Joan Baez You're Aging Well Lyrics

Why is it that as we grow older and stronger
The road signs point us adrift and make us afraid
Sayin', "You never can win
Watch your back, where's your husband?"
I don't like the signs that the signmakers made
So I'm gonna steal out with my paint and my brushes
I'll change the directions, I'll hit every street
It's the Tinseltown scandal, the Robin Hood vandal
She goes out and steals the King's English
And in the morning you wake up and the signs point to you

They say, "I'm so glad that you finally made it here
You thought nobody cared but I did, I could tell
And this is your year and it always starts here
And oh oh oh, you're aging well"

Now I know a woman with a collection of sticks
She could fight back the hundreds of voices she heard
She could poke at the greed, she could fend off her need
And in anger she found she could pound every word
But one voice got through and caught her up by surprise
It said, "Don't hold us back, we're the story you tell"
No sooner than spoken the spell had been broken And the voices before her were trumpets and tympani
Violins, basses and woodwinds and cellos

Singing, "We're so glad that you finally made it here
You thought nobody cared, but we did, we could tell
Now you'll dance through the days while the orchestra plays
And oh oh oh, you're aging well"

Now when I was fifteen, no I knew it was over
The road to enchantment was not mine to take
'Cause lower calf, upper arm should be half what they are
I was breaking the laws that the signmakers made
And all I could eat was the poisonous apple
And that's not a story I was meant to survive
An' I was all out of choices but the woman of voices
She turned 'round the corner with music around her
She gave me the language that keeps me alive

She said, "I'm so glad that you finally made it here
With the things you know now, that only time could tell
Looking back, seeing far, landing right where we are
And oh oh oh, you're aging, oh oh oh, and I am aging
Oh oh oh, aren't we aging well?"