From the recording My Mustache
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">I started growing a mustache -- and beard and long hair -- almost immediately upon my arrival as a freshman at Wesleyan University in the fall of 1970. It was my (mild-mannered) declaration of independence from home and high school. I think I have shaved my upper lip just three times in the past forty-something years, and each of those times the mustache reappeared quickly, usually at the insistence of my wife.</span></span></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;"><em><br />© 2003 Steven E. Cutts</em></span></span></strong></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">a Studio C recording, <strong>October 2006</strong></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;"> </span></span></p>
Lyrics
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">When I was seventeen, I dreamed of growing hair </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">Upon my upper lip; I’d get a mustache going there.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">The other guys would envy me with jealousy, and I’d get all the girls!</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;"> </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">Finally on my own, no rule to tell me “No,” </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">I put my razor down – I just let it grow:</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">My emblem of virility’s ability, like Sampson and his curls.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;"> </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">“What a great mustache!” I was hoping folks would say;</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">My girlfriend called it “fuzzy” and “absurd.”</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">But that first mustache lived to see another day;</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">I ditched the girl and vowed to grow an even better great mustache!</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;"> </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">I did not disappear; it kind of grew on me. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">Not just that boyhood dream – not just some novelty.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">A fashion statement in it hairy self and a herald of the times.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;"> </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">For a while I waxed the ends – handle bars all sticking out. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">Sometimes a Fu Manchu – little hairs all turning south.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">Then other times a goatee would emerge as a mustache redefined.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;"> </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">My great mustache -- it kept hanging round, </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">growing fuller bit by bit.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">My great mustache -- instead of going underground,</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">It persevered and gradually matured into a great mustache.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;"> </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">The few times that I’ve dated to go without my masquerade,</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">I’ve shaved it off and checked it out and always been dismayed.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;"> </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">I admit the color’s changed as time has rolled along. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">For a while I tried to say that it was going blonde,</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">But there are truths so obvious and transparent hair color can’t disguise!</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;"> </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">Oh, my gray mustache -- it has been a life-long friend, my silver fur accessory.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">I think my gray mustache will probably be here ‘til the end;</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;">Not exactly womb to tomb, but still it’s been a great mustache.</span></span></p>