Blue State Cowboys sing "Pay To Play (But Keep Love In Your Heart)"

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Blue State Cowboys , led by Matt Farmer, sing country-style about "pay to play" in the Windy City. Here are the lyrics:

PAY TO PLAY (But Keep Love In Your Heart)

By Matt Farmer

All my life I’ve been a workin’ man

On Chicago’s northwest side

Livin’ check to check, never gettin’ ahead

No matter how hard I tried

I had an old friend from the neighborhood

He grew up to do just fine

He couldn’t read or write to save his life

But I guess his boss didn’t mind

Now, I never quite knew what my old friend did

To get that money rollin’ in

But life, I guess, can be pretty good

For a state committeeman

So, one night over beer at the local bar

I said, “How’d you make your dough?”

My friend just grinned a wicked grin

And said “Here’s all you need to know”

CHORUS

You’ve got to pay-to-play in this town

If you wanna make that deal go down

It’s who you know inside the Big Machine

Just find the man that’s behind the man

And put some money in his hand

That’s how we try to keep our city green

VERSE

Well, the liquor flowed and the stories flew

And my old friend bared his soul

About rigging bids and getting neighbor kids

Good jobs on a ghost payroll

He said he’d be happy to help me out

If there was anything he could do

Like try to arrange a zoning change

Or put me on a movie crew

Well, we talked and talked until last call

And then I told him I was beat

Then he climbed aboard his hired truck

To see a man about a Senate seat

And late that night as I lay in bed

You know I finally figured it out

My friend didn’t need to read or write

Cause he had himself some clout

CHORUS

You’ve got to pay-to-play in this town

If you wanna make that deal go down

It’s who you know inside the Big Machine

Just find the man that’s behind the man

And put some money in his hand

That’s how we try to keep our city green

CHORUS

You’ve got to pay-to-play in this town

If you wanna make that deal go down

It’s who you know inside the Big Machine

If you wanna standout

You gotta know who gets the handout

That’s how we try to keep our city green

It’s a daily job to keep our city green

Go Cowboys!