Dress Rehearsal Rag lyrics

Four o'clock in the afternoon, and I didn't feel like very much

I said to myself "where are you golden boy, where's your famous golden touch?"

I thought you knew where all the elephants lie down

I thought you were the crowned prince of all the wheels in ivory town

Just take a look at your body now

There's nothing much to save

And a bitter voice in the mirror cries

"Hey prince! You need a shave"

Now if you could manage to get your trembling fingers to behave

Why don't you try unwrapping a stainless-steel razor blade?

That's right it's come to this...

Yes it's come to this...

And wasn't it a long way down?

Wasn't it a strange way down?

There's no hot water and the cold is running thin

Well what do you expect from the kind of places you've been living in?

Don't drink from that cup it's all caked and cracked along the rim

That's not the electric light, my friend, that is your vision growing dim

Cover up your face with soap there, now you're Santa Claus

And you've got a gift for anyone who will give you his applause

I thought you were a racing man, ah

But you couldn't take the pace

That's a funeral in the mirror

And it's stopping at your face

That's right it's come to this...

Yes it's come to this...

And wasn't it a long way down?

Wasn't it a strange way down?

Once there was a path and a girl with chestnut hair

And you passed the summers picking all of the berries that grew there

There were times she was a woman, oh there were times she was just a child

And you held her in the shadows where the raspberries grow wild

And you climbed the twilight mountains

And you sang about the view

And everywhere you wandered love seemed to go along with you

That's a hard one to remember yes it makes you clench your fist

And the veins stand out like highways

All along your wrist

And yes it's come to this...

Yes it's come to this...

And wasn't it a long way down?

Wasn't it a strange way down?

You can still find a job, go out and talk to a friend

On the back of every magazine there are those coupons you can send

Why don't you join the Rosicrucians? They will bring you back your hope

You can find your love with diagrams on a plain brown envelope

But you've used up all your coupons

Except the one that seems

To be written on your wrist

Along with several thousand dreams

Now Santa Claus comes forward

That's a razor in his mitt

And he puts on his dark glasses

And he shows you where to hit

And then the cameras pan

The stand-in stunt man

Dress rehearsal rag

It's just the dress rehearsal rag

You know this dress rehearsal rag

It's just the dress rehearsal rag...

• Artist:Leonard Cohen
• Album:Songs of Love and Hate