Paul Smith Music  Lyrics and Chords
   
          The Good Life  by Paul Smith


   


About the song:
It's a crying shame what man is doing to the environment of our beautiful earth.  I'm an 
outdoors kind of guy.  I enjoy hunting, fishing, surfing and other outdoor activities.  I'm 
only slightly over fifty and yet I can see in my short lifetime how the environment is being
ruined.  What will it be in another 10 or 20 years I hate to think.  I grew up by the mouth 
of the Susquehanna River and can remember snorkeling on the Susquehanna flats.  The 
water was clear, fish were everywhere, and it was teaming with plant life.  So much so 
that the prop on your outboard would get full of grass to the point of stopping the motor 
every time you got out of a channel.  Water foul would sit and feed on the aquatic plants
the flats every winter.  Hundreds of thousands of geese and ducks.   

Today, there is little grass to speak of on those same flats and comparable few fish.  In 
fact, they say the entire Chesapeake Bay is in serious trouble.  What really saddens me 
is to think that despite our awareness of these problems, we continue on ruining the 
environment.  What's even sadder is that no one seems to think that they are to blame.  
This 'sad story' is why I wrote "The Good Life."

Just to set the record straight, I live in a small, modest, preexisting home which I bought 
and remodeled and  I don't drive a big truck.  I was only making a point in this song!


The Good Life
   by Paul Smith  2004
   6 string capo 2nd fret

Introduction;   G    G    G    D     G

                     G                                                  G
Well there’s a storm brewing or this valley, and the clouds they’ve been rolling in.
      G                                                  D
The river’s full of spring rain and my, my nerves are growing thin.
                   G                                         G
But there’s a story I want to tell yah, it’s a sad one but it’s true.
  G                                                           D                          G
I know that once that you’ve heard it, you’ll agree it’s a sad one too.

(Chorus)     C                                     G
        Cause Everybody wants the good life.
     C                                               G
        They want their cake and eat it too.
     C                                     G
        They want the things the good life brings
                       D                       G
        and don’t care about me or you.

Well I was born here in this valley, back in 19 and 52.
The grass was green the air was clean, and everyone yah saw yah knew.
Well Ma and Pa they were farmers, and so were our neighbors too.
Yes our way of life was free of strife, and that’s the only way that we knew.

(Chorus)
        But everybody wants the good life.
        They want their cake and eat it too.
        They want the things the good life brings
        and don’t care about me or you.

Well growing up in this valley, there were no problems that we knew.
We use to play and fish on the river, once I even drank the water too.
But it was clean and clear and beautiful, full of life and memories too.
We used to love the sound as it would weave around in the valley that we knew.

(Chorus)
        But everybody wants the good life.
        They want their cake and eat it too.
        They want the things the good life brings
        and don’t care about me or you.

Well that was years ago in the valley.  It’s much, much different now.
No peace, no calm, no tranquility, but lots of cars and homes and a factory.
But the river tells the whole story, and it’s a sad one but it’s true.
Now she’s void of life and though it’s just not right they say there’s nothing that we can do

(Chorus)
        Cause Everybody wants the good life.
        They want their cake and eat it too.
        They want the things the good life brings
        and don’t care about me or you.

But that’s not the end of the story. There’s more to it then meet the eye.
It may be hard to understand it, but you can do it if yah try.
You see I, I drive around in my big truck, I have a fancy home and I’m no foul.
But when it looks like that, you have to face the fact your no exception to the rule.

(Chorus)
       Cause everybody wants the good life
       They want their cake and eat it to.
       They want the things the good life brings,
       and then they go and do it to.

Coda (repeat first verse)

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