forget

Until it somehow led to more

When she flipped that claddagh ring around

In the backseat of my buddy's Ford

Take my hand, don't let go

Keep it steady as she goes

She said yes, I said no way I'm gonna let this go

Take my hand, don't let go

Keep it steady as she goes

She said yes, I said no way I'm gonna let this go

It's kind of thing, you don't forget

That night she let me learn

Just a dumb luck kid driving 'round

In a station wagon

She lit a fire that still burns

Take my hand, don't let go

Keep it steady as she goes

She said yes, I said no way I'm gonna let this go

Take my hand, don't let go

Keep it steady as she goes

She said yes, I said no way I'm gonna let this go

We didn't know nothing about it, nothing much

But we were on to something more

There ain't no secret to this fairy tale

Except the boy and the girl who won't let go

It was the kind of kiss, you don't forget

Even years on down the road

When she flipped that claddagh ring around

I knew I wasn't letting it go

Take my hand, don't let go

Keep it steady as she goes

She said yes, I said no way I'm gonna let this go

Take my hand, don't let go

Keep it steady as she goes

She said yes, I said no way I'm gonna let this go

Take my hand

Take my hand

Take my hand

Take my hand

Take my hand

Never gonna let this go

 I see you standing over there.

You're all made up from head to toe.

From the way you walked yourself in here

It's clear you're all about the show.

You're looking good, but you should know that I ain't fooled

And understand I'll play that song, but not for you.

I play guitar for the girl who waits for me when the night is through

She pulls off heels in a little black dress in ways unknown to you.

So dance right there, in your barely there, cause I see through you

Cause you ain't her and she ain't you.

So sip your drink and bat your eyes.

And flirt your way to drinks for free.

Cause that may work for other guys

But it sure as hell don't work for me.

You're looking good, but you should know that I ain't fooled

And understand I'll play that song, but not for you.

I play guitar for the girl who waits for me when the night is through

She pulls off heels in a little black dress in ways unknown to you.

So dance right there, in your barely there, cause I see through you

Cause you ain't her and she ain't you.

I see you standing over there…

Two! Three! Four!

I play guitar for the girl who waits for me when the night is through

She pulls off heels in a little black dress in ways unknown to you.

So dance right there, in your barely there, cause I see through you

Cause you ain't her and she ain't you.

