Green leaves shiver on that tree
Seasons turn like traffic lights
Like some fine flashing thing just outside whisperin'
Hold on, boy, you're gonna need this memory

I've seen baby hands reach out
Grab my fingers like a vise, grab my glasses
Grab my keys, grab my heart by the strings
Hold on, boy, you're gonna need this memory

If all I got for all my trouble
Is just a box of souvenirs
Still it's worth a lot just to remember
Just to know that I was here

Lovers smile from photographs of endless summers by the sea
Still hear old friends joke and laugh
From the past they call to me
Saying, 'Hold on boy, you're gonna need this memory'

If all we got for all our trouble
Is just this box of souvenirs
Still it's worth a lot just to remember
Just so we know that we were here

Footprints walkin' in the sand
The tide will come and wash them clean
Sometimes when you squeeze my hand
I think I know just what you mean

Saying, 'Hold on boy, you're gonna need this memory'
Saying, 'Hold on boy, you're gonna need this memory'