Songs I Wish I Wrote: "A Better Place To Be" Harry Chapin

\It was an early morning bar room and the place just opened up

And the little man came in so fast and started at his cups

And the broad who served the whiskey was a big old friendly girl

Who tried to fight her empty nights by smiling at the world

And she said “Hey Bub, it’s been awhile since you’ve been around.

Where the hell you been hiding and why you look so down.”

Well, the little man just sat there, like he’d never heard a sound…

The waitress, she gave out with a cough, and acting not the least put off, she spoke once again...

She said, “I don’t want to bother you, consider it’s understood,

And I know I ‘m not no beauty queen, but I sure can listen good.”

Then the little man took his drink in his hand and raised it to his lips

He took a couple of sips, and then he told the waitress this story.

“I am the midnight watch man down at Miller’s Tool & Die

And I watch the metal rusting.  I watch the time go by.”

A week ago at the diner, I stopped to get a bite,

And this here lovely lady, she sat two seats to my right

And Lord, Lord, Lord….Lord, Lord, Lord….she was alright

Well she was so damned beautiful, she could warm a winter frost

But she looked plumb past lonely, and well night unto lost

Now I’m not much of a mover, or a pick-em-up-easy guy

But I decided to glide on over, and give here one good try

And Lord, Lord, Lord, ...Lord, Lord, Lord,... she was worth a try

I was tongue tied like a school boy, I stammered out some words

It did not seem to matter much cause I don’t think she heard

She just looked clear on through me to a space inside my head

And shamed me into silence, when quietly she said

“If you want me to come with you, well, that’s all right with me

‘Cause I know I’m going nowhere, and anywhere’s a better place to be.”

Well, I drove her back to my boarding house and I took her up to my room

And  went to turn on the only light that brightened up the gloom

But she said, “Please leave the light off, cause I don’t mind the dark.”

And as the clothes all tumbled ‘round her, I could hear my heart..

The moonlight shown upon her as she lay back in my bed

It was the kind of scene I only had imagined in my head

I just could not believe it, to think that she was real

And when I tried to tell her, she said,

“Shsssssss, I know just how your feel.”

“And if you want to come here with me, well that’s all right with me

“Cause I been oh so lonely, loving someone is a better way to be..”

Anywhere’s a better place to be.

The morning came so swiftly as I held her in my arms,

And she slept like a baby, warm and safe from harm

I did not want to share her or dare to break the mood

So before she woke I went out to buy us both some food

I came back with my paper bag to find that she was gone

She’d left a six word letter, saying...

“It’s time that I moved on…”

You know the waitress, she took her bar rag and wiped it across her eyes

And when she spoke her voice came out as something like a sigh

She said “I wish that I was beautiful or that you were half-way blind.

“And I wish I weren’t so goddamned fat...I wish that you were mine.

And I wish that you’d come with me when I leave for home

Cause we both know all about loneliness and living all alone.”

And the little man looked at the empty glass in his hand

And smile a crooked grin, he said, I..I guess I’m out of gin

And I know we both have been so lonely….

And if you want me to come with you, well that’s alright with me

Cause I know I’m going no where and anywhere’s a better place to be

Anywhere’s a better place to be….