- 1. You Gotta Sell Something
- 2. Beautiful Thang
- 3. Top of the Class
- 4. I’m Gone
- 5. Hot Damn!
- 6. Wandering Joe
- 7. In the Neighborhood
- 8. You’re a Pain
- 9. Passed Around
- 10. Gypsy Lullaby
You Gotta Sell Something
Listen to me girls and guys
You can’t play unless you advertise
You gotta sell something if you wanna play
Take your songs and your melodies
Get them up on the TV
People buy most anything
You just gotta give them a song to sing
Imagine you’re the voice that sells those brand new shiny cars
Refrigerators, microwavers, handy gadgets and candy bars
Get those folks to tap their feet
They’ll put a star for you out on Wall Street
You gotta sell something
If you wanna play
I’m going to tell you how to sell something in just four easy steps
So listen right hear
Step one, find a catchy phrase
One that sticks in your head for days
Step two, keep it short and sweet
Cause when your done you’re going to hit repeat
Step three, swing with every verse and shake every last dime right of their purse
Step four, grab your pen and sign
Right there on the dotted line
We’re going to have that song in every house
In every little town
And when the bands out playing live
Folks will come from all around
Just to hear that one and only tune
You better play it right you better play it soon
You better sell something if you want to play
Hit the lights and begin the show
I tell you something that you need to own
You gotta sell something if you want to play
Cause if you like the songs you heard
Take a moment just to hear a word
This song has been provided by
Corporate sponsors, advertisers
Investment banks, conglomerates and travel agencies
Selling boozes, cruises, cigarettes and fashion magazines so
Clap your hands a dance in line
All the way to the check out line
You gotta sell something if you want to play
Beautiful Thang
I got blue skies shining on a cloudy day
Nothing in my pocket but I feel like I just got paid
All I need is a kiss from my sweet little Miss
And I’ve got the world by a string
Oh my my that’s a beautiful thang
I got holes in my shoes but I’m dancing my blues away
And this old paper cup’s gonna hold just enough for today
I got nowhere to go but baby I know
There ain’t no better place I could be
Oh my my that’s a beautiful thang
I never thought I’d be the one to wear it on his sleeve
But then I changed my point of view
Now clearly I can see there’s no where else I’d rather be
But by your side and I ain’t got no problem telling you
Band on the road seeing so many faces
So many names and so many places
Working so hard just to get those people to smile
My piano’s tuned, got a stage and a room
And a crowd that wants to hear me sing
Oh my my that’s a beautiful thang
I never thought I’d be the one to wear it on his sleeve
But then I changed my point of view
Now clearly I can see there’s nowhere else I’d rather be
But by your side and I ain’t got no problem telling you
My piano’s tuned, got a stage and a room
And a crowd that wants to hear me sing
Oh my my that’s a beautiful thang
Oh my my that’s a beautiful thang
Top of the Class
Everyone’s insane and so are you
You’re just tired of all that fighting
There’s too much wrong and not much righting
You think the world’s about to explode
If you don’t get some relief you might be the first to blow
When you feel like you’ve been down on your luck
Find yourself a friend and you can both go
Forget about your problems lock the bedroom door
You’ll feel a lot better than you felt before
Get yourself a rhythm and then do it all day
You’ll both feel better when you both get
Later in the evening when the sun goes down
You’ll wonder what the worrying was all about
You’ll feel like the top of the class once you get a little
Ask somebody and you’ll figure it out
Some call it the walk of shame
I say roll out the red carpet and strut that hall of fame
While all the neighbors come and look at the sights
Out in broad daylight
Same clothes that you wore last night
Lisa told Denise and then Miss Ida told Chuck
They should stop their gossiping and all go
Forget about your problems lock the bedroom door
You’ll feel a lot better than you felt before
Get yourself a rhythm and then do it all day
You’ll both feel better when you both get
Later in the evening when the sun goes down
You’ll wonder what the worrying was all about
You’ll feel like the top of the class once you get a little
Ask somebody and you’ll figure it out
I’m Gone
Only a whisper when you leave me dear
Only a whisper sounds so loud so clear
No need to shout, no need to ring my ear
Just whisper before you go
I’m Gone
Say I’m gone babe
I’m leaving and you can’t hold on babe
So quietly she told me when she left me so lonely
She whispered
Baby I’m gone
The storms of summer always crash and shake
The floods of spring they will wash you away
The autumn breeze, it only bends you till you break
Like a whisper of the cold to come
I’m Gone
Say I’m gone babe
I’m leaving and you can’t hold on babe
So quietly she told me when she left me so lonely
She whispered
Baby I’m gone
She’s gone
She’s gone now
She left me and I can’t hold on
So quietly she told me when she left me so lonely
and she whispered
baby I’m gone
Wandering Joe
Everybody knows his name
Every driver of a train
Every bus or boat from coast to coast
knows roaming and a wandering Joe
He’s a banjo playing man
He’s a hip bohemian
He’s a come and go mustachioed
Sly gypsy on the lamb
Every time I see him
Oh the sight is so appealing
Fingers flying and a strumming
It’ll fill you with that feeling
And he always disappears
But no one could know where
He’s got to roam
Only life he’s known
Roam
Roaming and a Wandering Joe
He’s in a new town every night
So he always travels light
He’s got no weights, no strings, no bags to claim
He leaves without a fight
When he plays that banjo style
He always does it with a smile
The women all flirt and shake their skirts
It’s drives the men folk wild
He dresses like a killer
