Comfortable Dark · Album · Track 7
3 Aug 2026 · 3:21 · Swing · 139 plays
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Lyrics
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It was table nine. It was quarter past eleven.
He was not a drunk. He was not a crank.
He just stood up in the middle of the foxtrot
with his hat in his hands and his voice completely calm.
And he said the thing you're never, ever meant to say out loud —
not angry, not clever, no fire and no fuss —
he just looked around the room at all the dancing and the gold,
and he asked us. He asked us.
"WHAT IF WE'RE WRONG?"
Three small words and the chandeliers rang!
Not a single soul in the ballroom sang!
And nobody argued, no — that's the part that haunts me still,
nobody stood and answered him, they never even tried —
they just looked to the bandstand, and they screamed:
PLAY LOUDER! PLAY LOUDER!
AND THE BAND PLAYED ON!
So they laughed at him first, that's the cheapest thing to do,
then they said he had an agenda, then they said he had a past,
then they said, "Well, who's funding him? Who is this man, and who's his crowd?" —
anything, anything, anything but the question that he asked!
And a woman by the window — she'd been quiet all her life —
she reached up for the curtain and she pulled it to the side...
...and it wasn't a painting.
Close it! Close it! Don't look! Don't look!
Someone get the band! Get the BAND!
Turn it up! Turn it up! TURN IT UP!
IT WAS NEVER A PAINTING —
IT WAS ALWAYS A WINDOW —
AND IT WAS ALWAYS OPEN —
AND THE AIR OUT THERE IS COLD AND REAL AND FREE—!
Three small words and the ballroom broke!
The mirrors cracked from wall to wall to wall!
And they bought him a drink, like the rules of the house demand,
and by midnight he was laughing and he couldn't quite recall...
but the crack in the mirror stayed. Oh, the crack in the mirror stayed.
And the band...
...stopped playing.
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