Next To Normal – Better Than Before lyrics

Dr. Madden:
The memories are there somewhere.
Find some pictures you can share...
Keepsakes of the life that's there behind her.
Keep it light at first that's best,
Careful that she's not distressed,
When the time's right, tell the rest
Remind her.
You'll find her.

Dan:
So let's start with something small,
Something personal, and pretty,
I bet you'll know these shiny things...

Diana (spoken):
They must be tacky trinkets from, I guess, Atlantic City?

Dan:
No, actually, Di, they're our wedding rings.

Natalie (spoken):
It's going well...

Dan:
Here's a flower from our wedding,
You were such a sight to see.
And the ceremony; everything we'd hoped!

Natalie (spoken):
Um, Dad...

Dan:
Well that's how I remember it,
So that's how it'll be.

Natalie:
It was raining.
It was Portland.
You eloped.
(Spoken)
I mean, Portland!

Dan:
It's an open book to write here.
It's a life we can restore.
We can get back what we had and maybe more.
Maybe get us back to better than before.

Here's the year we drove the west.
We hit the highway in the Honda,
And I took pictures everywhere we went.
We saw the painted desert, the Grand Canyon, and Aunt Rhonda.
And Nat learned what her middle finger meant.
Here's the first house that we owned on Walton Way,
We loved that place.
Then we built this one on land that we both chose.
And here's a pic of all of us with smiles on every face.
And the photo-shopping hardly even shows.

Diana:
We're standing by a lake with all these ducks...
And who's this little chubby girl?

Dan:
That's Natalie!

Natalie:
This sucks.

Dan:
Gonna get us back to normal.
Gonna get us back to good.
Gonna get back what we had and maybe more.
Gonna get us back to good times,
And forget the things we should
Gonna get us back to better than before.
We can get things back to better than before.

Natalie (spoken):
Alright, fine.
(Sung)
Here's the headline in the paper when you freaked out at the market.
Here's the house on Walton Way after the fire.

Dan (spoken):
Natalie!

Natalie:
Here's the damage to the Honda when you showed me how to park it.

Diana:
Did we crush somebody's cat beneath the tire?

Natalie (spoken):
Yes, ours!

Dan:
Here's Dad at my recital,
And we're wondering where you are.

Diana:
I remember this,
I made it to the school.

Dan (spoken):
Wait, you remember?

Diana:
It was the year of too much lithium,
I hid out in the car.

Dan (spoken):
Yes!

Diana:
And your swim meet just last year, I'm in the pool...

Natalie (spoken):
So you are.

Dan:
You're getting it,
You've got it, Di.
Hooray!

Diana:
Your life has kind of sucked, I think.

Natalie:
You've got it, yay, hooray!

Dan:
Hooray!

Diana:
Hooray!
Gonna get back what I lost there.
Gonna find out who I was.
Gonna open up the gates and let it pour.

Dan:
And if memory makes things better,
Well, memory always does.
Gonna get us back to better than before.

Diana and Dan:
Make everything much better than before.

Natalie:
Won't anything be better than before?

Diana:
I guess it must be

Dan, Diana and Natalie:
Better than before.
Better than before.