When he walks into the room
He glides he way up to the stage
By the wing tips on his shoes
I heard he never sleeps but he still don’t miss a beat
He’s got to roam
Only life he’s known
Roam
Roaming and a Wandering Joe
He may be seen in New Orleans or up in old St. Lou
Charleston, Harlem, Chicago, Atlanta or Baton Rouge
Where he’s from he’ll never say
But the devil knows how to play
In the Neighborhood
I got a double wide trailer I rent
It’s held up by four blocks of cement
And my neighbors a creep
He don’t let nobody speak
He says he’s going to run for president
He’s got Jesus on the front of his belt
Cause it reminds him of himself
He’ll try to sing you a song but before to long
You’ll see that talking’s all that he does well
He’s in my neighborhood
It’s just a neighborhood
They’re all the same from the trailer park to Hollywood
Well, I see more than I like and I know more than I should
About the people in the neighborhood
He’s gotta wife that’s as dumb as a hammer
But she does a nice trick for the camera
She can balance a cup
Up on her big fat butt
And pour the champagne in while she stands there
And there’s a brat down the end of the street
He’s got a stage gig shaking his ding a ling
He’s takes all the girls’ cash
Spends it all on grass
He’s got a mop bucket for a latrine
They’re in my neighborhood
It’s just a neighborhood
They’re all the same from the trailer park to Hollywood
Well, I see more than I like and I know more than I should
About the people in the neighborhood
This girl from Montana moved in
She was so sweet but she lost her innocence
Now she smokes all day
On the roof of her house
Wearing a tin foil hat and her tongue hanging out
I got some money and I moved to L.A.
But everybody there’s just the same
As the ones back home but full of silicone
With a suntan and a raise
It’s a neighborhood neighborhood
It’s just a neighborhood
They’re all the same from the trailer park to Hollywood
Well, I see more than I like and I know more than I should
About the people in the neighborhood
You’re a Pain
You’re a critical contrarian that nobody can understand
Opinionating, provocating just because you can
You ain’t the hottest thing under the sun
You’re just a name dropping know it all out flashing your gums
And you think, you’re running the show
There’s still one thing that you just don’t know
You’re a pain
Oh such a pain
Deny all you like but you know that I’m right when I say
You’re the gum in the works
The clog in the pipe
The squeaky wheel
You’re such a pill
You’re just the complicated type
So impossible to maintain
And you’re a pain
You’ve been cheated, slighted and victimized in every way
You feel defeated, derided and plagiarized or so you say
You got nothing to steal and nothing to hock
But you still think that everybody wants what you got
Wait a minute honey just sit right down
I’ll tell you everything you need to know right now
You’re a pain
Oh such a pain
Deny all you like but you know that I’m right when I say
You’re the gum in the works
The clog in the pipe
The squeaky wheel
You’re such a pill
You’re just the complicated type
So impossible to maintain
And you’re a pain
You’re really have quite and annoying disposition
I’m sure deep down you’re a good person
Perhaps someone should bury you
So hard to maintain that why you’re a pain
Now go bother me somewhere else
Passed Around
You can take that dollar bill
and you can stick it up your nose
You can put it down the underwear of some girl you don’t know
You can buy yourself a ticket
for the lottery or a train
or you might decide to give it
to help ease somebody’s pain
And that dollar might come back
for all that working that you do
but it just looks a little thinner
from all the hands it’s been passed through
kinda like the lines upon your face
that start out fine but then get bolded
every time you love, you laugh, you cry or feel a little folded
We all get passed around
there aint no way around it
you’re lost until you’re found
we all get passed around
I went to see the gypsy
she was looking at my palm
as she talked about my future
I would try to stay calm
while she talked about the girl who I loved but never trusted
she was fire, I was alcohol
so we combusted
She said my life line ran short and my love line showed two
I knew I’d been in love before the day I met you
so I guess I’m dying soon but for now keep on living
make the best out of my time if that’s the hand I’ve been given
We all get passed around
there aint no way around it
you’re lost until you’re found
we all get passed around
Drive out to the ocean and look out from the shore
watch how every crashing wave is made by the one that crashed before
It’s like the one you’re watching now is a million years in it’s making
just like every consequence of every action that you’re taking
So while the couples in the restaurant play with each others feet
There’s a wino stumbling out front and pissing in the street
There’s a plane up in the sky heading for some distant land
and a passenger who doesn’t know he won’t be back again
All the people in this world who think they don’t relate
but yet a glance in one direction
could seal another’s fate
that’s how a death can save a life
and a kiss could start a war
but it never stops the motion of waves crashing on the shore
We all get passed around
there aint no way around it
you’re lost until you’re found
we all get passed around
Gypsy Lullaby
Good night sweet gypsy good night
There’s time to rest in hours before light
Tomorrow the tourists arrive
And you’ll be picking all their pockets
Snatching necklaces and lockets
Some to sell
Some to keep for your own
But heart you’ll cast like a stone
Cause I know it’s of no use to you
It’s worn out and blue
Can’t be sold like silver or gold
You curse when I sing you a song
I give you my hand
But you read me my palm
Until the new day all this tourist can say is
Good night sweet gypsy goodnight
Until the new day all this tourist can say is
Good night sweet gypsy goodnight