Twenty years old on a steel gray deck
Persian Gulf sun and a cigarette
Salt in the wind and the engine’s hum
Just a young sailor tryin’ to outrun
Every dream that a small town made
Every mile that the ocean gave
Didn’t know then what the years would do
Just chasing horizons painted blue
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Pre-Chorus (lift the melody slightly)
Long nights standing watch alone
Listening to that ocean moan
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Chorus
But I wouldn’t trade a second of it
Not the storms or the sea
Every scar and every lesson
Made the man I came to be
From the Gulf to a Haitian sunrise
Through the fire and the fall
All the love and all the heartache
I wouldn’t change it all
No I wouldn’t trade a second of it
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Verse 2
Caribbean night with a .50 in hand
Standing guard where the admirals stand
Wrote a song on a steel deck chair
About a “vacation” that wasn’t there
Pulled a young girl from an angry tide
Cigarettes soaked but she stayed alive
Her daddy bought me a beer that night
Said son you did a hell of a thing alright
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Chorus
But I wouldn’t trade a second of it
Not the storms or the sea
Every scar and every lesson
Made the man I came to be
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Verse 3 (ports and women)
From Newport bars to a Thai moonrise
Saw the world through a young man’s eyes
Different languages, different names
But the same warm smile and harbor flames
Some were laughter, some were goodbye
Like ships that fade in the morning sky
But every heart that I held awhile
Left a memory walking every mile
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Bridge (music drops, voice heavy)
Yeah life knocked hard and I lost my way
When the home front cracked and the nights turned gray
But the tide keeps moving, the years roll on
And a sailor learns where he belongs
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Final Chorus (big guitars)
And I wouldn’t trade a second of it
Not the storms or the sea
Every scar and every lesson
Made the man that’s standing here to see
All the wild nights and hard lessons
Every rise and every fall
If I had to live it over
I wouldn’t change it all
No I wouldn’t trade a second of it
MEFI_RECORDS