Top of the Bottom (Live at Union Hall)

Top of the Bottom - John Wesley Harding

I started

Playing guitar by the town memorial

All my songs were singing editorials

And when I'd done the sermon on the mount

I counted my change and put it in my bank account

I didn't like to work at the local abbatoir

So I left home expanded my repertoire

I did some gigs no one booed

I got free beer and I drank it with gratitude

Once I started I couldn't stop

That's how I got from the bottom to the top

A businessman with a very young dolly bird

Talked through the set liked what he thought he heard

Dropped some names he claimed to represent

And asked me if I had any management

Two weeks later I'm signing on the dotted line

Offered some *** at first I declined

Lots of parties where the spread's incredible

But don't get close cause the food's inedible

And I became a spinning top

That's how I got from

The bottom to the top

I got a sweet deal and I moved to America

I fell in love with an heiress called Erica

Started out smart soon got silly

I partied by the pool and then arrest for necrophilia

News travels fast like electricity

A bad mug shot it's good publicity

I laid low for a month or two

And spent my dough building a recording studio

And that's when it all went pop

That's how I got from

The bottom to the top of the bottom

My label and payola got me in the charts

My new management had me by the private parts

I went on strike took the initiative

Forgetting that

I didn't have a single thing to bargain with

I lost my nerve my fall was glorious

The lawsuit was eternal and laborious

My new material was only fair to middling

Rome was burning and I did some fiddling

Finally I was dropped that's how I got back from

The bottom to the top of the bottom

Well on the way down people tend to leave you where you fall

I tried to stand up but I didn't have the wherewithal

I nearly died in a cab one day

So I swapped my bourbon for a bottle full of Perrier

There were rumors about my sexuality

The video star killed by reality

Next thing I know I'm on my knees

Begging the camera

Will you vote me off the island please

But the world forgives a flop

That's how I got from

The bottom to the top of the bottom

Oh well all that exposure

And the phone starts to ring again

I experienced the strange urge to sing again

Well not long ago I was a boy with a dream

I reacquaint myself with a razor

And some shaving cream

Look at me I'm ripe for rediscovery

All I need is Mary to mother me

On the tenth green I was way over par

My partner offered me a tour in Jesus Christ superstar

And that's when the penny dropped

That's how I got from

The bottom to the top of the bottom

Well we toured all over the states of America

I got a picture of my son from Erica

My parents wrote since you disappeared

Hard to believe but it's just been one year

Now it's back to ale and cakes again

I wonder if I'll make the same mistakes again

I hope that you've enjoyed this tutorial

There's another young man who was playing the memorial

I'm getting bored of talking shop

That's how I got from

The bottom to the top of the bottom

To the top of the bottom

To the top of the bottom