The Barbershop Quartet

Everybody's keeping quiet, I hear a whispered word
"No one here will take the risk of being overheard"
Some suggest that maybe I could draw a diagram
I have to ask, "What kind of fool you really think I am?"
Why would I, or anyone, run up that kind of debt?
You're talking to the tenor in the barbershop quartet

I've only ever told them of one crazy episode
We broke her legs, but still, she kept on walking down the road
No one had concerned themselves, the wrath it would incur
Listening to the last confessions of a saboteur
It's meaningless, it's worthless even working up a sweat
Best to go for glory with the barbershop quartet

Someone mentioned years ago, I never knew his name
"Rhetoric and reality are really not the same"
So, rarely is reality the way of getting through
That, I guess, must be a politician's point of view
Those of us who keep our heads below the parapet
Sing a different songbook in the barbershop quartet

Often when the moon is high and lighting up the stars
Comets race across the skies and jokers play guitars
A rider on a kicking mule comes waving Aaron's Rod
And punishes the ones who choose a different kind of God
There's still a satisfaction in the absence of regret
Always standard issue with the barbershop quartet

Don't hanker for affection if you're swimming dark and deep
Underneath the radar when the world is still asleep
Something is confected in the outrage that they feel
From the father, from the son, from the holly genteel
So many songs are left to write, I'd gladly take a bet
Always there'll be singers in a barbershop quartet