(For The) Children Of The Eighties

Lyrics: Joan Baez
Music: Joan Baez

Sung by Joan Baez with the Grateful Dead on 12 December 1981.

Chorus
We're the children of the eighties, haven't we grown
We're tender as a lotus and we're tougher than a stone
And the age of our innocence is somewhere in the garden

We like the music of the sixties
We think that era must have been nifty
It's the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and the Doors
Flower children, Woodstock and the war
And dirty scandals, cover-ups and more
Ah but it's getting harder to deceive us
And we don't care if Dylan's gone to Jesus
Jimi Hendrix is playing on
We know Janis Joplin was The Rose
And we also know that that's the way it goes
With all the stuff that she put in her arm
Don't be alarmed

[Chorus]

Some of us are the sisters and the brothers
Who prefer the night-time for our cover
A leather jacket and a single golden earring
Hang out at discos, rock shows, lose our hearing
Put tatoos all up and down our thighs
Do anything our parents would despise
Take uppers, downers, blues and reds and yellows
Our brains are turning to Jello
We think that life was over-rated
And loneliness was under-estimated
We are looking forward to the days
When we live inside of a purple haze
And the salvation of the soul
Is rock 'n' roll

[chorus]

Some of us may offer a surprise
Recently have you looked in our eyes?
And maybe we're your conscience in disguise
We're well informed and we are wise
Please stop telling us lies
We know Afghanistan's invaded
And we know Bolivia's dictated
And we know America's inflated
Ah but our lives are just begun
We are the warriors of the sun
The golden boys and the golden girls
For a better world

[chorus]