Bobby Bare - Rough on the Living lyrics

(Shel Silverstein)

I wanna sing this song for a friend of ours

His picture was in all the papers

They said that a legend had passed

The late evenin' news did a special report

And swore that his mem'ry would last

They're playin' his records all weekend

Praisin' the life that he lived

Nashville is rough on the livin'

But she really speaks well of the dead.

The wife that they interviewed cried

Is the same one who left him last fall

And the record producer who called him a hero

Is the one who wouldn't answer his calls

The ladies they sit over coffee

Braggin' bout sharin' his bed

They didn't want him around when he's livin'

But he's sure a good friend when he's dead.

They observed twenty seconds of silence

At the Opry on Saturday night

And they're searchin' the bars and the basements

For some souvenir of his life.

They're plannin' a book for September

Showin' his plain country roots

Any they're sellin' the rights to the movie

And the Hall of Fame's gettin' his boots

At the funeral somebody recited a poem

That told how he suffered and bled

Nashville is rough on the livin'

But she really speaks well of the dead.

Yeah, Nashville is rough on the livin'

But she really speaks well of the dead...