Dan Fogelberg – Leader Of The Band Lyrics

An only child alone and wild, a cabinet maker's son
His hands were meant for different work
And his heart was known to none
He left his home and went his lone and solitary way
And he gave to me a gift I know I never can repay

A quiet man of music denied a simpler fate
He tried to be a soldier once, but his music wouldn't wait
He earned his love through discipline, a thundering velvet hand
His gentle means of sculpting souls took me years to understand

The leader of the band is tired and his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs through my instrument and his song is in my soul
My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man
I'm just a living legacy to the leader of the band

My brother's lives were different for they heard another call
One went to Chicago and the other to St Paul
And I'm in Colorado when I'm not in some hotel
Living out this life I've chose and come to know so well

I thank you for the music and your stories of the road
I thank you for the freedom when it came my time to go
I thank you for the kindness and the times when you got tough
And papa, I don't think I said I love you near enough

The leader of the band is tired and his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs through my instrument and his song is in my soul
My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man
I'm just a living legacy to the leader of the band
I am a living legacy to the leader of the band

Songwriters: Fogelberg, Dan
Leader Of The Band lyrics © EMI Music Publishing

Everyday I will collect the pain,
Then wait to be slain

I'm given the choice: Life or Death,
But I've still not taken my last breath.

Risk it all, and take the fall
But for some reason, I'm still holding on.

A soundless face that you'll soon forget,
a silhouette embroidered with loneliness

And now you only fancy hugs of darkness,
when did you gave up light?

A daydream forgotten in the way there,
desperate to love as you break my wings.

But you would see everything in kindness,
why are your eyes so teary?

The stories entangled in all these pages,
the worlds I'll never be able to touch.

one day you will be too poor to afford happiness

pill after pill
out of the orange
under your tongue
and into your blood

chequing account gradually dissolving into
$0.00

one day you will be too poor to afford happiness
your sanity sleeping with the devil
and i will laugh