when I was a young flute player
I could play eight bars without a breath
I could force three full tones above high C
I could tongue 128th notes impeccably
when I was a young flute player
When I was a young flute player
James Galway didn’t have nothin’ on me
I could play underwater or in the vacuum of outer space
If you could think a noise, I could make it
When I was a young flute player.
When I was a young flute player
God was my only composer and Jesus was a corporal
I could blow the chrome off a trailer hitch and burn without smoke
I made notes unknown to mortals
When I was a young flute player.
When I was a young flute player
The flowers would open to my song
The girls would moisten and the boys grow stiff
the air accepted my trills and kissed them
When I was a young flute player.
When I was a young flute player
Jazz asked me for advice
the audience stood slack when I blew
and remembered things they never knew
When I was a young flute player.
When I was a young flute player
even the saxophones trembled in fear
and I soared above whole sections of brass
I could make it rain or cause the sky to clear
When I was a young flute player.
When I was a young flute player
I only made one mistake, I learned the blues
now I spit coffee in my embouchure and listen
for the clues of melodies that sparkled
When I was a young flute player.
