“One of the Good Guys (live)”

Right here, you see
One of the good guys
One of the nice ones with sensible drives
What else could I be?
I’m one of the good guys
Who play with their children
And dote on and pamper their wives

But there was a night in Hawaii on a business trip
That my mind has suffused with a mystic glow
She was someone’s friend, and she had this smile
We were on the beach, and we walked a while
And I watched the wind billow in her hair
I knew we knew there was more to share
I could feel the ground start to go
Like volcanoes starting to blow
And the waves were loud
We were all alone
We had left the crowd
Not a soul would ever have known

But I stopped and said no

’Cause that isn’t me
I’m one of the good guys
One of the smart ones
Whose virtue survives
Firm as a tree
One of the good guys
Who trades a flash of heat
To build a warmer fire
Denies himself a treat
To shoot for something higher
And that’s what makes it sweet
That only the good guys know

That’s not the end
As you suspected
Time flipped some pages
I’m now forty-four
There’s money to spend
The kids are in college
My wife’s back in art school
We just bought a house at the shore

But sometimes at night in the stillness, I am wide awake
As the wife I still desire sleeps by my side
I can feel the wash of the perfumed air
My mind is drowning in billowing hair
And although I know that my life is blessed
I am teased by the thought that it’s second best
And the visions seen in my head
Of the lives that I could have led
They are all still there
I can change my fate
There’s no time to lose
I must find them before it’s too late

But I wake and say no

No
Hell, why defend?
All of us good guys
Strangling in plenty
Yet whining for more
Truth is, my friend
Just between good guys
It’s not which road you take
Which life you choose to live in
It’s not the choice you make
The longing is a given
And that’s what brings the ache
That only the good guys know