Sixteen and flying down a back road

Radio cranking makes the pedal go, down

Blame it on the radio, blame it on the stereo

Blame it on the things we were too young to know

On your summer glow, blame it on the love you show

Blame it on the things that make you go

Woah, woah

Woah, woah

Top down down, dying just to see you

Radio cranking out my favorite tune

Sing it now, sing it now, sing it now

Top down down just to see you

Blame it on the radio, blame it on the stereo

Blame it on the things we were too young to know

On your summer glow, blame it on the love you show

Blame it on the things that make you go

Woah, woah

Woah, woah

Can't go slow, she's the song that makes me speed

Flying down a back road

To the girl that I still need

Boston lights fading in my rear view

I'm still flying home to see you

Blame it on the radio, blame it on the stereo

Blame it on the things we were too young to know

On your summer glow, blame it on the love you show

Blame it on the things that make you go

Woah, woah

Woah, woah

Woah, woah

Woah, woah

Sixteen and flying down a back road

Cross-country charter, after a loss in overtime

Suits on a tarmac, heading off to warmer climes

But there's a black car waiting to take him back to the city

Cause if he makes that flight, he'll be bar down at South Side tonight

He's trading palm trees for memories and cold ass Boston nights

With the same ten guys he skated with back in 1995

Cause rusted chain-link little towns have a certain way of finding

Ways to let you know, who you are, when you need reminding

After your worst or your best damn day, when the crowds have gone away

I thank the Lord this town is made of folks who stay

Long after the parade

Across the bar guys are laughing, they're pounding their Bud Lights

Just like their dads did in parking lots, after hockey Friday nights

Life took from them the kind of things, that make you question why

He'd ever let that kind of thing happen in our lives

But they made plans, so damn the chair, they're boarding Nashville flights

And they're singing out to the ones they lost, every Wednesday night

Cause rusted chain-link little towns have a certain way of finding

Ways to let you know, who you are, when you need reminding

After your worst or your best damn day, when the crowds have gone away

I thank the Lord this town is made of folks who stay

Long after the parade

Now Boston ain't the kind of town to let a good dream die

We've got our bars, our dreams, our scars and they're the ties that bind

Cause rusted chain-link little towns have a certain way of finding

Ways to let you know, who you are, when you need reminding

After your worst or your best damn day, when the crowds have gone away

I thank the Lord this town is made of folks who stay

Long after the parade

Hey, hey, hey, hey

Long after the parade

Hey, hey, hey, hey

Hey, hey, hey, hey

 Past the package store, on a dead man's curve

Where the last hill rises up to meet the sea

There's a little house on a dirt road drive

Where late at night Orion's Belt settles down into the bending trees

A guitar man, a thousand times

I've made that drive, when the morning meets the night

I'll follow stars back home to you

I'm driving home to Orion's Belt tonight

It's just the latest of a thousand late night drives

The songs are written, they line the corners of my mind

They light up the sky

I'm driving home to a riot's bell tonight

Mountain drive on a Tennessee night

Three stars above me, burning bright

A thousand miles from that dirt road drive

Up and down, left and right, rolling on worn out tires

A guitar man, a thousand times

I've made that drive, when the morning meets the night

I'll follow stars back home to you

I'm driving home to Orion's Belt tonight

It's just the latest of a thousand late night drives

The songs are written, they line the corners of my mind

They light up the sky

I'm driving home to Orion's Belt tonight

Just one more drive

One more time

If you know the stars, you can see the signs

The constellations hiding there in the nighttime sky

Cause on certain nights when the stars align

I swear I hear the notes and the songs that they shine

I'm driving home to Orion's Belt tonight

It's just the latest of a thousand late night drives

The songs are written, they line the corners of my mind

They light up the sky

I'm driving home to Orion's Belt tonight

Ain't got a whole lot of money

Singin' nights to pay the bills

Get up early on a Monday

Work again, you know the drill

When it gets too much

We load up all our stuff

And get that car headed east

Drive the roads we know

From so long ago

Take a left turn at the beach

And it's salt air

Blue skies

A little peace from the cold blue sea

Skippin' rocks

In the water

Lighthouse blinkin' one, four, three

We were married in the summer

After college by the sea

A little girl and her brothers

Same blue eyes starin' back at me

It ain't like there aren't times 2 a.m. and cryin'

