Those were rose-colored times on rides with your eyes closed.
Those were rose-colored times on rides with your eyes open wide.
Shabby tried to comb her hair with the gift from her grandma.
Her blood tangled she got halfway.
Sticky and powdered with dirt
From the ground where her mama had left her,
Had left her, had left her.
Those were rose-colored times on rides with your eyes closed.
Those were rose-colored times on rides with your eyes open wide,
With your eyes open wide.
Rusty the screen door, she opened it.
Raised from the ground.
Mama left me her ring.
Mama left me no family,
Just bar stools and boyfriends and whiskey and nighttime
And bedtime, bedtime, bedtime.
I’ll go with the man who looks like my father.
The neighbors all tell me to go with him.
He’d better take caution, he’d better take care of me.
‘Cause if he don’t he’d better beware of me.
Those were rose-colored times on rides with your eyes closed.
Those were rose-colored times on rides with your eyes open wide,
Wide, wide, wide.
"It was inspired by the story in "Paper Moon," a movie directed by Peter Bogdanovich. In the movie, a young girl's mother dies and she's trying to figure out who her father is. The song is told from the girl's point of view. Coincidentally, it was made in a summer home of the lead actress Tatum O'Neal."
from another lisa quote:
"It's haunting. 'Rose-Colored Times' was inspired by the movie Paper Moon. It's about a woman remembering her childhood. The choruses get progressively harder and louder. The imagery of being on an amusement park ride as a child means several things: it's exhilarating and fun, but it's also frightening and disorienting. Ironically, some of the electric guitars were recorded at Tatum O'Neal's beach house."