I heard this from the writer, Jim Ritchey, probably in the '80s. Roy A. learned it from me. I was just trying to pull up the lyrics. The entries above have helped. Obviously my synthesis below is not spot-on. There is a thing I will discourse on----never did quite get the words nailed because (where I have duplicate references to the living room, which is probably not correct) there was a similarity in those two lines in the original. In such cases I sometimes have trouble memorizing the entire song! I end up making up parts of it every time I sing it. I had a friend in the good old days Before he got crazy and moved away We'd sit in the living room drinkin' warm beer Listenin' to the reggae and ruinin' our ears We'd sit in the living room down on the floor Once his young pretty wife was not around any more Eatin' shrimp and potatoes and drinkin' warm wine Listenin' to the disco and ruinin' our minds My friend got religion and moved to the east In a shack without plumbing and a house with no heat But he's got a generator and a gallon of gas And for an hour a day he lets the stereo blast
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