[valediction]
[Time: 5'11"]
[Lyrics: Andy Wagner]
[First performed October 9, 1999 -- show #43]
[Appears as track #11 on "Mainstream Mayhem"]
[Tim: electric bass, Nevin: viola, Jamie: drumkit, percussion, Andy: guitar, vocals, Thom: piano, vocals]


One of the oldest Bert songs, this song was actually written before
there even was a Bert, a one-guitar song by Andy shortly after he graduated
as valedictorian of his high school. In a way,
this was his alternate valediction to one he gave at commencement:
while the one he gave at graduation came from his heart,
this one was boiling in the back of his brain.


staring at the water, he spoke aloud
'I am an engineer, so tell me how
I design this river still
that turns this wheel, that runs this mill
and generates the village power
which we squander as we will
when I've never been in the water.'

musing on the hearts he'd reconciled
content to be 'the friend' with a mouth of guile
'to pretend that I'm not moved
to step in when someone handsome brute
has torn his seraph's love to shreds
yet I counsel irresolute.
for I'm just afraid of being a lover.'

this boy could not do what he was told
for he could see the fault in the ways of old
so instead he perfected the hand-me-down attitudes
and sent chagrin up the line with the family dues.
took no comfort in adolescence
saw his peers' rebellion coalesce
into conformity, so he blazed a straight route
and lost his friends to a point both moot and mute.

he skipped a stone and watched it go,
involuntarily analyzing its parabolic path
he took a breath and whispered through clenched teeth
'why must I always do the math?'

frustrated reflexes tend to answer our dilemmas for us.
and with a determination that made the hair on his skin stand tall and thin

he jumped in.


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