[Verse 1: Ali Bla Bla]

Dear Father, now I'm a man

Twenty one with about twenty one plans

So plenty of grands

Back in the day I done many dumb scams

When I was a kid you said I wasn't shit

'Cause I went and hung around about twenty one mans

You wasn't a fan

Flopped in school 'cause I thought I was cool

By adding a Q to twenty one grams

But there's something you don't understand

You were raised in a different land

But I grew up in London Town

Where there's thugs and hounds and gunmen round

With goons that hustle with tools as muscle

And sirens are the abundant sound

I was mixing with drugs and clowns

Heard the devil calling but it some how drowned and

When I look back it was like a montage

With a backing track made by The Beatles

I was looking like a slave to the evil

Coulda been dead or in jail in the sequel

With a desperado mentality

That invest in hard doe reality

But that life of snakes and ladders

Would carry this wise guy straight to insanity

Imagine me, sittin' in my flat on my ones

Smoke on tap for my lungs

I wouldn't even chat to my Mum

Trapped and alone

All for the lust of the funds

With no trust for your Son

Thinking where has he gone?

And what has he done?

But I never meant to do wrong

So I gotta move on while I sing this song

[Chorus]

With times gone by in his hands

Listen to the old man

Listen to the old man, the old man

If you can't find no advice where you stand

Listen to the old man

Listen to the old man, the old man

[Verse 2: Ali Bla Bla]

And they say

Things aren't what they seem

You split from Mum when I was fourteen

Left the country like you had moved team

Never saw the times I wiped my tears clean

And as a teen, I hardly smiled

Never wondering why your Son had been wild

Expecting that you made a blunder with child

But you can't sweep lost years under the pile

And even though I still had a good home

With family affairs and no man ever there

I'd go on the roads and would roam

With the olders who talked in a hood tone, ha

Those years just flew right past me

Like life's just one big party

You tell me to act calmly

Thinkin' how can I listen when I can't see?

When I look back it was all the anger

With a feeling that wasn't mutual

Another bloodshot vein in the pupil

To people around me it took on a few tolls

And at what cost, thinking I'm a big boss?

As if Ali Bla Bla was Rick Ross

Tried floss for the girls with the lip gloss

But the truth is, really I would live lost

But now times are changing

Had to take your advice 'cause my life needs saving

When I look back, yes I was the worst behaving

And really there was only myself in blaming

But last year Granddad died

And I saw that look of regret in your eye

From relationship ties

And it made me start questioning mine

[Chorus]

With times gone by in his hands

Listen to the old man

Listen to the old man, the old man

If you can't find no advice where you stand

Listen to the old man

Listen to the old man, the old man

[Verse 3: Danny Wilder]

If only we had known

That long before we had grown

Into similar images

Few physical differences

From pictures we've been shown

Of our own flesh and bone

At the same age we had been

Veering alone

Way off the tracks

Attracted to the other side

I'd run and hide in stupidity

Literally, fiction free, it was a reality

Gradually though

I had actually grown to realize

The debt I was in

I was in no place to waste

What I'd been given

And maybe we've been raised

To make a difference

Finally I see

That it pays to make a living

Finally I agree

That what you say has paved a vision

And maybe

The next generation

Of babys will get born

Into safety

And break these barriers down

That we've been carrying 'round

And break free from the massive amounts

[Chorus]

With times gone by in his hands

Listen to the old man

Listen to the old man, the old man

If you can't find no advice where you stand

Listen to the old man

Listen to the old man, the old man