It's About Time

Words & Music by John Shine

My baby left me when the lights went out.
I didn't even beg her to stay.
And it's gotten kinda chilly since they shut off the gas for that bill I didn't pay.
The car won't start and the rain won't stop and it's six more months till May
and it's gotten real quiet since the phone went dead and the parakeet flew away.

Somebody else might kill himself in times no worse than these.
Somebody else might kill himself but somebody else ain't me...I figure

It's about time
about time
it's about time things started goin' my way.

Down at the racetrack last five dollars on a daily double seven and nine.
 I had the first race right but in the second one mine was nothin' but the third in line.
 I was burnin' that ticket on my last cigarette when a voice came on the PA.
He said 'the first two nags are disqualified so the Double's seven-nine today!" 

After I had dried my eyes and bummed the bus fare home,
 I figured out with odds like that, it couldn't be too long...I figured

It's about time
about time
it's about time things started goin' my way.

I had a job interview on the 26th Floor but a fire broke out and, gee...
there was no way down but a great big window. I had to take a chance and see.
 It was pure luck when I hit that circus truck movin' that trampoline.
 I bounced up & down about two or three times but I landed nice & clean.

Then ten reporters got my name and asked, 'was I surprised?'
And I said, 'No, not really, see, 'cuz I just realized...I figured

It's about time
about time
it's about time things started goin' my way.

The very next morning, Michael A. Anthony was pounding on my front door.
He said, 'May I come in?' I said 'Sure, but you're gonna have to sit on the floor!'
He said, 'I've got some money for you if you don't ever say how it came.
It's a million dollars...just read this paper and scribble out your name.'

Well I bet he kinda figured I'd faint dead away.
 But all that I could do was shake his hand and say

It's about time
about time
it's about time things started goin' my way.