They say you taught me how to talk   I bet you wish you taught me how to stop   You're far away now   I wish I could take a walk with you someplace   You explained me to our parents   English wasn't their first language   They spoke German   Hated Germans   Confusing times      Oh sister   Down midwest backseat bumpy streets   You sang my Beatles songs with me   I sang your Broadway melodies   Bad harmonies   And where would Willie Mays have been   without Jackie Robinson?   And who can say what I'd been   Without you to lead the way      After I showed some guys I could drink   You picked me off the lawn, I think   And led me to the kitchen sink   Where I got rid of it   Some nights I lay awake in awe   As squinting through the dark I saw   You peeling off your teenage bra   The door slightly ajar      Oh sister   You lived just across the hall   For eighteen summers   Eighteen falls   Until you went away to that    Weird college in Wisconsin   And where would Willie Mays have been   without Jackie Robinson?   And who can say what I'd been   Without you to lead the way      Trust yourself    And you can do anything   This I give to you      May your heart purr like a bumblebee   May all your backyards have a tree   May you always be HIV negative   I hope you meet a nice guy who   Treats women better than I do   I don't even care if he's a Jew or not      Oh sister   I remember in the temple hall   At our dear father's funeral   You sang like a nightingale   One of his own songs   And where would Willie Mays have been   Without Jackie Robinson?   And who can say what I'd been   Without you to lead the way