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Jackson Browne performs “The Long Way Around” on Austin City Limits.

From his album “Standing in the Breach” https://songwhip.com/jackson-browne/standing-in-the-breach

Jackson Browne’s Austin City Limits episode premiered November 13, 2021 on PBS. Watch live or stream later at pbs.org/austincitylimits

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LYRICS

I don’t know what to say about these days
I’m seeing people changing in the strangest ways
Even in the richer neighborhoods
People don’t know when they’ve got it good
They’ve got the envy and they’ve got it bad

When I was a kid everything I did was trying to be free
Running up and down Tinsel Town with the fire inside of me
My planets all in retrograde, the best of all my plans got laid
I made my breaks and some mistakes
Just not the ones people think I made

I’m a long way gone
Down this wild road I’m on
It’s going to take me where I’m bound
But it’s the long way around

It’s a little hard keeping track of what’s gone wrong
The covenant unravels and the news just rolls along
I could feel my memory letting go some two or three disasters ago
It’s hard to say which did more ill
Citizens United or the Gulf oil spill

I’m a long way gone
Down this wild road I’m on
It’s going to take me where I’m bound
But it’s the long way around

It’s never been that hard to buy a gun
Now they’ll sell a Glock 19 to just about anyone
The seeds of tragedy are there
In what we feel we have the right to bear
To watch our children come to harm
There in the safety of our arms
With all we disagree about
The passions burn, the heart goes out

And we’re a long way gone
Down this wild road we’re on
It’s going to take us where we’re bound
It’s just the long way around

Written by Jackson Browne
Swallow Turn Music, ASCAP

Administrated by Drive Music Publishing, ASCAP