The Man Who Could Have Played Bass For Shanana

THE MAN WHO COULD HAVE PLAYED BASS FOR SHANANA

I walked into the lounge of the Windsor Arms Hotel

Where a band was playing Fifties songs

The ones we know so well

And they played just like the record

Not a note was out of place

Then they finished with "Goodnight Sweetheart"

By the guy who played the bass

As he walked by the table I offered him a beer

Said I was a player too

I had been for many years

And we talked about the business

All the years out on the road

How forever sweet sixteen

Was such a heluva heavy load

And he said, "Ya know I could have made it once

If I'd have listened to a friend

He had set up this audition

With a fifties group back when

But it was 1967 and I had dreams of moving on

The man who could've played bass for Shanana

Shanana, Shanana

He said, "I see them on the TV shows

Every now and again and I see my buddy playing

The saxophone the way he did back then

Oh we used to play the circuit

Any dive that had the pay

But we'd have done it all for nothing

Just to get a chance to play"

He said, "I talk to my family on every Sunday night

And I tell 'em where I'm working next

And how the band is getting tight

And my children always ask me

How much longer I'll be gone"

The man who could've played bass for Shanana

Shanana, Shanana

Well, we all have our stories

How we try but can't forget

And how we sit in contemplation

And we lick our own regret

There's the one we could've married

There's the job we could've had

There's the winning run we could've hit

If we had a more loving dad

And there's the house we could've bought

When the prices weren't so high

And there's the loving words we could've said

Before that loved one died

There's the road we could've traveled

There's the one we traveled on and on and on

And there's the man who could've played bass for Shanana

Shanana, Shanana, Shanana