[Verse 1] I have been sung a thousand times Not always with my original rhymes It’s been so very long ago now I don’t remember why or how They sent me through an electric beast Not always kind, to say the least But when you first released me on paper Could you know what I’d become, sooner or later? [Chorus] I’m the cover song ghost, present and past You wrote down words that forever last I still haunt that first-born melody While singers pass through, never seeing me For you I linger, my original host I am the cover song ghost [Verse 2] A stranger bends my vowels out of shape Another finds a different escape One turns the sorrow into gold One gives the verses a voice I never told I wear their fingerprints like weather Borrowed hearts pull me together Each new mouth leaves a trace behind Yet something of your hand survives [Chorus] I’m the cover song ghost, present and past You wrote down words that forever last I still haunt that first-born melody While singers pass through, never seeing me For you I linger, my original host I am the cover song ghost [Bridge] Changed through versions, that’s how I last A paper spark outliving the past No one can tell where the first note goes But I know the room, I know the pose When the final chord falls away Your small beginning remains in the decay [Final Chorus] I’m the cover song ghost, present and past You wrote down words that forever last I still haunt that first-born melody In every borrowed voice, I’m waiting to be For you I linger, my original host Through every hand, through every coast Changed through versions, still I last I am the cover song ghost [Outro] For you I linger, my original host I am the cover song ghost
