Sad Trombone

From way back here on the bandstand

She looked like a goddess in the lights

At some point in the set

She’d turn her face and glance my way most nights

I’d take a little solo

I’d play for her, she’d smile, return the favor

I’d make the sweetest love to her with every semiquaver

“There’s a sadness in your playing,” she said

“That penetrates my bones

Something in your intonation, something in your tone

Always understated, never overblown

My name for you is Sad Trombone

Yes, my name for you is Sad Trombone.”

It seemed like she’d found the secret key to my soul

And gathered up my broken life and somehow made me whole

We’d share a room together, my bandmates were all green

And they warned me ‘bout some story

In a movie they’d all seen

“There’s a sadness in your playing,” she said

“That penetrates my bones

Something in your intonation, something in your tone

Always understated, never overblown

My name for you is Sad Trombone

Yes, my name for you is Sad Trombone.”

Now when the light goes out

And the music stops and the curtains close

That’s when your heartbeat race

Sadness on your face, and you can’t take no more

I see you searching for your smile

We haven’t seen that in a while

Now when the light goes out

And the music stops and the curtains close

That’s Sad Trombone

We never made much money, the ticket counts were light

We’d count the bars until we reached some hotel for the night

She was my morning coffee, the butter on my toast

‘Til she got a better offer from some outfit on the coast

Oh, there’s a sadness in my playing now

A desperate cry, a moan

Something in my choice of notes

Something in my tone

Sliding to the deepest bass from a lonely baritone

I guess I’ll always be the Sad Trombone

I guess I’ll always be the Sad Trombone

It’s an old, old story

And one you’ve probably heard

You start out in a major key

Then you’re down a minor third

Aimlessly sliding, sinking like a stone

It doesn’t get no deeper

Than the scraps that you’ve been thrown

But some things they just stay with you

Long after they have flown

And it always comes back down…to the bone

And it always comes back down…to the bone

Down to the bone

Down to the bone

Down to the bone

Down to the bone

Down to the bone