Track Insight / Lyrics
Dusty bottles line the wall tonight
As you sit alone, hearing music alive
In some jazz club basement deep
Under Chicago's neon night
You plug your coiled iron in the socket, twist
Your wrist, it starts to hum like grandma's old Victrola
Time marches on, and you're just a cog
In an ancient clock tower, running on a heavy load
Oh, but while the clock keeps ticking all night
Your mind drifts to brandy sipping in Paris light
Where the Mona Lisa's smile would meet
Those whiskey-stained lips of yours at a Montmartre
The city swells outside, a concrete tide
Coupled with the rhythmic tick-tock, it'll keep you from sleep inside
Your mind wanders to a certain corner bar
Where a stranger's smile could melt the coldest scar
Oh, but while the clock keeps ticking all night
Your mind drifts to brandy sipping in Paris light
Where the Mona Lisa's smile would meet
Those whiskey-stained lips of yours at a Montmartre
Replace your starched apron with a velvet cloak
Your hands once stained with grease, now wander, smoke
Picture yourself on the Champs-Élysées
A bottle of cognac between your knees
Oh, but while the clock keeps ticking all night
Your mind drifts to brandy sipping in Paris light
Where the Mona Lisa's smile would meet
Those whiskey-stained lips of yours at a Montmartre
Another time, another place
You could shed your workman's face
Find the poet inside, don't hide
Let the words flow like Jameson's stride
The clock strikes midnight, the zoo's awake
The hoot owls join the ache
For a life beyond the local diner's glow
Where romance's refuge could grow
Oh, but while the clock keeps ticking all night
Your mind drifts to brandy sipping in Paris light
Where the Mona Lisa's smile would meet
Those whiskey-stained lips of yours at a Montmartre
And so it goes, move and tell
From clock turret to wine cellar
Your dreams unfurl, unfurl in the night
Of Paris lights and whiskey delight
Whiskey in Memphis, oh how you'll miss it
Tormenting your sleeping soul, regretting it
Once you've gone, then this city's walls will sigh
As the answers of your longing pass them by
