The River

9/30/85 "Live 75-85" L.A. Coliseum, CA

How are you doing out there tonight? That's good, that's good.

This is a... When I was growing up, me and my daddy used to go at it all the time over
almost anything. But I used to have really long hair, way down past my shoulders. I
was 17 or 18, oh man, he used to hate it. And we got to fighting so much that I spent a
lot of time out of the house; and in the summertime it wasn't so bad, as it was warm,
and friends were out, but in the winter, I remember standing downtown where I'd get
so cold and, when the wind'd blow, I had this phone booth I used to stand in. I used to
call my girl for hours at a time, just talking to her all night long. And finally I'd get
my nerve up to go home. I'd stand there in the driveaway and he'd be waiting for me
in the kitchen and I'd tuck my hair down on my collar and I walked in and he'd call me
back to sit with him. And the first thing he would ask me was what did I think I was
doing with myself. And the worst part of it was that I could never explain to him.

I remember I got in a motorcycle accident once and I was laid up in bed and he had the
barber come in and cut my hair and man, I can remember telling him that I hated him
and that I would never ever forget. And he used to tell me: "Man, I can't wait till the
army gets you. When the army gets you they're gonna make a man out of you. They're
gonna cut your hair off and they'll make a man out of you."

And this was I guess '68 and there was a lot of guys from the neighborhood going to
Vietnam. I remember the drummer in my first band coming over my house with his
marine uniform on, saying that he was going and he didn't know where it was. And a
lot of guys went, and a lot of guys didn't come back. And the lot that came back
weren't the same anymore. I remember the day I got my draft notice. I hid it from my
folks and three days before my physical me and my friends went out and stayed up all
night and when we got on the bus to go that morning and man we were all so scared...
And I went, and I failed. I came home [audience cheers], it's nothing to applaud about...
I came home and I remember coming home after I'd been gone for three days and
walking in the kitchen and my mother and father were sitting there and my daddy said:
"Where you been?" and I said "I went to take my physical." He said "What happened?"
I said "They didn't take me." And he said: "That's good."