Eighty Trips Around the Sun

Strike up the band, the hall is full Eighty trips and counting There's a photo table by the door — your whole life in frames The wedding suit, the shop you ran, the holidays that grew And every black-and-white and every faded square of color Every face in there is in this room tonight You never asked for much You just kept the door wide open Eighty trips around the sun — and look who came along The kids, the grandkids, the whole dang block in song You picked us up like passengers on one long happy ride Eighty trips around the sun And the band plays on, and the hall is full, and the doors are open wide You still beat the young ones at the card table on Sundays Still whistle that same tune nobody can name The hands that built and held and worked are clapping on the downbeat And eighty looks like music on you You never asked for much You just kept the door wide open Eighty trips around the sun — and look who came along The kids, the grandkids, the whole dang block in song You picked us up like passengers on one long happy ride Eighty trips around the sun And the band plays on, and the hall is full, and the doors are open wide The little ones are dancing on the same floor you did Eighty years of orbit, and you're still the warmest light One more lap! One more lap! Eighty trips around the sun — and look who came along The kids, the grandkids, the whole dang block in song You picked us up like passengers on one long happy ride Eighty trips around the sun And the band plays on, and the hall is full, and the doors are open wide Hats in the air for eighty years Now somebody cut that cake