Had a good old girl back in '83 Boy she sure was good to me She really let me be myself, But I tried to keep her on a shelf Wouldn't let her do a thing, learned my lesson late that spring The hard way The hard way It's been a long time since I've seen your silly face full of broken dreams We all sure did come up and lean to the land of opportunity Too bad we believed the things they were telling you and me Had to learn it the hard way The hard way I never thought to see the light I'd have to roll through the darkness and lose my sight I never thought that to give a lickin' I'd have to hide my tail and turn up chicken I never thought to dream that I'd live ten thousand days and see it the hard way The hard way Well sometimes I think that overnight Things go wrong, never work out right I don't know what's right or wrong So you sure won't learn it in this song The only way is to follow your heart In this dog-eat-dog world I think that's smart But then who am I to say, I always learn things the hard way The hard way