Funny the songs that get into your head, and none funnier than this one, in terms of that quirky peculiarity that typifies the work of Sydney Carter. A search online reveals a slightly different set of words to be sung to the tune of Grandfather's Clock, but these here are transcribed this from Sydney Carter's singing on And Now it is So Early and sung to a far more interesting tune with hand-drum accompaniment. I'll be assimilating it presently for a future YouTube presentation, meanwhile here's the lyrics.

RUN THE FILM BACKWARDS - Sydney Carter

When I was 87 they took me from my coffin;
They found a flannel night-shirt for me to travel off in.
Innocent and toothless, I used to lie in bed;
Still trailing clouds of glory from the time when I was dead.

The cruel age of 65 put paid to my enjoyment;
I had to get a bowler hat and go to my employment.
But at the age of 60, I found I had a wife,
And that explains the children I'd wondered all my life.

I kept on growing younger, and randier and stronger
'Til at the age of 21 I had a wife no longer.
With mini-skirted milk-maids I frolicked in the clover;
The cuckoo kept on calling me until my teens were over.

Then algebra and cricket, and sausages a-cooking,
And puffing on a cigarette when teacher wasn't looking.
The trees are getting taller, the streets are getting wider;
And mother is a world to me - and soon I'll be inside her.

And now it is so early, there's nothing I can see,
Before the world or after - wherever can I be?