Shel Silverstein Follow

Nashville Is Rough On The Living
(As performed on "Old Dogs")
Lyrics by: Shel Silverstein

His picture was in all the papers.
They said that a legend had passed.
The Late Evening News did a Special Report,
Swore that his memory would last.

They're playing his records all weekend,
Praising the life that he led.
Nashville is rough on the living;
But she really speaks well of the dead.

The wife that they interviewed, crying,
Is the same one who left him last fall.
And the record producer who called him a hero,
Is the one who wouldn't answer his call.

The ladies, they sit over coffee,
Bragging 'bout sharing his bed.
They didn't want him around when he's living,
But he's sure a good friend when he's dead.

They observed Twenty Seconds of Silence
At the Opry on Saturday Night.
And they're searching the bars and the basements,
For Some Souvenir of his Life .

They're planning a book for September,
Showing his plain country roots.
And they're selling the rights to the movie,
And the Hall of Fame's getting his boots.

At the funeral somebody recited a poem,
That told how he suffered and bled.
Nashville is rough on the living;
But she really speaks well of the dead.

Yea! Nashville is rough on the living;
But she really speaks well of the dead.