[Intro: Rhodes piano, warm, walking bass drops in, Eb Ab Fm7 Bb] [Verse 1: smooth, storytelling, breathing room, Eb Ab Bb] Twenty-two in Washington Bad suit, good instincts Fetching coffee for a man Fetched papers for a man Flushed shit down a toilet For a man who went to prison [Pause] I fetched the coffee (just the coffee) I did not go to prison [Verse 2: grooving, breathing room, Fm7 Bb Eb] Watergate was just one man's fate But several others got out alive (like me) I watched them leave Not through the front door (never the front door) Through the garage At different times In different cars And it's like [Pause] And so I thought "That's a system" [Chorus: full band, Rhodes and clavinet, Eb Ab Fm7 Bb] My history is no mystery Always the last to leave the room, But the first to leave the building, Oh, the history My history is no mystery I know when the music stops I just never liked the song enough to stay Those cops ain't getting a thing on me [Horn stab] [Verse 3: tighter, wah guitar enters, breathing room, Ab Bb Eb] Nixon wasn't the lesson, he was the headline The lesson was the money underneath See, every scandal's got a surface And a floor The surface goes to jail The floor goes on sale [Pause] I learned to shop the floor [Clavinet fill] [Verse 4: darker, still groovy, breathing room, Eb Fm7] By seventy-three I knew the game You don't build the company You don't run the company You fund the company That scares the other company Then you buy the other company When it's on its knees [Pause] Cheaper than building anything yourself And legal (mostly legal) And nobody writes your name In the indictment [Chorus: fuller, handclaps, Eb Ab Fm7 Bb] My history is no mystery I've been in every room that caught fire My history is no mystery I read the room like a prospectus And baby I have never missed a sign Get out before the gun goes off Make money, man, get paid [Clavinet solo: Fm7 Bb Eb Ab] [Verse 5: building, full groove, breathing room, Ab Bb Eb] By nineteen seventy fo' I had a briefcase By seventy-five I had a fund in my name Nothing fancy Just enough to say "I'm in, who's game?" At tables where the wine costs more Than Mama made in May [Pause] And I could see it in their eyes These men who built things They loved their companies (that's the problem) Love makes you hold on too long I don't love anything I fund That's why I always sell it on time [Bridge: stripped, just bass and Rhodes, Fm7 to Eb] People ask me "how'd you know" I say "know what" They say "when to leave" [Pause] Baby I don't leave I arrive I fund the fire I wait for the ashes And I buy what's left For pennies on the dollar That's not leaving That's the whole plan [Chorus] [Verse 6: full groove returns, momentum, Ab Bb Eb Fm7] Enron (pennies on the dollar) Adelphia (pennies on the dollar) Elizabeth's beautiful disaster (pennies) German diesel fantasy (pennies) And nobody called me to testify Not even once [Pause] That's not luck baby That's the mystery of the history [Reprise] [Outro: Rhodes alone, bass fading, Eb] Twenty-two in Washington Bad suit Good instincts Coffee for a man who went to prison [Long Pause] I drink better coffee now [Pause] And I still leave through the garage [Wah guitar — last note, fading] Just in case [End]
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