Buzzkill Caterwaul

Once you were the talk of the town Oh, once you were the life of the party, you're a buzzkill now And it's so strange to see you caving in Kicking up dust on a long road, honey, always tryin' to begin But you found forty bucks in a hotel bible In a run-down room with nothing on TV And you acted out your lines there in the mirror You could act out all that nothin' perfectly So you conjured up a borrowed voice and new suit And you stole a light for all that shadowplay And you won the crowd in Brooklyn with your cheap tricks Like you won the crowd with sweet talk in LA Well, you don't see the air you breathe The weather's warm and welcoming every day and night And you don't see the web they weave is one of many Hanging off the Hollywood sign But you ain't gonna shake my bones with all that caterwaul And you ain't gonna shake my bones with all that pretty talk On paper, it's an empty ruse On paper, it's an empty tomb A paperboy's nothing new, but you don't know it all You don't know it all Once you were the talk of the town Oh, once you were the showboat honey, but your ship sailed out And it hurt bad when you heard the stranger say That your bird in the hand was a Flash in the pan when you let it fly away You were supposed to be in the park on a billboard, singin' And every passerby wonders where you're gone You been stowed up in your attic, always thinkin' 'Bout the next big plan for all your little songs And you don't keep bad company How do you not say a single thing when you talk that long? When you don't see the air you breathe What's there to write about when nothing's going wrong? But you ain't gonna shake my bones with all that caterwaul And you ain't gonna shake my bones with all that pretty talk On paper, it's an empty ruse On paper, it's an empty tomb A paperboy's nothing new, but you don't know it all You don't know it all You don't know it all You never knew it all