Pick Your Poison (1.03x) (Edit)

138 BPM, super fast, frenetic, rolling, A New Orleans street band busking on a Royal Street corner: Professor Longhair's Tipitina and Big Chief on a battered upright piano wheeled out onto the sidewalk, Forward-tumbling, joyful, gallows humor under it, High-register piano right-hand triplets, trills and octave rolls up at the top, over a sousaphone bassline, washboard, tambourine and one snare, no drum kit, Banjo chunking the offbeat, The piano never stops rolling: same busy right-hand figure under every verse and chorus, never thinning or dropping behind the vocal, Full band energy first bar to last, no fade, no ritardando, never slowing, Trombone punches in for comic relief with tailgate smears and plunger growls around the key lines, and takes one break after verse three, Melodic singing throughout: never rapped, never talk-sung, never monotone, Recorded live outdoors, one mic, street ambience, passersby joining choruses, raw, no gloss, no autotune, Piano rolling from bar one

[Hard start into Verse 1] I called it, I called it early Read the label on every shelf Nobody wanted the reading So I poured one for myself They took my list for a menu Every man helped himself Bought a round to stop my mouth Then drank it down themselves [Chorus] Pick your poison, pick your poison Every promise here is gold Pick your poison, pick your poison Take the one that you can hold [Verse 2] I wrote down every way it breaks I kept that list for twenty years Said they'd sweet-talk the doorman Said they'd whisper in his ear But nobody locked the cellar Nobody worked the door Stood wide open all week long And nobody kept the score [Chorus] Pick your poison, pick your poison Every promise here is gold Pick your poison, pick your poison Take the one that you can hold [Verse 3] I was right, and right is cruel I'd have loved to be the fool The stairs get shorter with every flight Four billion years to overnight No second draft, no note to send One all-in try, and then it ends So I'm calling loud and clear Last call, while you're still here [Chorus] Pick your poison, pick your poison Every promise here is gold Pick your poison, pick your poison Take the one that you can hold (musical bridge) [Verse 4] Friday night I lock the door Let 'em ring, don't answer no more A table, a plate, a light, my wife What's next can wait till Saturday night I'll be on that stool at dawn Like I've been all along Still holding the poison cup For a world that won't look up Pick your poison, pick your poison Every promise here is gold Pick your poison, pick your poison Take the one that you can hold Pick your poison, pick your poison Every promise here is gold Pick your poison, pick your poison Can't say that you weren't told

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