First You Lose The Rhyming - Harvey Andrews

First you lose the rhyming

Then you lose the timing

Then you lose the money

Then you lose the friends

And you try for one more song

But the words don’t come and the chords are wrong

Whiskey bottle won’t last long before it ends

I met him in a barroom in Chicago

I was writing what became of those we knew

About the ones who’d let their shooting star go out of sight

The one-hit wonder boys who never grew

And I asked him «Sir, what happened then to you»?

And he said

First you lose the rhyming

Then you lose the timing

Then you lose the money

Then you lose the friends

And you try for one more song

But the words don’t come and the chords are wrong

Whiskey bottle won´t last long before it ends

He told me it’s an old and tired story

You’ll need a way to make it sound brand new

So tell 'em that I had my share of glory once alright

But I had somebody strong to see me through

And she told me all the things I shouldn’t do

She said

First you lose the rhyming

Then you lose the timing

Then you lose the money

Then you lose the friends

And you try for one more song

But the words don’t come and the chords are wrong

Whiskey bottle won’t last long before it ends

But I did all a young man does with money

With all those young girls coming on so strong

And that’s how come I lost my little honey to the road

'Cause she went off and wrote it in a song

And now you see her up there on the TV

She’s a superstar and everybody knows

She sings a broken heart just like it should be sung each night

And I never miss a second of her shows

And I know the way the chorus always goes

First you lose the rhyming

Then you lose the timing

Then you lose the money

Then you lose the friends

And you try for one more song

But the words don’t come and the chords are wrong

Whiskey bottle won’t last long before it ends

Yes, you try for one more song

Words don’t come, chords are wrong

Whiskey bottle won’t last long before it ends