My father is a doctor, he's a family man
My mother works for charity whenever she can
They're both good clean Americans who abide by the law
And they both stick up for liberty and they both support the war
My happiness was paid for when they laid their money down
For summers in a summer camp and winters in the tow

My future in the system was talked about and planned
But I gave it up for music and the free electric band

I went to school in hand-washed shirts with neatly ordered hair
And the school was big and newly built and filled with light and air
And the teacher taught us values that we had to learn to keep
And he clipped the ear of many idle kid who went to sleep
Then my father organized for me a college in the east
But I went to California, the sunshine and the beach

My parents and my lecturers could never understand
Why I gave it up for music and the free electric band

Well, they used to sit and speculate upon their son's career
A lawyer or a doctor or a civil engineer

Just give me bread and water, put a guitar in my hand
'Cause all I need is music and the free electric band

My father sent me money, and I spent it very fast
On a girl I met in Berkeley in a social science class
Yes, and we learnt about her body, but her mind we didn't know
Until deep rooted attitudes and morals began to show
She wanted to get married even though she never said
But I knew her well enough by now to see inside her head

She'd settle for suburbia and a little patch of land
So I gave her up for music and the free electric band