Luyện nghe bài hát The Face On The Barroom Floor

Recorded by Hank
- Hugh Antoine D'Arcy

'Twas a balmy summer evening and a crowd was there
Which well-nigh filled Joe's on the corner of the square
And as and witty stories came through the open door
A vagabond crept slowly in and posed the floor.
"Where did it come from?" Someone said. "The wind has it in?"
"What it want?" another cried, "Some whiskey, rum or gin?"
"Here, Toby, seek him, if stomach's equal to the work!"
"I touch him with a fork, why, he's as filthy as a Turk."
badinage the poor wretch took with stoical good grace
In fact, he smiled as though he thought he'd struck the place
"Come, boys, I know there's kindly hearts among so good a
Why, to be in such good company would a deacon proud."
"Give me a drink - that's what I - I'm out of funds, you know
I had cash to treat the gang, this hand was never slow
What? You laugh as tho' you thought this pocket held a sou
Why, I was fixed as well, my boys, as of you."
"There, thanks - that's braced me nicely - God you one and all
Next time I pass this saloon, I'll make another call
Give you a song? No, I can't do that - my singing are past
My voice is cracked and my throat's worn out and my are going fast.
"Say, Give me another whiskey and I'll tell you I'll do
I'll tell you a story and a fact I promise, too
That I was ever a man, not a one of you would think
But, I was some four of years back - say, give us another drink.
"Fill her up, Joe, I want to put some life my frame
Such little drinks, to a bum me, are miserably tame
Five fingers - there, that's the - and corkin' whisky, too
Well, here's luck, boys; and landlord, my best to you.
"You've treated me pretty kindly and I'd like to you how
I to be the dirty sot you see before you now
As I told you once, I was a man with a muscle, and health
And, but for a blunder, ought to made considerable wealth.
"I was a - not one that daubed on bricks and wood
But an and for my age, was rated pretty good
I worked hard at my canvas and I was bidding to rise
'Coz gradually I saw the star of fame my eyes.
"I made a picture perhaps seen, 'tis called the 'CHASE OF FAME'
It brought me fifteen pounds and added to my name
And then I met a woman - now comes the part
With eyes petrified my brain and sunk into my heart.
"Why you laugh? it's funny that the vagabond you see
Could ever love a woman and expect her for me
But so, and for a month or two, her smiles were freely given
And when her lips touched mine it carried me to heaven.
"Boys, did you ever see a for whom your soul you'd give
a form like the Milo Venus, too beautiful to live
With eyes like the purest of diamonds and a of chestnut hair?
If so, she, for there never was another half so fair.
"I was working on a portrait one in May
Of a fair-haired boy, a friend of mine, who across the way
And admired it and much to my surprise
she'd like to know the man that had such dreamy eyes.
"It didn't take to know him and before the month had flown
My friend had stole my and I was left alone
And ere a year of misery had passed my head
The jewel that I had so, had tarnished and was dead.
"That's why I took to drink, boys - why, I never saw you
I thought you'd be and laughing all the while
Why, what's the matter - There's a teardrop in your eye
Come, laugh like me; why 'tis only babes and women would cry.
"Say, boys, if you'd give me just another whiskey, I'll really be
And I'll right here a picture of the face that drove me mad
Give me that piece of chalk which you mark the baseball score
And you shall see the lovely upon the barroom floor."
Another drink and with chalk in hand the began
To sketch a face that might buy the soul of any man
And as he placed another lock upon the shapely head
With a shriek, he leaped and fell across the picture - dead.