Money Becomes King

If you reach back in your memory a little bell might ring

'Bout a time that once existed when money wasn't king

If you stretch your imagination, I'll tell you all a tale

About a time when everything wasn't up for sale

There was this cat named Johnny who loved to play and sing

When money wasn't king

We'd all get so excited when John would give a show

We'd raise the cash between us and down the road we'd go

To hear him play that music, it spoke right to my soul

Every verse a diamond and every chorus gold

And the sound was my salvation, it was only everything

Before money became king

Well, I ain't sure how it happened and I don't know exactly when

But everything got bigger and the rules began to bend

And the TV taught the people how to get their hair to shine

And how sweet life can be if you keep a tight behind

And they raised the cost of living and how could we have known

They'd double the price of tickets to go see Johnny's show?

So we hawked all our possessions and we sold a little dope

And went off to rock 'n' roll

We arrived there early, in time to see rehearsal

Then John came out and lip-synced his new lite beer commercial

And as the crowd arrived, as far as I could see

The faces were all different, there was no one there like me

They sat in golden circles and waiters served them wine

And talked through all the music and to John paid little mind

And way up in the nosebleeds, we watched him on the screen

They'd hung between the billboards so cheaper seats could see

Johnny rocked that golden circle and all those VIP's

And that music that had freed us became a tired routine

And I saw his face in close-up, tryin' to give it all he had

And sometimes his eyes betrayed him, you could see that he was sad

And I tried to rock on with him, but I slowly became bored

Could that man on stage with everything somehow need some more?

There was no use in pretending, no magic left to hear

All the music gave me was a craving for lite beer

As I walked out of the arena, my ears began to ring

And money became king