My father is a doctor he's a familiar man

My mother works for charity whenever she can

They're both good clean Americans who abide by the law

They both stick up for liberty they both support the law

My happiness was paid for when they laid their money down

For summers in a summer camp and winters in the town

My future in the system was talked about and planned

But I gave it up for music and the free electric band

I went to school in hand washed shirts with neatly oiled hair

The school was big and newly built and filled with light and air

And the teacher taught his values that we had to learn to keep

And he clipped the ear of many idle kid who went to sleep

My father organized for me a college in the east

But I went to California the sun shine and the beach

My parents and my lecturers could never understand

Why I gave it up for music and the free electric band

Well they used to sit and speculate upon their son's career

A lawyer or a doctor or a civil engineer

Just give me bread and water put a guitar in my hand

'Cause all I need is music and the free electric band

My father sent me money and I spent it very fast

On a girl I met in Berkeley in a social science class

Yes and we learned about her body but her mind we didn't know

Until deep rooted attitudes and morals began to show

She wanted to get married even though she never said

But I knew her well enough by now to see inside her head

She'd settle for suburbia and a little patch of land

So I gave her up for music and the free electric band

The free electric band

The free electric band

The free electric band

The free electric band

The free electric band

The free electric band