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harry chapin - mr. tanner (live) lyrics

[spoken]
but anyway, this is a, this is a song i couldn’t have written without, without john. it’s uh, it’s about a, a singer from, uh, dayton, ohio whose name is mister tanner. and i’m, i’m sure someday john is gonna be knighted for his method+acting performance. sir john wallace, i love it.

[verse 1]
mister tanner was a cleaner from a town in the midwest
and of all the cleaning shops around he’d made his the best
but he also was a baritone who sang while hanging clothes
he practiced scales while pressing tails and sang at local shows
his friends and neighbors praised the voice that poured out from his throat
they said that he should use his gift instead of cleaning coats

[chorus]
(o fall on your knees)
but music was his life, it was not his livelihood
(o hear the angel voices)
and it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good
(o night divine)
and he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul
(o night, o night divine)
he did not know how well he sang; it just made him whole

[verse 2]
his friends kept working on him to try music out full time
a big debut and rave reviews, a great career to climb
finally they got to him, he would take the fling
a concert agent in new york agreed to have him sing
and there were plane tickets, phone calls
money spent to rent the hall
it took most of his savings but he gladly used them all
[chorus]
(o fall on your knees)
but music was his life, it was not his livelihood
(o hear the angel voices)
and it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good
(o night divine)
and he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul
(o night, o night divine)
he did not know how well he sang; it just made him whole

[bridge]
the evening came, he took the stage, his face set in a smile
and in the half+filled hall the critics sat watching on the aisle
but the concert was a blur to him, spatters of applause
he did not know how well he sang, he only heard the flaws
but the critics were concise, it only took four lines
but no one could accuse them of being over kind

[spoken]
mr. martin tanner, baritone, of dayton, ohio made his town hall debut last night. he came well prepared, but unfortunately his presentation was not up to contemporary professional standards. his voice lacks the range of tonal color necessary to make it consistently interesting.
[sung]
full time consideration of another endeavor
might be in order.

[verse 3]
he came home to dayton and was questioned by his friends
and he smiled and just said nothing and he never sang again
excepting very late at night when the shop was dark and closed
he sang softly to himself as he sorted through the clothes
[chorus]
(o fall on your knees)
music was his life, it was not his livelihood
(o hear the angel voices)
and it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good
(o night divine)
and he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul
(o night, o night divine)
he did not know how well he sang; it just made him whole

[spoken]
big john wallace!

- harry chapin lyrics

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