From the recording Money to Burn
Lyrics
My daddy was a piano man
With a Continental flair
He played waltzes from old Vienna
As if he still were there
He taught me how to whistle
To laugh each time I fall
And how to always face the facts
And read the writing on the wall.
Y’see, my dad was born with a silver spoon
With life at his command
He rode the finest horses
Over miles of his own land
But when the boots of hate came marching
Before the start of World War II
They came to kill my father’s kind
He knew what he must do.
BRIDGE
He caught the last boat to America
Before the tyrants took it and the final curtain fell
And he left it all behind him…
Only photographs can tell
Y’know, you just can’t take it with you
When you’re running fast from hell.
My daddy was a piano man
With a Continental flair
He played waltzes from old Vienna
As if he still were there
He taught me how to listen
When bad news comes to call
And how to make hard choices:
Read the writing on the wall.