You Gotta Pay The Band - Abbey Lincoln

Oh, it really isn’t easy

Just to let the good times roll

Everything is measured at a cost

Everybody living

Pays their share of dues

And sometimes what you think you got

You lost

So ring a ding-ding

Do your thing

But remember, darling

When you give a dance

You gotta pay the band

The band that played your song the whole night through

When you give a dance

It’s better if you try

To pay the piper what the piper’s due

The moves were free and easy

As we danced across the floor

The spins and the exchanges

Being what the music’s for

But when the party’s over

And the revelry is done

You gotta pay the band that played your song