[Intro: vinyl crackle, electric piano, spoken] (spoken) Ninety one point four, this is the Night Line It's three a.m., and you're not the only one awake [Verse 1] I work the two to five, the shift they give the new Eleven years and I'm still new, there's nothing else to do They taught me rule number one the night I started here Never let the air go silent, silence is the thing to fear Then at ten past three line two lights up like every night Ray in his cab on Fulton, idling at a light Says play the one for Lena, she's on the ovens across town She'll hear it while the bread comes up before the sun comes round [Chorus] Don't leave dead air Say anything, be there Somebody's driving, somebody's lying awake Don't leave dead air Somebody needs you there That's the only rule I never break [Verse 2] Four years of ten past three, I knew him by the rain The ticking of his blinker and the way he said her name He told me how they met, she slipped him day old bread for free And how she hums the harmony a little off the key Then a Tuesday in December, ten past three came and went The line stayed dark, I played it anyway, the song he always sent Then a week, a month, the light on line two never came I kept playing it at ten past three and never said his name [Chorus] Don't leave dead air Say anything, be there Somebody's driving, somebody's lying awake Don't leave dead air Somebody needs you there That's the only rule I never break [Bridge: strings swell, then thin out] (spoken) Night Line, you're on the air Ten past three and line two blinks, a voice with flour in it Says I'm Lena, I'm the one, and Ray's been gone since the snow I heard you every night with my hands down in the dough Would you play it one more time, for him, so he would know [Breakdown: near silence, a single electric piano chord] And I opened up my mouth And nothing came Eleven years, one rule, and I broke it for his name Three seconds, four, five of nothing on the air And every cab and every oven heard me standing there [Final Chorus: full strings] Let it be dead air Ray, I hope you're there Somebody's driving, somebody's lying awake Let it be dead air Lena, I'm still here That's the only rule I was glad to break [Outro: electric piano, strings fade, spoken] Then I played the song (spoken) That was for Ray. It's three thirteen. You're not the only one awake.
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