Today's the fourth of July
   another June has gone by
   and when they light up our town I just think
   what a waste of gunpowder and sky
   I'm certain that I am alone
   in harbouring thoughts of our home
   it's one of my faults that I can't quell my past
   I ought to have gotten it gone
  
   Oh, baby, I wonder -
   if when you are older -
   someday-
   you'll wake up
   and say, 'My God, I should have told her -
   what would it take?
   But now here I am and the world's gotten colder
   and she's got the river down which I sold her.'
  
   So that's today's memory lane
   with all the pathos and pain
   another chapter in a book where the chapters are endless
   and they're always the same
   a verse, then a verse, and refrain
  
   Oh, baby, I wonder -
   if when you are older -
   someday-
   you'll wake up
   and say, 'My God, I should have told her -
   what would it take?
   But now here I am and the world's gotten colder
   and she's got the river down which I sold her.'