I've been busking about since young and fair
The atmosphere from onlookers, like skating on thin air
So unconventional, prior to the old smacking ways
That's how I'd spend my entire waking days
Melodic riffs, dancing over bass lines
Harmonising daily, to some lonesome feeling ballads
Playing finger-style guitar, without any speeding hump hazards
Along the boardwalks of Venice Beach
In unlikely places, that you'd ever encounter or reach
A folksy blues musician, you can't wait to hear
Independent, from a money-making machine, that's so clear
A young black musician, singing 'bout life's rights and wrongs
With an aching intimacy, strings are strummed, to original songs
The overall effect is something like a blend
Of other musicians, with a depth and subtlety
More suited to the stage, than a street with a dead end
While the busking experience is fundamentally a freedom, luckily
Still taking a fading, battery-powered amp, with heaps of torque
Along with a flattop, down to the busy LA boardwalk
I think the best thing you learn from being downtown
Is how to be really optimistic, while still being on your own
Busking was like practicing with a metronome
It started pulling on a few chords, like not ever knowing a safe home
Then, thoughts of ones life coming to an end, my tick-tock time
Then, I go back to playing a song, people tossing me, a silver dime
I imagine, how it would sound, playing along with four in a band
I've never really been dealt, a very good poker hand
Trying to re-create myself, like an over paid, auto tuned, music star
Well, as much as I could, with just a worn out, acoustic guitar
They say, I picked up the guitar at seven
At first trying to play lap style, just keepin' it even
Because, I couldn't reach across my scar torn body
Early childhood lessons, gave me a foundation in blues
After that, I wasn't taught nothin' by nobody
I just kept playing like that, what did I have to lose
I could learn by ear, until I heard the rings at the checkout
It would take a while, but I'd figure it out, what they were all talking
about.
