Columbus day comes
The Ottomans fold
The planes in Berlin cease to fly
And we were all told that the price of our souls
Was more than we could ever buy

The trains come on time
The bills get paid
And enveloped and stamped and cashed
Columbus day comes and everyone's done
With everything in the past

Someone somewhere would have said by now
If something that we did was wrong
If it makes you feel sad that some things went bad
Then you don't have to sing along

But I was taught right
Yeah, you were taught right
Don't act as if you've learned a thing
Cause every damn time it just don't feel right
You crumple from the pain it brings

I put my pants on one leg at a time
My house is not a home, in fact
I'm owed what you'd call close to nothing at all
Compared to what I owe them back

My wife loves me,
I love her back,
Love is shared in family
But the money gets short, so all I afford
Is three quarters of what she loves me

We live in this place,
We broke our chains,
Our people took our freedom back
Some people were black, and we feel bad about that
But all that stuff is in the past

On an October wind
Three ships came in
For accidents we're truly blessed
God is good, yeah I'm good too
As good as any accident gets

I got things I want
And a goddamned right
A right that will forever last
Columbus day comes and everyone's done
With anything in the past

Felt so, so blue
Back in '92
When everything but me just died
And we were all told that the price of our souls
Was more than we could ever buy