Camera Lyrics

(David Crosby and Stephen Stills)
[Intro. (Acoustic Guitar)]

I rode my bike to town today
Wobbling down the path
I knew the kids would see me
I love it when they laugh
And I wish I were a camera
And I could slice time like a knife
Seeing stories in the faces
And crystallizing life

Wish I were a camera
I wish it all the time
It gives my eyes a reason
It gives my life a rhyme

I'd be a lens that could see souls
A shutter that never shuts
I'd have film that lasts forever
I would live in huts

In the jungles of South America
Like my father before the war
I'd find out where we came from
And what this life is for
And I wish I were a camera
I wish it all the time
It gives my eyes a reason
It gives my life a rhyme

[Instrumental (Percussion and Acoustic Guitar)]

I wish I were a camera
I wish it all the time
It gives my eyes a reason
It gives my life a rhyme

And I would climb right off this planet
On the clearest night of all
And photograph the future
When it finally comes to call
I would save up all these images
These instants in a box
And when I am old and lonely
They could cover up the clocks

And I wish I were a camera
I wish it all the time
It gives my eyes a reason
It gives my life a rhyme

I wish that I could shoot at night
And leave without a trace
And catch my lover's sleeping smile
By the starlight on her face

But I think mostly that l'd see children
'Cause they haven't learned to hide
And they watch me on my bicycle
And laugh with me as I ride

While I ride, while I ride
While I ride, while I ride ...