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Story behind the song
Years ago, I used to plant myself very frequently in a piano bar with a cognac. I got to know the staff and the performer very well. The song was written for the female singer/pianist to perform (hence the view point). It contains personal references that are definitely not universal but were thumbnail portraits of the main players at the time (excluding me) which is why they come off outside that circle as cryptic.
This version is a more elaborate arrangement based on the original piano-only manuscript that I re found a few years back. In truth it requires a female singer and so appears here as an instrumental.
Lyrics
Ann is a beautiful woman,
Helping people down on their luck.
That doesn't mean she's not human,
Sometimes it's her that gets stuck.
She's a sociological wonder,
Defies all perceptual gloss.
She still works here despite her blunder
When she poured a drink on the boss.
Chorus:
Life is strange. Not always a pain.
Sometimes it's beautiful. At least it's never the same.
Suzy is waiting those tables.
You wouldn't know her on her own.
She spends all her time at the stables
With "Horses for Madmen Alone".
She is a real vampire lady.
She can melt any man of stone.
She is out to prove to us daily
That she is more than mere skin and bones.
Then there is bartender Joe.
Poke him to see if he is awake.
I'm not sure, he moves so slow.
Never mind, he won't know I'm on break.
Middle Eight:
Cole Porter, Bobby Short,
Billy Holiday, to the latest report,
All sang in bars like this before.
Oh, isn't life strange.
Kurt Weill, Edith Piaf,
Bertolt Brecht (is this silly enough?)
All wrote songs for people like you
And they weren't so strange.
Oh yes, then there is me.
Do you wonder what I am doing here then?
It sure can't be here for the money.
But, thank god, there are men.
Cute and dumb men are a sensation
Because they are easy to bend.
I don't want them for conversation
I can get that from my friends.
Isn't life strange!