[Intro - spoken oddly upbeat] For most normal folks drinking means conviviality companionship, colorful imagination, release from care - from boredom and from worry. joyous intimacy with friends - the feeling that life is good. But not for us... Not in the last days of our heavy drinking [Chorus - sung, melodic] The old pleasures were gone They were but memories Never could we recapture the great moments of the past Always one more attempt Always one more failure [Verse 1 - sung/spoken/rapped] The less that people tolerated us the more we withdrew from society from life itself As we became subjects of King Alcohol shivering denizens of his mad realm The chilling vapor that is loneliness settled down It thickened It blackened Some of us sought out sordid places hoping to find understanding companionship approval [Chorus - drawn out lines, minor melody] The old pleasures were gone They were but memories Never could we recapture the great moments of the past Always one more attempt Always one more failure [Bridge - announcement] For a moment we did find it Then would come oblivion And the awful awakening to face the hideous Four Horsemen [Spoken Word - solemn list] Terror Bewilderment Frustration Despair [guitar solo] [Verse 2 - gang chant] An insistent yearning to live as we once did and a heartbreaking obsession that some new miracle of control would let us do it [Chorus - drawn out lines, minor melody] The old pleasures were gone They were but memories Never could we recapture the great moments of the past Always one more attempt Always one more failure [Outro - funeral dirge] He will try the old game again He isn't happy in his sobriety He cannot picture life without alcohol He will not be able to picture life either with alcohol or without Then he will know a loneliness few do He will be at the jumping-off place He will wish for the end [End]
