FRANK SINATRA - ONE FOR MY BABY
(Music: Harold Arlen; Lyrics: Johnny Mercer)

It’s quarter to three,
There’s no one in the place,
‘cept you and me.
So set ‘em up Joe,
I got a little story,
I think you should know.

We’re drinking my friend,
To the end,
Of a brief episode.
Make it one for my baby,
And one more for the road.

I got the routine,
Put another nickel
In the machine.
Feelin’ so bad,
Can’t you make the music
Easy and sad?

I could tell you a lot,
But you gotta be
True to your code.
Just make it one for my baby,
And one more for the road.

You’d never know it,
But buddy, I’m a kind of poet,
And I’ve got a lot of things I’d like to say.

And when I’m gloomy,
Won’t you listen to me,
‘Til it’s talked away.

Well, that’s how it goes,
And Joe, I know you’re gettin’
Anxious to close.
So thanks for the cheer,
I hope you didn’t mind
My bending your ear.

But this torch that I found,
It’s gotta be drowned,
Or it soon might explode.
So make it one for my baby,
And one more for the road.

THOUSANDS

Out of the thousands
who are known,
or who want to be known
as poets,
maybe one or two
are genuine
and the rest are fakes,
hanging around the sacred precincts
trying to look like the real thing.
Needless to say
I am one of the fakes,
and this is my story.

  — Leonard Cohen (b. 1934), Canadian poet, novelist and singer-songwriter.