Teach This Old Dog
In the early days of the pandemic, I watched the world slip into something stranger than fiction. Science clashed with shouting, compassion got hijacked by conspiracy, and somehow a little piece of cloth became a battle flag.
I didn’t write this song to take sides. I wrote it because I was stunned—watching neighbors bark at each other like strangers, watching reason stumble in the dust of pride and fear. I’m not here to argue. I’m not a scientist. I’m not a politician. I’m a songwriter—and this was the only way I knew how to make sense of what I was seeing.
The verses are sketches, pulled from real walks and real encounters. The chorus asks a question I still don’t have an answer for. Maybe we’ve all got a little old dog in us, stubborn and confused. Maybe all we need is a new trick or two.
Anyway, this was my way of trying to understand.
—Rusty
I saw him on the corner
with a sign no one could reed
He’s screaming at the driver
cause he won’t give him a seat
He’s sitting at the bus stop
and he’s sipping from a flask
He says the driver’s crazy
cause he makes him wear a mask
You can lead your horse straight to water
And you can even show me that he’ll drink
You can teach your dog to do
most any old trick you want to
But can you get your dog to row
this sunken old canoe
If you can teach an old dog new tricks
Why can’t you teach this old dog politics
She’s a middle-aged woman
with a shotgun in her van
A switchblade in her pocket
and a Bible in her hand
She’s living out a fiction
that won’t make her great again
An anti-vaccined contradiction
that she’ll never understand
You can lead your horse straight to water
And you can even show me that he’ll drink
You can teach your dog to do
most any old trick you want to
But can you get that dog to row
this sunken old canoe
If you can teach an old dog new tricks
Why can’t we change this old dog’s politics
Oh everyone is bitching
with a dog here in this fight
If you know that you can fix it
then why can’t you get it right
I think we need to change
a little something about our schools
The system as it is
gave us a
hundred million fools
You can lead your horse straight to water
And you can even show me that he’ll drink
You can teach your dog to do
most any old trick you want to
But can you get that dog to row
this sunken old canoe
If you can teach an old dog new tricks
Why can’t we change this old dog’s politics
Yeah we need to change this old dog’s politics
Why don’t we teach this old dog some new tricks
