Downstairs they're playing Kenton

The house set to swing

I lay in my bed

And listen to everything

Cause Leo's in rare form tonight

His trombone sings so sweet

This is the room

Where they all come to meet

He said

I do what I can

I live for the moment

And that's who I am

Yeah that's who I am



And isn't it good

If we could freeze moments in time

We all would

But I do what I can

I do what I can



Downstairs he's playing Kenton

The Magnavox sighs

But oh how the music has changed

In all of our lives

He says "nobody listens

To modern jazz"

And I'll never have what those guys have



He says

I do what I can

I work for a living

And that's who I am

Yeah that's who I am



And it's good to be alive

But everything's different since Leo died

I do what I can



Is this the end of the modern world

What could it mean for a young girl

Who sees the pain on his face

He does what he can



The procession on the TV screen

What could it possibly mean for a man

who's come this far just to turn around

Could there still be life in Kenton's swing

With the Kennedys gone and everything

Those sad rows of houses with their optimistic colors

Democrat grandparents and draft-dodging brothers

Riots down the street and discontented mothers

We do what we can



Downstairs it's quiet

Less alive somehow

Somehow he was everything that I am now



And he says

I do what I can

I work for a living

And that's who I am

And that's who I am



But it's good to be alive

And these are the choices

We make to survive

You do what you can