For the Roses

I heard it in the wind last night, it sounded like applause
Did you get a round resounding for you way up here?
It seems like many dim years ago since I heard that face to face
Or seen you face to face, though tonight I can feel you here

I get these notes on lilac sprays
And butterflies from girls who just have to tell me
But they saw you somewhere

In some office sits a poet, and he trembles as he sings
And he asks some guy to circulate his soul around
On your mark red ribbon runner, the caressing rev of motors
Finely tuned like fancy women in thirties evening gowns

Up the charts, off to the airport
Your name's in the news, everything's first class
And the lights go down, and it's just you up there
Getting them to feel like that

Remember the days when you used to sit and make up your tunes just for love
And pour your simple sorrow to the sound all in your knee
And now you're seen on giant screens and at parties for the press
And for people who have slices of you from the company

They toss around your latest golden egg
Speculation, well who's to know
If the next one in the nest
Will glitter for them so?

I guess I seem ungrateful with my teeth sunk in the hand
That brings me these things I really can't give up just yet
Now I sit up here the critic and I'm watching some new band
But they look like pink confetti on my old TV set

Oh, the power and the glory
Just when you're getting a taste for worship
They start bringing out the hammers
And the boards and the nails

I heard it in the wind last night, it sounded like applause
It's chilly now, end of summer, no more shiny hot nights
It was just the arbutus rustling and the bumping of the logs
And the moon swept down black water like an empty spotlight