[Written in 1949 by Billy Strayhorn, the noted Duke Ellington collaborator]
I used to visit all the very gay places
Those come what may places
Where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life
To get the feel of life
From jazz and cocktails
The girls I knew had sad and sullen gray faces
With distant gay traces
That used to be there you could see where they'd been washed away
By too many through the day
Twelve o'clock tales
Then you came along with your siren of song
To tempt me to madness!
I thought for a while that your poignant smile was tinged with the sadness
Of a great love for me
Ah yes! I was wrong
Again,
I was wrong
Life is lonely again,
And only last year everything seemed so sure
Now life is awful again,
A troughful of hearts could only be a bore
A week in paris will ease the bite of it,
All I care is to smile in spite of it
I'll forget you, I will
While yet you are still burning inside my brain
Romance is mush,
Stifling those who strive
I'll live a lush life in some small dive
And there I'll be, while I rot
With the rest of those whose lives are lonely, too