When that weekend's out of reach

Drive the roads we know

From so long ago

Take a left turn at the beach

And it's salt air

Blue skies

A little peace from the cold blue sea

Skippin' rocks

In the water

Lighthouse blinkin' one, four, three

It don't matter about that money

Singin' nights does pay the bills

And even early on that Monday

I love this life and always will

Cause even when we're fine

We still make the time

Get that car headed east

Drive the roads we know

From so long ago

Take a left turn at the beach

And it's salt air

Blue skies

A little peace from the cold blue sea

Skippin' rocks

In the water

Lighthouse blinkin' one, four, three

Hands more skilled than these

Have chased down these three-chord dreams

But I've got a reason to believe

Yeah, I got you up my sleeve

So I'll keep searching this guitar

Fighting chords and bending words

Into the shape of who you are

You'll be my Mona Lisa

You'll be my piece de resistance

The kind of face that launches a thousand songs

Without you, I'm just another ball cap strumming on an old guitar

You're the next big thing, every song I sing

You're the real Nashville star

This battered Martin wears the scars

Of every chorus written about this love of ours

So many songs are locked inside

This wood, these strings, this one four five

So I'll keep searching this guitar

Fighting chords and bending words

Into the shape of who you are

You'll be my Mona Lisa

You'll be my piece de resistance

The kind of face that launches a thousand songs

Without you, I'm just another ball cap strumming on an old guitar

You're the next big thing, every song I sing

You're the real Nashville star

A thousand rhymes since the first day that I met you

A thousand more, 'til I find the one that breaks through

You'll be my Mona Lisa

You'll be my piece de resistance

The kind of face that launches a thousand songs

Without you, I'm just another ball cap strumming on an old guitar

You're the next big thing, every song I sing

You're the real Nashville star

Oh, oh, oh, oh

Without you, I'm just another ball cap strumming on an old guitar

You're the next big thing, every song I sing

You're the real Nashville star

You and me, at seventeen

All dressed up, in a dusty picture frame

Oh, you and I, that blue dress and a borrowed tie

Waiting on the rest of our lives

And damned if I know, where we were that day

You've changed your hair since that picture was made

But your, blue eyes, still shine, for me

Like when we were seventeen

Look right, in mine, my heart, heart still skips a beat

When I feel, when I find

This life gets too much

I look in your blue eyes and I'm alright

And they still shine for me

Like we were seventeen

It was first love, first sight

First day of high school, trying to catch your eye

A picked up a guitar

Cause out of my league just doesn't describe that

Sunny hair, little smile

Damned if I know, how it went my way

Once they shined for me, I didn't ever let them change

But your, blue eyes, still shine, for me

Like when we were seventeen

Look right, in mine, my heart, heart still skips a beat

When I feel, when I find

This life gets too much

I look in your blue eyes and I'm alright

And they still shine for me

Like we were seventeen

Young love never dies

Unless you let it

But your, blue eyes, still shine, for me

Like when we were seventeen

Look right, in mine, my heart, heart still skips a beat

When I feel, when I find

This life gets too much

I look in your blue eyes and I'm alright

And they still shine for me

Like we were seventeen

Just like when we were seventeen

Just like when we were seventeen

Just like when we were seventeen

Hey girl, summer sure looks good on you

And I think this Monday would look better with an ocean view

Now, how about you?

I can see your favorite pair of Ray Bans

Sitting on your nightstand

Sandy from the weekend

Tell you what I want to do

Find a salt air breeze and rolling waves

A sandy beach where we can misbehave

Cape Cod Ice over Bud Light blue

Call your boss and break the news

Pick up a beer, put down your phone

Think I caught a little something from the summer sun

Let's be under the weather together

I want to call in summer with you

'Round here, summer always ends too soon

So trade your 9-to-5

Stuck inside

for 95 with me and skies of blue

You know you want to

It would be a shame to waste that sundress

water cooler small talk and all the office politics

Tell you what I want to do

Find a salt air breeze and rolling waves

A sandy beach where we can misbehave

Cape Cod Ice over Bud Light blue

Call your boss and break the news

Pick up a beer, put down your phone

Think I caught a little something from the summer sun

Let's be under the weather together

I want to call in summer with you

Come on, leave it all behind

For me and you in the weekday sunshine

Find a salt air breeze and rolling waves

A sandy beach where we can misbehave

Cape Cod Ice over Bud Light blue

Call your boss and break the news

Pick up a beer, put down your phone

Think I caught a little something from the summer sun

Let's be under the weather together

I want to call in summer with you

With the beer in hand and the salt in sand

You're killing the two piece in your workday tan

Thinking tomorrow we should do it again

The boss won't mind a day or two

Pick up a beer, put down your phone

Think I caught a little something from the summer sun

Let's be under the weather together

I want to call in summer with you

I wasn't built for your skinny jeans

I ain't Nashville's type of star

I'm just an Irish kid from Boston town

Sometimes for better, sometimes for worse

My Red Sox cap, it ain't new like yours

Neither is this old guitar

But they were there, they picked up dorm room scars

The night Papi broke the curse

And I ain't changing who I am

Just to make myself a name

I write these songs, cause it's who I am

I ain't changing your kind of fame

So go dress it up, look the part

You ain't the one to blame

I submit, I give.

You got me beat

Cause yours is a young man's game

I don't write songs about tequila

Then again, neither do you

Cause if I'm drinking, it ain't for show.

It's cause my buddies like drinking beer

And I ain't changing who I am

Just to make myself a name

I write these songs, cause it's who I am

I ain't changing your kind of fame

So go dress it up, look the part

You ain't the one to blame

I submit, I give.

You got me beat

Cause yours is a young man's game

Now fame and glory, you might find

Singing songs that you've never lived

But hands down, I'll take going home to mine

All tucked up in their beds

And I ain't changing who I am

Just to make myself a name

I write these songs, cause it's who I am

I ain't changing your kind of fame

So go dress it up, look the part

You ain't the one to blame

But I leave writing the songs, to guys like me.

Cause that ain't a young man's game

No, that ain't a young man's game