[Verse 1: Lisbon-accented male MC, low and steady over the pounding kick and Portuguese guitar] He came in with the rain and he sat down by the door With a book full of names and this house on page four Senhor Vaz in a long grey coat, two big men at his back And To behind the counter knows exactly what's in that stack Three months late on the loan for the oldest room in town And Vaz is here for the keys and the tables, nailed down But I'm the guitar in the corner, and I watch Dona Graca stand Seventy and four foot ten with a black shawl in her hand She don't look at Vaz, she looks at me, she nods her head one time And I turn the lights down low, and in Lisbon that's a line [Hook: female fado singer, aching and huge over the pounding drums, the Lisbon MC answering on the last line] Lights down, doors closed, put your glasses down Nobody speaks in the oldest room in town You can bring your men and your book and your rings But nobody takes a thing, not while she sings [Verse 2: Lisbon MC, faster, the Portuguese guitar running under him] That's the law in these old streets since before the trams ran When the fado starts you freeze, every woman, every man No talkin', no orders, no forks against a plate Vaz was born three streets from here, so he knows he has to wait So she sings the first one hard about a boat that don't come back Then a second for the harbor, then a third one dressed in black Every time she ends a song, I'm strummin' in again Two o'clock, three o'clock, he's lookin' at his men And his men are noddin' off asleep against the wall Every time he lifts a finger, she goes higher than it all [Hook: female fado singer, bigger, the Lisbon MC answering on the last line] Lights down, doors closed, put your glasses down Nobody speaks in the oldest room in town You can bring your men and your book and your rings But nobody takes a thing, not while she sings [Verse 3: Lisbon MC, the drums pounding harder, dawn coming up over Alfama] Five a.m., the light comes blue across the river and the stone Thirty songs, my fingers bleedin', and she's standin' there alone Vaz ain't moved in seven hours with his hat across his knee And there's water runnin' down his face, and it ain't rain, believe me She sings the last one for the house, the one about the walls How they heard a hundred years of fado ringin' in the halls And the big man stands up slow while the final chord's in the air Takes his pen out of his coat, and he don't say a word in there [Hook: female fado singer, everything in, the Lisbon MC answering on the last line] Lights down, doors closed, put your glasses down Nobody speaks in the oldest room in town You can bring your men and your book and your rings But nobody takes a thing, not while she sings [Outro: mirror couplet, the Lisbon MC flips the opening lines over the last guitar run] He went out with the sun and he stopped there by the door Tore this house from the book and left a tip on the floor [End]
0/500