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It was my first night in that rooming house.
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In the last room down the hall
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I heard a hoarse voice and an old guitar
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Coming through the paper thin walls.
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A crazy nonsense nursery rhyme
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that did not mean a thing.
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But for the first of what was to be a thousand times,
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This is what I hear him sing. . .
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Hold that D chord on the old guitar,
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'Til I found the G.
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Drop it down to old E minor
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'Til the A chord rolls back home around to D.
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I had to lay there listening.
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It seemed he was in the room.
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This stranger with his melody,
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Singing there in the gloom.
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And he repeated it over and over again,
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Such a soft and sinkin' sound.
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It was kind of like a music box that was slowly winding down.
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You see, he sang it, he hummed it,
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Whistled it, and he strummed it,
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He laughed it and he cried it,
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He did everything but hide it.
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And he sang . . .
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Hold that D chord on the old guitar
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'Til I found the G
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Drop it down to old E minor
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'Til the A chord rolls back home around for me
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So I lay there in that lumpy bed,
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Countin' choruses instead of sheep.
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'Til I banged on the wall and out I called,
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"Hey bub I need some sleep."
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The sudden void of silence, then I heard that hoarse voice say,
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"It weren't so long ago boy, they paid me to play "
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I said, "It's kind of late for music sir,
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Two hours til it's daylight"
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He answered, "I need my music most
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In these dark hours of the night.
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You see I've tried gettin' high on something son,
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But it only brings me down.
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Staying dry don't work out better boy,
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'Cause my eyes get wet and I drown.
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Won't you please let me continue
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And I'll be in your debt.
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You see I'm not singing to remember son,
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I'm just singing to forget"
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And he sang .. .
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Hold that D chord on the old guitar
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'Til I found the G
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Drop it down to old E minor
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'Til the A chord rolls back home around for me.
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That's when I said,
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"If I'm supposed to listen to you sir,
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Just one quick question then.
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Why in the hell do you sing one song
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Over and over again?"
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And this is what he said. . .
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He said, "I gave her the music son,
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She gave me the words.
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Together we'd write the kind of songs
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The angels must have heard.
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Of course we'd fight like cats and dogs,
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But life ain't no rosebud dream.
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Still whatever we'd do everybody knew
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We truly were a team.
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I can't remember now if I done her wrong
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Or if she done wrong to me
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But all I know that when I let her go
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That it did not set me free''
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That's when I said, "You sound like what's-his-name"
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He said, "That's who I am.
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But you can't wrap a name around you boy,
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'Cause it really don't mean a damn.
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You see, a song don't have much meaning
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When it dan't have nothing to say.
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What she could do was magic son,
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All I could do was play"
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He started singing again.
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That's when I drifted off
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Maybe I dreamed what I heard
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'Bout this stranger with his melody
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Who'd gone and lost the words.
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Hold that D chord on the old guitar
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'Til I found the G
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Drop it down to old E minor
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'Til the A chord rolls back home around to D
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-----------------
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Stranger with the Melodies
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Harry Chapin |