Interpret:

Tom Petty

Album:

The last DJ

If you reach back in your memory
 A little bell might ring
 'Bout a time that once existed
 When money wasn't king
 If you stretch your imagination
 I'll tell you all a tale
 About a time when everything
 Wasn't up for sale


 There was this cat named Johnny
 Who loved to play and sing
 When money wasn't king


 We'd all get so excited when
 John would give a show
 We'd raise the cash between us
 And down the road we'd go
 To hear him play that music
 It spoke right to my soul
 Every verse a diamond
 Every chorus gold
 The sound was my salvation
 It was only everything
 Before money became king


 Well I ain't sure how it happened
 And I don't know exactly when
 But everything got bigger
 And the rules began to bend
 And the TV taught the people
 How to get their hair to shine
 And how sweet life can be
 If you keep a tight behind
 And they raised the cost of living
 And how could we have known
 They'd double the price of tickets
 To go see Johnny's show


 So we hocked all our possessions
 And we sold a little dope
 And went off to rock and roll


 We arrived there early
 In time to see rehearsal
 And John came out and lip-synched
 His new lite beer commercial
 And as the crowd arrived
 As far as I could see
 The faces were all different
 There was no one there like me


 They sat in golden circles
 And waiters served them wine
 And talked through all the music
 And paid to John paid little mind
 And way up in the nosebleeds
 We watched him on the screen
 They'd hung between the billboards
 So cheaper seats could see


 Johnny rock that golden circle
 An all those VIP's
 And that music that had freed us
 Became a tired routine
 And I saw his face in close-up
 Trying to give it all he had
 And sometimes his eyes betrayed him
 You could see that he was sad
 And I tried to rock on with him
 But I slowly became bored
 Could that man on stage
 With everything
 Somehow need some more?


 There was no use in pretending
 No magic left to hear
 All the music gave me
 Was a craving for lite beer
 As I walked out of the arena
 My ears began to ring
 And money became king"