What Are You Lookin’ at Boy?

Gerald Brennan—composer, lyricist, singer, pianist

Guy wants to celebrate his divorce at the bar but this kid is giving him the fisheye. Bothers the hell out of him. Wants to smack the little bastard. But the more he drinks and the more he thinks he realizes that he’s not happy at all about his divorce. She stepped out on him, but he set the pace years ago. At the end, he’s not mad at the kid, he’s embarrassed. As if the kid sees through him.

I’m buyin’ this whole bar a drink.
I feel too good to sleep a wink.
My divorce came through today.
Now there’s nothin’ in my way.

No more dirty lies. No more naggin’ at me.
A blessing in disguise! It feels so good to be free.
I know she feels it too, fine’ly on her own.
She can have her pick! She’ll never be alone.

She thought she was Helen of Troy.
What are you lookin’ at, boy?

Now why are you starin’ at me?
Cause I’ll tell you just what I see.
I see a kid who doesn’t know
how low a woman can go.

So simple at the start, a man and woman in love,
a marriage of the heart, blessed by angels above.
It’s never like it seems, the devil’s tool is lust,
all our hopes and dreams, and twenty years of trust

took just a minute to destroy.
So, what are you lookin’ at, boy?

O I keep seein’ her face,
all over the place,
especially with my eyes closed.
There’s no peace when I sleep,
sleep and dream…

I suppose it might be true,
she’d have a different point-of-view.
I may have had my flings,
or the infrequent rendezvous.

How could I resist? Just a man after all.
How can I be blamed? It’s me who’s taken the fall.
Temptation everywhere, pretty and perfumed.
I never meant to hurt, I never tried to wound.

She drove a nail through my heart.
Ripped my soul apart.
I wish I hadn’t done what I did.
<Ah… what are you lookin’ at, kid?>