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Back In The Day
Lyrics: John Popper
Music: Chan Kinchla

It's been a while since I've left home but I'm coming on back today
Kinda funny but I picture it only exactly as it was back in the day
Sure enough when the train pulls in there's so little that I recognize
Is it the scenery or my selective memory or just a simple fact that I gotta realize

My friends have gone and their lives have moved on and I guess that's just the way it is
If this town has grown beyond my home I guess it all comes down to this

I close my eyes and feel like it was back in the day
But those times have long been through
The dying of the light is gone but it's back in the day
Like a wish that comes half true

There was a time when it was easy to find a hangout that you knew was yours by name
And mine or not I could find the same spot but it's never gonna be the same
I've been away and I've seen too much, looks like I've been moving on as well
And when I started to not really belong I suppose I was unable to tell

But I ain't sad and no it isn't bad it's just one more thing that I'm coming to know
If you're alive you didn't finish the ride
No telling where it's gonna go

I close my eyes and feel like it was back in the day
But those times have long been through
The dying of the light is gone but it's back in the day
Like a wish that comes half true

It's been a while since I left home but I'm coming on back today
Kinda funny but I picture it only exactly as it was back in the day

I close my eyes and feel like it was back in the day
But those times have long been through
The dying of the light is gone but it's back in the day
Like a wish that comes half true

I close my eyes and feel like it was back in the day
But those times have long been through
The dying of the light is gone but it's back in the day
Like a wish that comes half true

© 2001 Blues Traveler Publishing Corporation

First release: Bridge
Released: 05/08/2001
Earliest time played: 03/02/2001
Last time played: 10/26/2012
Playing frequency:
  286 plays (see all shows)
  15.61% of shows in the database
  33.37% of shows since debut
  Detailed statistics
Other recordings of "Back In The Day":
  Back In The Day, 2001
  Back In The Day, 2001
  Circuit City Sampler, 2001
  WTTS FM 92.3 - Collector's Edition Volume 7, 2001
  Live: What You And I Have Been Through, 2002
  KBCO Studio C Volume 15, 2003
  25, 2012

the dying of the light
A repeated line in Dylan Thomas' famous villanelle, "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night". The first stanza of the poem, composed to encourage the poet's aging father to regain his health and fire, reads:
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Interestingly, the line also contains the word "rage", the title of another track from Bridge.
If you're alive you didn't finish the ride
An apparent allusion to John's near-fatal heart condition that led to his angioplasty in the summer of 1999, as well as the band's subsequent decision to continue as a band after the passing of Bobby Sheehan a month later. The band was still alive and had the rest of their "ride" to finish.
I could find the same spot but it's never gonna be the same
Very reminiscent of the third verse of "Canadian Rose" in discussing a return to a place frequented in one's childhood.