A MAN OF GREAT PROMISE - Paul Weller



I bought the paper yesterday and I saw the obituary

And I read of how you died in pain -

Well I just couldn't understand it



If I could of changed that, then Lord knows I'd do it now

But there is no going back -

And what's done is done forever



But you were always chained and shackled by the dirt -

Of every small town institution and every big town flirt



And I think of what you might have been,

a man of such great promise

Oh but, you seem to forget the dream -

And the more you saw you hated



But let's not talk of blame, for what is only natural

Like a moth going to a flame -

You had a dangerous passion



But you were always chained and shackled by the dirt -

Of every small town institution and every big town flirt



All the things that you might have been - but who am I to say?

Still I wonder -

If it's the cold earth you prefer to lay -

If it's the cold earth - you prefer to stay