Brock Zeman - Gastown Lyrics
Had a room at the Cambie hostel and I was just killing some timeWhen I heard this lonesome sound coming from down the streetThere was an old man picking a guitar with a case opened at his feetHe had long white hair beneath an old cap and a long white beardHe was picking some John Prine tune for everyone to hearI leaned up against the wall and held on to his every wordThen he started playing some mining song that I'd never heardHe called it Dark As a Dungeon and it was enough to make you weepWhen you hear it played by an old man on a street corner of Gastown on an old guitar with nylon stringsA man walked by and flicked a penny which landed outside of his caseAnd he stopped the song before it was through and said, Sir let me tell you one thingI'm down on my luck with no roof over my headBut I'm an artist not a beggar and this is the only gig I could getAnd as he placed the penny back in that man's hand he said, You can keep your charityAnd if you're still feeling giving later on go see them winos down the streetThat man closed his hand on his penny and his face got all red and he started walking down the streetAnd that man with the guitar turned and said to me,Son I've never had the finer things but I'm doing all that I loveThat makes me as free as the rich down here and them birds flying up aboveThen he went back into that old mining song and he never missed a beatAnd the hair stood up on the back of my neck when he began to singI took a twenty out of my pocket and dropped it in his caseAnd he smiled at me and said, thank-you son before I could walk awayAnd whenever I'm playing in a bar someplace where the crowd can talk louder than I can singI just think about an old man standing on a corner in Gastown picking an old guitar with nylon strings
