Fallen Star

By Barry Drake

I was taking my pleasure in a bar I called home
When an old friend appeared at the door
He was filled with bad whiskey, so he didn't see me
As he stumbled the sawdust filled floor

He was famous for filling our halls with his songs
Till the words and the music ran dry
Soon the backstage buffoons and their parasite friends
Chased a new shooting star through the sky

(Chorus) Falling Star you know who you are
        You toyed with the notion of failure
        Like kids play with bugs in a jar
        You wouldn't believe it could happen to you
        But this time you've fallen to far.

Once the news of his comeback was filling the trades
So the critics came loading their guns
Oh I watched how they cursed him, nuzzling their drinks
He was finished before he'd begun

(Chorus) Falling Star you know who you are
         You were buying a round for our table
         When they brought out the feathers and tar
         You laughed when I said it could happen to you
         You've already fallen too far.

Falling asleep at the table
Mumbling your prayers to the floor
Paying the bill, we bid you farewell
And quietly slipped out the door

Oh the night quickly passed in an alchohol haze
That fire don't ever burn long
But the lesson I learned in the bar room that night
Still burns in the words of this song

(Chorus)  Falling Star you know who you are
          You toyed with the notion of failure
          like kids play with bugs in a jar
          You wouldn't believe it could happen to you
          but this time you've fallen too far
              this time you've fallen too far

Notes:

This is from his 1977 album ``Roadsongs''. ``Barry Drake is a fairly popular folksinger from the Catskill Mountains of New York on the college coffeehouse circuit in the 1970s.'' -- mesnikd@freenet.msp.mn.us

21 Apr 97 trent