Million Dollar Racket

Unpublished

What is a part time picker
Doing here cutting singles
Knocking on the doors
Up and down Music Row
Writing songs about a lover
Who turns out to be no other
Then a Nashville hit
That don’t make it out the door

It’s a million-dollar racket
And you got to have the backing
To get that love song
Played on the radio
If you make it, you are lucky
If you don’t, you’re just a flunky
Knocking on the doors
Up and down Music Row

Some towns have got it
Others got nothing
But a gas station
And a grocery store
And a band that plays Top 40 hits
To a crowd that don’t know better
And a cop that drives in circles
Until the drunks get home

It’s a million-dollar racket
And you got to have the backing
To get that love song
Played on the radio
If you make it, you are lucky
If you don’t, you’re just a flunky
Knocking on the doors
Up and down Music Row

Think I might head
Down to the panhandle
And lay out on the beach
Where the salty winds blow
Across the horizon
Where the sun goes skipping
Like a stone into the waters
Of the Gulf of Mexico

It’s a million-dollar racket
And you got to have the backing
To get that love song
Played on the radio
If you make it, you are lucky
If you don’t, you’re just a flunky
Knocking on the doors
Up and down Music Row

Words & Music by Larry Long
Copyright Larry Long 1976 | BMI

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