those were the days of elaine that was the phrase that she used to describe to her son of the fun she had had long before he went away long before days of the dole and the draze and the lull but the call never came to say oh oh oh loitering lavender park laying about in the day and the dark of a room while the noon passes by always on verge of collapse mother would quit and then suffer a lapse from the drink you would think she was dead what to say oh oh oh she say oh oh oh oh and the time that it takes will it go so slow she laid on the brakes and she dulled the glow now doesn t it go so slow when you build it up to tear it down you re tearing it down you tear it down those were the days those were the days of elaine the days of elaine the days of elaine a lover like alain delon she followed him blind from saloon to salon from the hills to the pills he would take father had died in the mines brother had shown no remorse for his crimes when they strung him up he got all hung up on the scaffolding but he say oh oh oh he say oh oh oh oh and the time that it takes well it goes so slow she laid on the brakes and she dulled the glow now doesn t it go so slow when you build it up just to tear it down you re tearing it down you tear it down those were the days those were the days of elaine the days of elaine the days of elaine