Lyrics American Dreamers - Old Home Movie - Johnny Depp

One thing I was sure of, my uncle Leo was definitely the hero of my childhood
The smell of his Old Spice cologne carried me back into that lost childhood
More than the home movies did
My uncle didn't know it
But it was the sweet, cheap smell of car dealers that took me back
And made me dissolve into a dream of the past
Leo was the last dinosaur that smelled of cheap cologne
And he believed in the American dream
I was crazy about him because he believed in miracles
And even though he lived inside of life and sold Cadillacs
He always looked like a ten-year-old boy whose sleeves were too long

When I was ten, Leo gave me this great movie camera
And my mother always hoped I'd become the next Milton Berle
But dreams of houses, and cars, and fresh-cut lawns aren't dreams when they become real
And somehow I understood what my mother meant by "Good morning, Columbus"
And even if my mother didn't like what I was doing with my life
I think she'd understand

When I was 11, I got this really weird earache that wouldn't go away
I went to about a hundred doctors but none of them could help me
So what Leo did was, he went into Mexico
And brought back this fat lady witch doctor who did this mumbo-jumbo and fixed me right up
I was grateful, but somehow I thought I might've been better off mute
All in all, I had a very happy childhood

My father was a border guard
Who spent most of his life trying to keep people from crossing lines
Every night for 15 years, he'd go out and smooth down the road between Mexico and Arizona
And every morning he'd be out there looking for footprints in the dirt
But my father always said that, "Work was like a hat you put on your head
And even if you didn't have pants, you didn't have to walk down the street ashamed of your ass
As long as you had a hat"

And if somebody was to ask me why I don't get up right now
And catch the next train back to New York?
It's because you can't say no to your childhood hero
I decided to be his best man, but one thing I was sure of
No matter how much I loved the smell of cheap cologne
I was never going to become my uncle
And I was never going to sell Cadillacs