It was the fashion then to spread your wings
I spread my wings but it didn’t help
and I needed help with so many things
but I knew everything and everyone

and without pain there is no change
and without change there is no sacrifice
I tried to help, I tried to re-arrange
the sacraments of virtue and vice

it didn’t help
it didn’t help
it didn’t help
it didn’t help
it didn’t help
it didn’t help
it didn’t help
but I knew everything and everyone


And I will become a great artist
and you will become a great artist
and we will see each other occasionally
in Paris, London and Berlin

and we would have learned nothing
or perhaps you would have learned something
and we’d say: how are you doing, how have you been


It was the fashion then to spread your wings
I spread my wings but it didn’t help
and I needed help with so many things
but I knew everything and everyone

and without pain there is no change
and without change there is no sacrifice
I tried to help, I tried to re-arrange
the sacraments of virtue and vice

it didn’t help
it didn’t help
it didn’t help
it didn’t help
it didn’t help
it didn’t help
it didn’t help
but I knew everything and everyone


And I would read about you in some glossy magazine
and you would read about me and the places that I’ve seen
and of course it’s not happiness, it’s not eternal love
but at least it’s not some edict from above


It was the fashion then to spread your wings
I spread my wings but it didn’t help
and I needed help with so many things
but I knew everything and everyone

and without pain there is no change
and without change there is no sacrifice
I tried to help, I tried to re-arrange
the sacraments of virtue and vice

it didn’t help
it didn’t help
it didn’t help
it didn’t help
it didn’t help
it didn’t help
it didn’t help
but I knew everything and everyone