Uploaded June 2012 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago

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From the collection 25 Demos, recorded in the late sixties.
Margo Guryan began writing poetry as a small girl, and never stopped. One major influence was the novel Raintree County by Ross Lockridge. Guryan liked the way he ended one chapter with a sentence without a period that would continue on into the start of the next chapter. Guryan used this technique herself.
Lyrics:
I knew the man well
We used to be good friends a long time ago
He had a heart and a mind, he was one of a kind
The kind of a man
A man would be lucky to know

But then there came a change

As I recall it all
It all happened fast
It was as though he had seen the American dream
And thought that the dream would bring him fulfillment at last

He put on a suit
He put on a shirt
He put on a tie
He kissed his child
He kissed his wife

He kissed his life good-bye

The last I saw of him
He walked along the road, and he looked around
As though he wanted to see
One more blossoming tree
Before he'd be walking on cold city ground

He got to the station
He climbed aboard
The eight-seventeen northbound success merry-go-round