Lyrics

The sun is shining on his plastic chair
A rolled up Cuban on his lip
Worn out eyes look through the salty air
Out to another cargo ship
And to the south, the pastel condos rise
As if to form a solid wall
My gosh it seems like just a month or two ago
That there was nothing there at all.

He hears another wave a-crashing
And the irony is plain
Up and down the coast it’s changing
Changing but still
That old ocean looks the same

Made his money selling big machines
First came down here in sixty-two
Every year the same old gang would reconvene
He smiles to think of all the stuff they’d do
But nowadays there’s only Stuart left
And Stuart’s moving kind of slow
He might stop over with a six pack for a gift
And reminisce on the patio

Just then another wave goes crashing
And the irony is plain
Up and down the coast it’s changing
Changing but still
That old ocean looks the same

He remembers how
This was a paradise
Back when Alicia was alive
The people with him now
They treat him very nice
They do his laundry
And take him out for drives

And in the car he tends to contemplate
Florida before there were these walls
Seems like now it's every mile, another guarded gate
With lighted palms and waterfalls
And there is grumbling in the supermart
Heads are shaking side to side
Everybody wants to keep things just the way they were
On the day they arrived

He hears another wave a-crashing
And the irony is plain
Up and down the coast it’s changing
Changing but still
That old ocean …

Up and down the coast it’s changing
Changing but still
That old ocean looks the same.