Ben's My Friend

I woke up this morning, August, 3rd It's been a pretty slow and uneventful summer Went to visit a friend in Santa Fe Went to New Orleans and went to see my family Woke up this morning and it occurred I needed one more track to finish up the record I was feeling out of fuel and uninspired Laid in my bed too long, a little down, a little tired I met my girl and we walked down Union Street I was scared and my head was in a bunch of places Bought a 350 dollar pair of lampshades And we ate at Perry's and we ordered crab cakes Blue crab cakes Blue crab cakes Blue crab cakes She said I seemed distracted and asked what's going on with me I said I can't explain it, it's a middle age thing She said okay and ate her eggs Benedict And I looked at the walls cluttered with sports bar shit Sports bar shit Sports bar shit Sports bar shit Got on the phone and I called my mother And called my father, talked a little bit with my sister She's got a new boyfriend, he's a deer hunter And she's getting used to venison And my dad's still fighting with his girlfriend About his flirting with the girls in Panera Bread My momma's good but she sounded out of breath I worry so much about her, I worry to death I worry to death I worry about her to death I worry to death The other night I went and saw The Postal Service Ben's my friend but getting there was the worst Tryna park and getting up the hill And find a spot amongst the drunk kids staring at their cells Staring at the back at the crowd of eight thousand Thought of Ben when I met him, in 2000 At a festival in Spain, he was on a small stage then And I didn't know his name Now he's singing at the Greek and he's busting moves And my legs were hurt and then my feet were, too I called him after, said, "I'll skip the backstage "Hi/Bye" But thanks for the nice music and all the exercise" And we laughed and it was alright And we laughed and it was alright It was alright There's a thin line between a middle-aged guy with a backstage pass And a guy with a gut hangin' around like a jackass Everybody was 20 years younger than me At least I leave with this as my fondest memory I carried my legs back down the hill Gave my backstage pass to two cute Asian girls I drove to my place near Tahoe Got in my hot tub and I thought, "Well, that's how it goes" It was quiet and I was listening to the crickets And Ben's still out there, selling lots of tickets And though I'm tentative there's attention better than this But Ben's my friend and I know he gets it Then in a couple of days my meltdown passed Back to the studio doing twelve-hour shifts Singing a song about one thing or another Another day behind the microphone this summer This tenderloin summer This tenderloin summer This tenderloin summer