Mr. Tanner

Mr. tanner was a cleaner from a town in the Midwest
 And of all the cleaning shops around he'd made his the best
 But he also was a baritone who sang while hanging clothes
 He practiced scales while pressing tails and sang at local shows
 His friends and neighbors praised the voice
 That poured out from his throat
 They said that he should use his gift instead of cleaning coats
 But music was his life, it was not his livelihood
 And it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good
 And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul
 He did not know how well he sang, it just made him whole
 His friends kept working on him to try music out full time
 A big debut and rave reviews, a great career to climb
 Finally they got to him, he would take the fling
 A concert agent in New York agreed to have him sing
 And there were plane tickets, phone calls, money spent to rent the hall
 It took most of his savings but he gladly used them all
 But music was his life, it was not his livelihood
 And it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good
 And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul
 He did not know how well he sang, it just made him whole
 The evening came, he took the stage, his face set in a smile
 And in the half filled hall the critics sat watching on the aisle
 But the concert was a blur to him, spatters of applause
 He did not know how well he sang, he only heard the flaws
 But the critics were concise, it only took four lines
 But no one could accuse them of being over kind
 Mr. Martin Tanner, baritone of Dayton, Ohio
 Made his town hall debut last night
 Be came well prepared, but unfortunately his presentation
 Was not up to contemporary professional standards
 His voice lacks the range of tonal color
 Necessary to make it consistently interesting
 Full time consideration of another endeavor might be in order
 He came home to Dayton and was questioned by his friends
 Then he smiled and just said nothing and he never sang again
 Excepting very late at night when the shop was dark and closed
 He sang softly to himself as he sorted through the clothes
 Music was his life, it was not his livelihood
 And it made him feel so happy, it made him feel so good
 And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul
 And he did not know how well he sang, it just made him whole