Lyrics You Gotta Pay The Band - Abbey Lincoln

You Gotta Pay The Band

Oh, it really isn’t easy
Just to let the good times roll
Everything is measured at a cost
Everybody living
Pays their share of dues
And sometimes what you think you got
You lost
So ring a ding-ding
Do your thing
But remember, darling
When you give a dance
You gotta pay the band
The band that played your song the whole night through
When you give a dance
It’s better if you try
To pay the piper what the piper’s due
The moves were free and easy
As we danced across the floor
The spins and the exchanges
Being what the music’s for
But when the party’s over
And the revelry is done
You gotta pay the band that played your song