[Verse 1] You walked in with a box of sparks New paint on the tired walls Fresh lines on the old white chart And they clapped in the marble hall You sketched a road through the dead-end lane Made the bored men raise their heads They said, "That one has a point" While the tea went cold and red [Pre-Chorus] Then the room got quiet Smiles went thin One old hand leaned over And the trouble moved in [Chorus] Backroom briefings, backroom briefings They loved you loud, then turned you down Backroom briefings, backroom briefings Heard it all through the grapevine now (Backroom briefings) They praised your name Then cut you out [Verse 2] Respectable coats in the inner ring With their watchful, polished stare They never once built anything But they knew how to fill the air So they fed their doubts in paper cups And passed them door to door By breakfast you were "hard to trust" By noon you were "too much more" [Pre-Chorus] Same old smiles Same old jokes But every hallway Started smoking slow [Chorus] Backroom briefings, backroom briefings They loved you loud, then turned you down Backroom briefings, backroom briefings Heard it all through the grapevine now (Backroom briefings) They praised your name Then cut you out [Bridge] And you can feel it in the handshakes The extra pause, the careful nod When the men with the long memories Decide what's safe and what is not Still, your ideas don't fold that easy They leave a mark on every page Even when the old guard whispers The future starts to change [Chorus] Backroom briefings, backroom briefings They loved you loud, then turned you down Backroom briefings, backroom briefings Heard it all through the grapevine now (Backroom briefings) They praised your name Then cut you out [Outro] Fresh ideas don't die in silence They keep a room awake And every backroom briefing Tells you what they fear to make
