///*****/// [Intro - Piano] (Solo grand piano, arena hushed, distant crowd murmur) Just me and the piano for a minute. Bear with me. [Verse 1] It's a quarter past eleven in a city I forget There's a taxi in the alley and a plane I haven't met There's a woman in a photograph I keep behind the strings Who deserved a better man than the one this life brings I called her from Dortmund at four in the afternoon She said, the kids are at the table, when are you coming home soon And I said soon, I always say soon, and we both know what that means So I hung up and I walked out and I did this thing again [Pre-Chorus] And I'd trade every roaring room For one ordinary afternoon [Chorus] Give me one more song before the morning One more chance to make it mean something 'Cause the lights go out and the room goes cold And a man is just a man when the night gets old One more song before the morning comes [Verse 2] There's a strange and heavy silence when an arena empties out Twenty thousand people gone and nothing left to shout Just the crew coiling cable and a bucket and a broom And a man in an empty building looking for a room They tell you it's the loneliest hour and by God they're not wrong It's the price you pay for standing in the middle of the song But I'd pay it every night of every year until I die Because for ninety minutes, brother, I have flown [Pre-Chorus] And I'd trade every roaring room For one ordinary afternoon [Chorus] Give me one more song before the morning One more chance to make it mean something 'Cause the lights go out and the room goes cold And a man is just a man when the night gets old One more song before the morning comes [Guitar Solo] (Clean, weeping, entering softly over piano then swelling with the band) [Breakdown] (Piano alone, singer speaking over it) If you've got somebody waiting up for you tonight Go home to them. Don't be like me. Alright. Where were we. [Bridge] There's a version of my life where I stayed in that town Where I fixed cars and I made dinner and I never once went down And I dream about that fellow more than I would ever say But he never got to stand here and he never got to play [Final Chorus] Give me one more song before the morning One more chance to make it mean something 'Cause the lights go out and the room goes cold And a man is just a man when the night gets old One more song before the morning One more song before the morning comes [Verse 3] My daughter drew a picture of a man up on a stage She was six years old and she got everything exactly right Except she drew the audience as one enormous face And when I asked her who it was she said, that's the friend you talk to And I have not stopped thinking of it in eleven years Because she understood the whole thing better than I do So hello, friend. Here I am again. It's been a while. [Outro] (Piano resolving, band swelling and cutting away, crowd standing) Alright. Enough of that. Let's wake this place back up.
