I was not very pretty that year.
But I was out of debt
So on that nameless Saturday between when Jesus died and when he was risen
I bought my guitar.
I was not very busy that year.
I took myself to parks
And as I learned They Might Be Giants songs I thought how sad it was that no one could sing them with me
And now here we are.

And I practiced till my fingers cracked
And by the time they healed
I had a name and an ambition
And the whole thing was realer than real
It was the person I wished I were
And it was the person I wanted to be
And it was a way for me to prove
That I was worth having someone listen to me
And now you do
And I’m not Blue anymore.

And now when people sing along with me
They sing about how
Every dream we have, if we all work hard, can become our reality
If we put on the role
The song they sing along with me
Is all about the game
And how we all can learn the rules and put on different clothes and become who we think we ought to be
As we work towards our goal

And we cover over all the cracks
And we do our best to play
We make a name for our ambition
And we practice and practice and practice every day
I became the person I wished I were
And it was the person I thought I should be
And it was a way for me to prove
That I was worth having someone listen to me
And now you do
And I’m not Blue anymore.

It came faster than I could have ever imagined
And also not fast enough.
I booked shows, I played ships, I stood outside singing The Legend of Zelda to people who don’t fight nerds
Every day for a hundred weeks.
And yet it wasn’t enough
It wasn’t enough
It wasn’t enough
I always played secondstage.
Even in this case.

I know I seem a bit ambivalent
That half-diminished chord
Is like a super-secret music joke that I have to explain and now isn’t funny
But please understand.
For two years I’ve been building this
And I know who I am
And also know that what I’m doing right now is remarkably making money
According to plan.

And since this plan’s begun to crack
I don’t know what I should do
To drop the name but keep the ambition
Right at the moment when everything’s coming true?
It was the person I wished I were
And it was the person I thought I should be
And I’m not at all sure I’m enough
To write a song and have someone listen to me
But now you do
And I’m not Blue anymore