21st Annual Great American Song Contest
First Place Winner / Lyric Writing category

The Price Of A Song
by Michael R. J. Roth

The Price of a Song

Everybody wants a ticket to heaven
Everyone wants the last drop of wine
Everybody wants to end the discussion
And stand where the spotlight will shine
Everybody wants something for nothin’,
As if nothing could ever go wrong
And they want it all, they want it all
For the price of a song

Chorus:

The price of a song is the last glimpse of beauty
Before you go blind
The wounds of a soldier cut down under fire
The scar left behind
The tears of a mother with a child in her arms
The Judas kiss of a faithless lover
Who will rip out your heart for the price of a song

There's a song in the thunder and lightning,
On the bloodthirsty edge of a knife,
In a shot from a bottle of whiskey
Pushing emptiness back in the night

There's a song on the highway before you
Between the prison bars of a cell
In a cry out to God in the midst of misfortune
A glimmer of heaven while walking through hell
For the price of a song

Chorus:

When I think of the times that I have been injured
How I was maimed by the things I did wrong
And the pain that inevitably lingers
through the night and into the dawn
I know I’m not one of the chosen
I know that I’m not very strong
But I know every time I was broken
I broke into song

© Copyright Michael R. J. Roth
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