The Life of a Showgirl [Liner Notes]

And Baby, That's Show Business For You

You wake up branded with the lines of pillow creases

Thunderbolted tree roots across your cheek

In turn, last night's mascara stains the ivory hotel pillowcase

Each one leaving their mark on the other

Looks like you're even

You say "good morning" to them when you walk in and they don't correct you

As they spray vodka on the armpits of the dancer's costumes

We learn these tricks along the way

The flesh toned bandage wrap

Covered by skin colored fishnets

Because you will cover the wound, no matter how deep it is

No one ever knew

And baby, that's show business for you

Sweat And Vanilla Perfume

Coffee stretch

Piano keys

Vocal warm ups in a locker room shower

Eyelash glue

A photo of him on the mirror

Sweat and vanilla perfume

The cracking of joints and the distant beat of a drum

The curtain call

The menotous thrill of it all

Plan it out so it doesn't look planned

Ten different backup plans

If your red bottomed heel breaks

You will keep strutting

Balancing on the walls of your blistered feet

Know your exits

Shoulders back

Eyes up

Hit your marks

Your winks

Sparks

Tell them a story like it's an intimate dinner party

The looks on their wondrous faces

Their expressions like mood rings

Isn't it all so majestic?

Of course it is

It's a lot of other things too

The Crowd Is Your King

Remember this city?

You've been here before in another life

On another tour

Remember her?

She's got a mortgage now

Straight teeth where there'd been metal brackets

Standing with her eight year old daughter

You mouth "I know you"

In the millisecond gap in your choreography

To you, she will look exactly the same age as when you first saw her

She will always be fourteen and a half

Remember

Lock right back into the footwork

Any missed step is a misstep

You must remember everything

But mostly this: the crowd is your king who has ruled over you for centuries

Benevolently for the most part

The Shiny Bug

Perhaps someday they will despise you again

Perhaps it is not a matter of "if," but "when?"

They'll re-assess your merits and then take a magnifying glass to the shiny bug

Deflate all the heroes they had decided she was

And maybe they'll do it just because

But you live by a strict code

Never believe your own mythology

Never type your name into the search bar

Let the wolves howl all they want

So you keep yourself too busy to ever learn what's-their-name's name

The Tiny Bubbles In Champagne

He ran to his car from work to catch the flight

Missed the first act but somehow it's better this way

It's just right because you get to watch him make his way through the masses

Parting the crowd like some neon Moses in a sequin sea

He is a magnet and a trampoline

The tiny bubbles in champagne

Haphazard but precise, he crash-landed next to you

Reckless, but never with your heart

If he's in, you are too

You've begun to feel that

Every song before was just a prayer

A wish list

He is not what you've been waiting for

He is more

Why you held out

Why you left

And nothing aches suddenly

He has that effect

The Life of a Showgirl (It's Beautiful, It's Rapturous, It's Frightening)

Tonight all these lives converge here

The mosaics of laughter and cocktails of tears

Where fraternal souls sing identical things

And it's beautiful, it's rapturous, it is frightening

It's worth everything it has cost you

And even at your darkest or drunkest

You wouldn't say any different

Would you?

You would choose all of it again

No matter how the story ends

With the ugliest boos or the loveliest boquet

They say that love is a choice you make every single day

And that is how you love the life of a showgirl