Stand Up Guy - Mark Knopfler

Brew the coffee in a bucket

Double straight man and banjo

If you don’t got the snake oil

Buster, you don’t got a show

Who puts the do re me in our pockets

Keeps the party goin' on?

It’s the man who sells the potions

I’m just the one who plays the songs

Now they generally buys

The bigger size

They usually rub it in

I drank it once, it tasted

Like grease and paraffin

It’s mostly alcohol, okay

You can’t deny it’s strong

We was goin' through the motions

'Til the doctor came along

There stands the bottle

Ladies and gentlemen

All these bottles

Don’t have to tell you, friends

These days miracles

Don’t come fallin' from the sky

Raise your glasses to the doctor

To a stand up guy

When the monkey shine is flyin'

And he’s promisin' the cure

He says the French for your lovesick blues

La maladie d’amour

He gets the chumps all laughin'

But he gets a few to buy

Here’s a beefsteak when you’re hungry

And whiskey when you’re dry

Now the band’ll blow their moolah

Like sailors gone ashore

Now we’re goin' to West Helena

To gamble, drink and whore

Let’s you and me all make whoopee

Here’s mud in your eye

Here’s to all the gals he ever want

And Heaven when you die

There’s a big cheese with a cigar

Been sizin' up the show

He wants to get the doctor

Pitchin' on the radio

I will make a switch to guitar

But the rules all still apply

They want to trust somebody

Yeah, they want a stand up guy

There stands the bottle

Here’s to absent friends

All these bottles

Dead soldiers in the end

These days miracles

Don’t come falling from the sky

Raise your glasses to the doctor

To a stand up guy

To the doctor

A stand up guy