Billy Strayhorn - Lush Life Lyrics

I used to visit all the very gay places
Come-what-may places
Where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life
To get the feel of life from jazz and cocktails

The girls I knew had sad and sullen gray faces
With distingué traces that used to be there
You could see where they'd been washed away
By too many through the day
Twelve o'clock tales
Then you came along with your siren song
To tempt me to madness
I thought for a while that your poignant smile
Was tinged with the sadness of a great love for me
Ah, yes, I was wrong again
Again, I was wrong

Life is lonely again
And only last year, everything seemed so sure
Now life is awful again
A trough full of hearts could only be a bore
A week in Paris will ease the bite of it
All I care is to smile in spite of it

I'll forget you, I will, while yet you are still
Burning inside my brain, romance is mush
Stifling those who strive, I'll live a lush life
In some small dive and there I'll be while I rot
With the rest of those whose lives are lonely too