My father is a doctor, he's a familiary man,
My mother works for charity whenever she can,
They're both good clean Americans who abide by the law,
They both stick up for liberty, they both support the law,
My happiness was paid for when they laid their money down,
For Summers in a Summer camp, and Winters in the town,
My future in the system was talked about and planned,
But I gave it up for music and the free electric band...

I went to school in hand-washed shirts with neatly oiled hair,
The school was big and newly built and filled with light and air,
And the teache taught his values that we had to learn to keep,
And he clipped the ear of many idle kid who went to sleep,
My father organized for me a college in the East,
But I went to California, the sun-shine and the beach,
My parents and my lecturers could never understand,
Why I gave it up for music and the free electric band...

Well, they used to sit and speculate upon their son's career,
A lawyer or a doctor or a civil engingeer,
Just give me bread and water, put a guitar in my hand,
'cause all I need is music and the free electric band...

My father sent me money and I spent it very fast,
On a girl I met in Berkeley in a social science class,
Yes, and we learned about her body, but her mind we didn't know,
Until the brutal attitudes and morals began to show,
She wanted to get married, even thopugh she never said,
But I knew her well enough by now to see inside her head,
She'd settle for suburbia and a little patch of land,
So I gave her up for music and the free electric band.