PLAY IT AS IT LAYS^©

Album's version

Sad song on the radio
Echoes down this empty road, here tonight
With lost memory and a lonely rhyme
Of windshield wipers slapping time, you know the one
It woke up something that was sleeping below my skin
I wanted to tell you so much, but where do I start, where do I begin
Do I start with how I lost my kindness and how I found it once again
And I'm gonna play it as it lays
Play it as it lays
Ooh, ooh

Every perfect picture has a mess or two
Sometimes it's me, sometimes it's you, but that's alright
You surrender, you confess, you make a mess, you get undressed and call it a night
But I remember the first time that I lay down inside your arms
How I kisses your tired mouth, so full of grace, so empty of harm
How I knew the road ahead would unravel itself, cursed and charmed
And I would just play it as it lays
Play it as it lays
Play it as it lays

Say a prayer for the brokenhearted
Get back up and get it started again
Say a prayer for the brokenhearted
Say a prayer for love

Years go by, you add them up
Some days are holy, some days are rough, but that's alright
It's a used up line, you know it's true, I never loved anyone the way that I love you
Yesterday I walked down the streets we walked when were young
Trying to pull a thread between who we once were and who we've become
And if we lost a little along the way, that's all right, what's done is done
And I'm just gonna play it as it lays
Oh, play it as it lays
I'm just gonna play it as it lays
Oh, play it as it lays
Alright
Play it as it lays
I'm gonna
Play it as it lays
Alright
(Ooh)
(Ooh)
(Ooh)

Page last updated: 12 Mar 2008

Written by Patti Scialfa, title track of her third album Play It As It Lays which she released on 04 Sep 2007 on Columbia Records.

Bruce Springsteen contributes in the studio recording of five of the album's tracks -- he plays Hammond B3 organ and electric guitar on PLAY IT AS IT LAYS. He is also credited for some photography on the album's artwork.

The above lyrics are for the Play It As It Lays album's version of PLAY IT AS IT LAYS. As far as it's known, Springsteen has never performed this song live.

Thanks Jake (ol'catfishinthelake from BTX and Greasy Lake) for the help.

Patti Scialfa notes about the song:

I was always a big Joan Didion fan and "Play It As It Lays" -- her second novel -- always seemed like such a great title to me. The people in the book were so broken, which is an interesting place to start. At the end of the day, that's what you do. You can't choose all your cards, you can't choose all the circumstances you find yourself in, but it comes down in the end to how strong your heart and resilience and understanding is. That's just what I was trying to write about.