The Avett Brothers - Long Story Short Lyrics

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 does not 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 manager's anger
Not for the mess, but her father's remark
About a bad grade 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 20's 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