Nica - Frank Turner

Calm down Nica

You don’t have to wait outside

Of the Stanhope for the doctor

Charlie Parker woke up in

Your apartment, on the sofa

And he’ll be fine, once he’s walked it off

And he’ll meet you, in the front row

Of the Five Spot around midnight

So load up the Bentley

And bring the hollowed-out bible

With the whiskey, 52nd Street

No phone calls from the cops or from

Your family can reach you

They all know you, you’re famous in

Your fur coat, with Thelonius

The high priest and the baroness

The cats all called you a butterfly

But that’s not quite right

Pannonica is a moth

Known to come alive in the dark of night

She might flutter by your table

She might whisper something secret in your ear

«You only need to hear one piece of advice

Each of us only gets one life»

So calm down Nica

You don’t have to drive on down

to Baltimore, anymore

The Cabaret Card’s waiting

in the morning mail, your mercy missions

for musicians didn’t fail

The young years, they are over

You’re forever black, brown, beige

The bebop baroness

The cats all called you a butterfly

But that’s not quite right

Pannonica is a moth

Known to come alive in the dark of night

She might flutter by your table

She might whisper something secret in your ear

«You only need to hear one piece of advice

Each of us only gets one life»

Nica spent hers flying

She was freer than the French

She always said,

«Just listen to the music, man,

And throw your heart over the fence,

And the rest will follow»