This song deals with the emotions the narrator is feeling about the idea of growing older. He is stuck between adolescence – when he didn’t have to worry about adulthood stress or responsibilities – and middle age – when he will be past his prime.
By the end of the song, the narrator has spent so mu...
[Verse 1]
It's the sad-eyed goodbye
Yesterday moments I remember
It's the bleak street, weak-kneed
Partings I recall
[Pre-Chorus]
It's the mistier mist, the hazier days
The brighter sun and the easier lays
[Chorus]
There's all the more reason
For laughing and crying
When you're younger
And life isn't too hard at all
[Verse 2]
It's the fantastic drowse of the afternoon Sundays
That bored you to rages of tears
The unending pleadings to waste all your good times
In thoughts of your middle-aged years
[Pre-Chorus]
It's a vertical hold, all the things that you're told
For the everyday hero, it all turns to zero
[Chorus]
And there's all the more reason
For living or dying
When you're young
And your troubles are all very small
[Bridge]
Out here on the street, we'd gather and meet
And scuff up the sidewalk with endlessly restless feet
And half of the time we'd broaden our minds more
In the pool hall than we did in the school hall
With the downtown chewing-gum bums
Watching the nightlife, the lights and the fun
[Verse 3]
Never wanted to be the boy next door
Always thought I'd be something more
But it ain’t easy for a smalltown boy
It ain’t easy at all
[Outro]
Thinkin' it right, doin' it wrong
It's easier from an armchair
Waves of alternatives wash at my sleepiness
Have my eggs poached for breakfast, I guess
I think I'll be Clint Eastwood
Oh no, Jimi Hendrix, he was good
Let's try William the Conqueror
Now who else do I like?
Brian May
Drowse was written by Roger Taylor.
Drowse was produced by Queen.
In an interview with Saturday Scene from 1976, Roger stated about the track:
I seem to have a bit of a rock n' roll tag, but I have my quiet moments as well. This is one of them, a slightly more relaxed thing than usual. It’s rather American, it turned out, but you’d never know until you finished.