Time's price

Jeffrey Lewis sait être pragmatique face au temps qui passe...

Des paroles pas si triviales.

Time is gonna take so much away

But there's a way that time can offer you a trade

You've gotta do something that you can get nicer at,

You've gotta do something that you can get wiser at,

You'd better do something that you can get better at

'Cause that's the only thing that time will leave you with

'Cause time is gonna take so much away

But there's a way that time can offer you a trade :

It might be cabaret, it could be poetry,

It might be trying to make a new happy family,

It could be violin repair or chemistry,

But if it's something that takes lots of time, that's good

'Cause time is gonna take so much away,

But there's a way that time can offer you a trade.

Because your looks are gonna leave you

And your city's gonna change too

And your shoes are gonna wear through

Yeah time is gonna take so much away,

But there's a way that time can offer you a trade :

You gotta do something that you can get smarter at,

You gotta do something you might just be a starter at,

You better do something that you can get better at

'Cause that's the thing that time will leave you with.

And maybe that's why they call a trade a trade,

Like when they say you should go and learn a trade;

The thing you do don't have to be to learn a trade,

Just get something back from time for all it takes away.

It could be many things, it could be anything,

It could be expertise in Middle Eastern traveling,

Something to slowly sorta balance life's unraveling

You have no choice you have to pay time's price

But you can use the price to buy you something nice

Something you can only buy with lots of time

So when you're old you blow some whippersnapper's mind.

It might be a book that takes researching seven years

A book that helps to make the path we take to freedom clear

And when you're done you see it started with a good idea

One good idea could cost you thousands of your days

But it's just time that you'd be spending anyway

You have no choice you have to pay time's price

But you can use the price to buy you something nice

So I've decided recently

To try to trade more decently…

Jeffrey Lewis - Time trades

A Turn In The Dream-Songs (Beggars Banquet, 2011)