Penny Picture Show Lyrics

Tommy was a brawler in the Penny Picture Show

Fighting cardboard cutouts, saving women made of straw

Every day at work he'd throw his fists of fallacy

And every night he's throwing back quarter-fifths J&Bs

Tommy he'd wear a bowler and make all the ladies swoon

But he's just another pug-nosed pugilist, promising them the moon

And he'd say we all have our roles to play

The gin-soaked cameramen, they're setting up the shots

And the late-night hairdressers, they're out making lipstick love

The lighting crew, they're rigging something for tomorrow's fairy tale

The writers' room, they're drinking something to craft the dialogue

The bookkeeper, he's in the corner shuffling digits and decimals around

Seeing just how many more pictures they can make

The director, he's out on the cutting floor

He's got a glass of burgundy

He's going over today's takes

It's just another day

At the Penny Picture Show

Lucy, she was a dancer at the Penny Picture Show

She loved to play the black dressed femme fatale

She could smoke long cigarettes on stage

And go on and on and on and on and on

With coy cliches

But usually they'd just have her do the same routine

She'd be wearing next to nothing

Sipping dry martinis

Dreaming about Paris in the rain

She'd say, we all have our roles to play

The gin-soaked cameramen, they're setting up the shots

While the late-night hairdressers, they're out making lipstick love

The lighting crew, they're rigging something or other for tomorrow's fairy tale

The writers' room, they're drinking something

They say it's for the dialogue

While the bookkeeper, he's over in the corner

Shuffling decimals and digits into different columns

To see just how many more pictures they can make

While the director, he's out on the cutting floor

He's got a glass of burgundy

He's going over today's takes

It's just another day

At the Penny Picture Show

Charlie was a writer at the Penny Picture Show

Pulling heroes out the air, saving scripts from the grave

He'd lie in wait to see what kind of thoughts came through the door

But usually it was just somebody else looking for his key to the liquor drawer

So Charlie, he'd go out and get some ice and fill the glasses to the top

Then put paper into his machine and wait for those ghosts to come

He'd say, we all have our roles to play

Yeah, we all have our roles to play

It's just another day at the Penny Picture Show