Musso and Frank (6667 Hollywood Blvd​.​)

I'm generally not a morning drinker

Said the gold-tooth man to the barkeep

Ordering his second gimlet

The writer works at the lush life

Out of compulsion

And oh he carves himself in two

In which we meet the sly detective

Mixed up in a case he’ll provide a getaway

For an old friend

He tails a drunk who’s a paperback writer

A bo'le rage fighter

And oh, his lady such a prey thing

He carves himself in two

The morning drinker keeps them coming

Makes a study of the ice as it cracks

In the glass beneath the poison

His wife is dying

He keeps from crying

Harnessing his pain

To all the characters he’s made

And he gives each one a name

And when he drinks alone

He talks to them out loud

For love’s a word

For love’s a word

The detective’s on a toxic cocktail

Two parts mistrust and one part lust

For a certain woman

He can’t resist all her wild advances

Her tribal dances

Her husband in the next room

As their love begins to bloom

But he cuts their dalliance off too soon

Between the millionaire

And the man in the mug shot

There is an unwri'en agreement

That anyone anywhere can be bought

It is a path lined with

Blood, money, and deceit

The brighter the writer

The lighter the touch

As they offer their cunning critique

The morning drinker’s on the beach now

Sca'ering the ash from an urn

With a splash to test the water