(1939) Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn
I want something to live for
Someone to make my life an adventurous dream
Oh, what wouldn’t I give for
Someone who’d take my life and make it seem
gay as they say it ought to be
Why can’t I have love like that brought to me?
My eye is watching the noon crowds
searching the promenades seeking a clue
To the one who will someday be my
Something to live for
Something to live for
Something to live for
(hymas / brown)
We’ve seen so many towns
Where the trains don’t ever stop
Though we hear all night sounds
There’s no side left to the shop
Nothing but changes of face
That life arranges
Nothing but strangeness that wastes
Anything it replaces
We’ve seen so many dreams
Floating out into the tide
They’re never what they seem
And there’s emptiness inside
Nothing but changes of face
That life arranges
Nothing but strangeness that wastes
Anything it replaces
Keep pushing tomorrow
You might just find
Something to live for
Keep hustling tomorrow
You might just find
That elusive something
We’ve got so many ways
To take the world apart
And almost no one stays
If they make it from the start
Nothing but changes of face
That life arranges
Nothing but strangeness that wastes
Anything it replaces
Keep pushing tomorrow
You might just find
Something to live for
Keep hustling tomorrow
You might just find
Something to live for
Keep pushing tomorrow
You might just find
Something to live for
Keep hustling tomorrow
Until you find that elusive something
And when in times like these so much is secondhand
But somehow passed off as the new
You need to believe some things are worthwhile
Too weak to break out from the hold that pins you down
To loose the voluntary chains
Too strong to concede and leave the field
Never let them get you down
Never let them get you down
Tell them all that you don’t care
Tell them all that this, it’s what you live for
You’d die for
Something to live for
Die for
Shut your eyes then you won’t see
Close your ears then you won’t hear
You won’t care
With honeyed words and oiled smiles the wheels turn
But still we’re running out of steam
Too much to contain prepare for breakdown
The land beside the road is littered with the wrecks
Of those who tried to make it round
But to make it through it’s what you must do
Never let them get you down
Never let them get you down
Tell them all that you don’t care
Tell them all that this, it’s what you live for
You’d die for
Something to live for
Die for
Shut your eyes then you won’t see
Close your ears then you won’t hear
You won’t care
(1939) duke ellington, billy strayhorn
I want something to live for
Someone to make my life an adventurous dream
Oh, what wouldn’t i give for
Someone who’d take my life and make it seem
Gay as they say it ought to be
Why can’t i have love like that brought to me?
My eye is watching the noon crowds
Searching the promenades seeking a clue
To the one who will someday be my
Something to live for
Something to live for
Something to live for
