We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Imaginary Wars

from Hope & Other Casualties by Mark Erelli

/

lyrics

Behind the house where I lived
Back when I was a kid
I played G.I. Joe beneath the tall pine trees
I'd fight imaginary wars
Til my mom called from our back porch
I'd come home covered in that pine pitch from my head down to my knees

Too big to wrap my arms around
Surely older than I could count
Must have been there since the Mayflower crossed the sea
They'd seen blizzards, hurricanes
Summer droughts and freezing rain
Those pines would live forever
Least that's how it seemed to me

Now what's become of the old pine woods
It's all gone and there's a brand new neighborhood
All for a buck they cut down all those trees
They subdivided all of my fondest memories

When those trucks came for my woods
I did everything I could
And I waged my war when school let out that June
I ripped down flags and pulled up stakes
But what difference can one boy make
Them pines still fell like thunder on a summer afternoon

(Chorus)

I never became friends
With the families that moved in
They were different from us or so it seemed
I grew up and moved away
I just go home on holidays
But those tall and tangled pines they're still falling in my dreams

We all the want the greenest lawn
A country club where we belong
And an SUV to get us there in style
But we don't keep track of what's been lost
We can't calculate the cost
When there's no place left for a boy's imagination
to run wild

So what's become of the old pine woods
It's all gone and it's gone for good
All for a buck they cut down all those trees
They subdivided all of my fondest memories

credits

from Hope & Other Casualties, released March 7, 2006
written by Mark Erelli (Hillbilly Pilgrim Music/ASCAP)

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Mark Erelli Boston, Massachusetts

"You know those artists who release a great first record and then have enormous trouble following it up with anything as interesting? Yeah, that’s not Mark Erelli." -Red Line Roots

contact / help

Contact Mark Erelli

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Mark Erelli, you may also like: