A Wasted Life
Three sheets to the wind in Copenhagen
Beaten to submission in Berlin
Locked up in a cell in Barcelona
Down and out in Paris and Madrid
If I'd only set the bar a little higher
If I'd only kept an eye upon the time
Then I wouldn't be poking embers round the fire
Of this wasted life of mine
Yeah
Why should I care?
I'm going down the drink
I'll see you there
And I wouldn't be pretending I was Hemingway or Reed
If I could write a happy ending
To this wasted life I lead
Abandoned to the waves in old Valetta
All washed up in the port of Amsterdam
Taken to the cleaners in Vienna
Thrown into the Bull Ring in Birmingham
If I'd only set the bar a little higher
If I'd only kept an eye upon the time
Then I wouldn't be poking embers round the fire
Of this wasted life of mine
Yeah
Why should I care?
I'm going down the drink
I'll see you there
And I wouldn't be pretending I was Hemingway or Reed
If I could write a happy ending
And there were ten green bottles on the wall
And there were twenty green bottles on the wall
And there were thirty green bottles on the wall
And it was only half past four
Yeah
Why should I care?
I'm going down the drink
I'll see you there
And I wouldn't be pretending I was Hemingway or Reed
If I could write a happy ending
To this wasted life I lead
© Richard Quarterman 2017