Paid to Wait

[Intro: tenor sax and vibraphone over the vamp, spoken] Name's Teddy I stand in line for a living Forty an hour Best in DC [Verse 1] Rayburn hallway, four a.m., and the marble's cold as a vault Hearing starts at ten, the lobbyist's asleep, and that's not my fault Wool coat for a pillow and a paperback I'll never read Half a loaf of my mother's dabo, that's everything I need Capitol cop on rounds, he nods, he knows me by my shoes Miss Pearl is two doors down, she holds the seats for the evening news Georgetown kids behind me doing homework on the floor Twelve of us on marble, splitting one outlet by the door Nine fifty five, a three piece suit walks up and never breaks his stride Slides me two hundred, takes the spot, he never looks me in the eye [Hook: chanted low, soft group answer] I get paid to wait (he gets paid to wait) Whole town's waiting on a call, a check, a train, a date I hold your place (he holds your place) Somebody's got to stand there while the big man's running late Everybody in this city's waiting on something I'm the only one who's getting paid to do nothing [Verse 2] January on the Supreme Court steps, three nights of freezing rain For a law firm up on K Street, and the partners never learned my name Sunday it's a brunch on Fourteenth for a man who couldn't wake Two hours in the sun so he can photograph a pancake Miss Pearl taught me the trade, she held the seats in eighty nine Said, Teddy, never sit, never sleep, and never lose your place in line Said everybody here is rich in everything but time So sell them yours by the hour, and never sell it for a dime [Hook: chanted low, soft group answer] I get paid to wait (he gets paid to wait) Whole town's waiting on a call, a check, a train, a date I hold your place (he holds your place) Somebody's got to stand there while the big man's running late Everybody in this city's waiting on something I'm the only one who's getting paid to do nothing [Instrumental Break: tenor sax solo over the vamp] [Verse 3: bass, drums and vibraphone] Tuesday in November, church gym on Georgia Avenue Three hours in the cold rain and there's nobody to sell it to Only line in all of DC that you can't pay a man to hold So I'm standing for myself today, a free man in the cold Turn around and who's behind me in the three piece suit, the Rayburn guy Nobody holding his place today, he's blowing on his hands, his good shoes ain't dry Says I'll give you five hundred for your spot, I said, sir, not this one, not today In this line everybody waits the same, and nobody gets paid So he laughs and puts his wallet back and lets the minutes go by And for the first time in eleven years, the man looks me in the eye [Final Hook: chanted low, soft group answer] Not today (not today) Some lines you stand in for yourself, whatever it pays Hold your own place (hold your own place) The suit and me in the same wet line, and we both wait the same Everybody in this city's waiting on something And this is the one line I would stand in for nothing [Outro: spoken over tenor sax] Name's Teddy I wait Today, for free