Crosby, Stills, Nash (and Young) – How Have You Been

How Have You Been

by John Sebastian

Performed by Crosby, Stills, & Nash

on “Nintendo: White Knuckle Scorin’ ”

1991

How have you been, my darling children

While I have been away in the west

Though you are strangers I feel like I know you

By the way that you treat me and offer to feed me

And eagerly ask if I´ll stay for a rest

Now sit yourselves down in a pile here before me

I wish I had presents for each of your smiles

But I have been travelling without much to carry

Just a broken guitar case with paint on the sides

A bag and a few signs to help me get rides

But here are some beads from the throat of a Princess

Who lived in the years around 200 BC

Divide them and wear them, but make sure to share them

‘Cause I want you to have them in hopes that you’ll be

As lovely as the lady who gave them to me…

And here is a strange European guitar string

I found on the floor of a club in Marseilles

It´s fat for the third string and skinny for the fourth string

But I kept it in hopes that I´d use it some day

It´s funny how people just keep things that way

And here is a turtle from the Long Island Expressway

He says that his home has been covered with tar

So I gave him a ride on the back of my suitcase

And he says that he´d like to stay here in your yard

At long last his life won´t be quite so hard

And how have you been, my darling children

While I have been away in the west

Though you are strangers I feel like I know you

By the way that you treat me and offer to feed me

And eagerly ask if I´ll stay for a rest

And how have you been, my darling children