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I walked into the lounge of the Windsor Arms Hotel
Where a band was playing Fifties songs
The ones we know so well
And they played just like the record
Not a note was out of place
Then they finished with "Goodnight Sweetheart"
By the guy who played the bass
As he walked by the table I offered him a beer
Said I was a player too
I had been for many years
And we talked about the business
All the years out on the road
How forever sweet sixteen
Was such a heluva heavy load
And he said, "Ya know I could have made it once
If I’d have listened to a friend
He had set up this audition
With a fifties group back when
But it was 1967 and I had dreams of moving on
The man who could’ve played bass for Shanana
Shanana, Shanana
He said, "I see them on the TV shows
Every now and again and I see my buddy playing
The saxophone the way he did back then
Oh we used to play the circuit
Any dive that had the pay
But we’d have done it all for nothing
Just to get a chance to play"
He said, "I talk to my family on every Sunday night
And I tell ‘em where I’m working next
And how the band is getting tight
And my children always ask me
How much longer I’ll be gone"
The man who could’ve played bass for Shanana
Shanana, Shanana
Well, we all have our stories
How we try but can’t forget
And how we sit in contemplation
And we lick our own regret
There’s the one we could've married
There’s the job we could've had
There’s the winning run we could've hit
If we had a more loving dad
And there’s the house we could’ve bought
When the prices weren’t so high
And there’s the loving words we could’ve said
Before that loved one died
There’s the road we could’ve traveled
There’s the one we traveled on and on and on
And there’s the man who could’ve played bass for Shanana
Shanana, Shanana, Shanana