Sake of the Song

If you're nobody's business or you're front page news
Folk Rock, Country or Delta Blues,
Tell your truth however you choose
And do it all for the sake of the song

Yeah, hitchhike, and bus ride and rental car,
living rooms, coffee houses and rundown bars
Ten thousand people or alone under the stars
Its all for the sake of the song

And there's a man who wrote "Your Cheatin' Heart", now he's through his tooth
And he plays it on a stolen harp,
that's soaked in hundred proof
And there's one who might be happy
with a foreign badger's purse
She's lost the crowd's attention at the forty second verse

And it's the travelling salesman, the girl next door
On the empty room to the bird on the corner
Less is less until more is
more
And it's all for the sake of the song

And there's the young man on the marquee,
Yeah he's the son of some well known
His father bought the tour bus, so he could strike out on his own
And there's the brooding contradiction, he's holding Van Gogh's ear
That he's taped it to his guitar, in the hope someone will hear

It's back stage and Nudie Suits, and the next big thing will get 'em back to your roots
High tops, flannel and duct tape boots
And it's all for the sake of the song

And there's the mystic, there's the legend, and there's the best that's ever been
And there's the voice of a generation who wants to pass this way again
And there's record deals and trained seals, and puppets on a string
And they're all just trying to figure out what makes the caged bird sing

It's lights, camera, on with the show, lifetime to get ready, now go cat go
Where it all ends, nobody knows
But it's all for the sake of the song

So if you're nobody's business or you're front page news
Folk Rock, Country or Delta Blues,
Tell your truth however you choose
And do it all for the sake of the song