one time out on the road
I stopped at a barber shop in a small town
I stumbled into it by chance,
it was hidden away on a back street, in the old section
time had sort of passed the place by
and the doors and windows hung off the building
like an old suit
the barber was a small man, he had glasses and thin grey hair
he had a kind face and a delicate manner about him

he told me he'd been there since 1957
half a century in the same place
treadin' water, cuttin' hair
seems hard to believe nowadays

we talked about the times back then
and about how music was when we were young
and about the music now,
and how it all sort of seems to come out of
computers these days
he said he'd never even used a computer.
he talked about all the changes that he’d seen over the years

he apologized for having to raise his prices
"that was a couple of years ago", he said
turns out that a couple of years ago
was back in 1986

now, some folks sit down and write a song
because they think they’ve got something to prove
and others, they try to right every wrong
‘cause to them, life’s one big mountain to move
y’know, you can choose just one thing to get along
you put your head down and you stay in the groove

he asked me how I wanted it, and I said,
oh, just shorten it all up a bit
"number one or number two?", he asked
I didn't understand what he meant at first
but that old shop suddenly brought back memories
from when I was a kid

and I looked over at the "Approved Haircuts" poster on the wall
It was faded and shopworn
probably hung there back when the place was new
it had drawings of mens' haircuts
and each was a shorter version of the one above it
it was as if more time, and more work made you smaller and smaller

I chose the number two and I figured, what the hell
the only difference between a good haircut and a bad one
is a couple of weeks

he didn't cut hair the way they do these days
he didn't gather it in his fingers
and take little snips with a comb and scissors
he used an electric blade, runnin' it up from the bottom
he asked if I wanted it tapered or blocked
and I didn’t know, so I said tapered

I was a little uneasy at first but then I figured,
the man's been doing this since I was a boy
I reckon he knows his job

seven bucks later and a three dollar tip
I left that old shop with the best haircut I'd had in a long time