"Scene By Scene" lyrics

On the river by the trestle, where the kids all came to play
You watched the end of innocence slipping away
And laid down in the dying grass and did what people do
But it meant a little less than you expected it to

On a bed of summer kisses, you watched reruns on TV
Carrie and her friends all having sex in NYC
You were losing your religion, a reflection of the screen
A college education, scene by scene

And upstairs in the living room was music playing low
Sometimes called "For Emma, Forever Ago"
And it sounded so familiar, though you didn't know the tune
I feel like it was written just for you

Now your father's at the table and he's telling you to leave
And it won't be too much longer 'cause you both have the disease
There's something in the water, there's poison in the well
There are secrets and the emptiness that time will only tell

And you thought it would be different but it's pretty much the same
Call it what you want, a rose by any other name
Is just a color with no context, a crime without a clue
A chem trail disappearing out into the blue

Now the days all run together like ink out of a pen
And it's harder to remember how it felt back then
When everything was everything and nothing was enough
You didn't know it was a game so you never tried to bluff

When someone said, "I love you," you took it to the face
Damned the consequences with an idiot faith
And praying that the means would justify the ends
And we would be as we'd always been

But nothing was the same again