The Neon Owes Me Rent

Nashville sings in the first person, with a country-noir pulse: the city that taught a wooden stage to travel by radio, built a music industry on Music Row, and turned Lower Broadway into a tourism machine. The shadow is in the exchange. The name sells; the people who make the songs still need somewhere to live.

Music Row has been the focal point of Nashville's music industry for almost 70 years, and historic RCA Studio A and B now sit under pressure from the city's booming development. 1 The Grand Ole Opry has been a country institution since 1925. 2 Lower Broadway's tourism boom has brought crowds, noise, alcohol-related disorder, and a downtown that some local residents avoid on weekends. 3

[Intro] I am Nashville, Tennessee Put a little steel in the morning rain

[Verse 1] In nineteen twenty-five, a wooden stage Sent my front porch voice through a radio haze The old church benches learned the family names While every dream came south on a freight train

[Pre-Chorus] I put a picker's name on every door Then sold the door and called it progress

[Chorus] I am Music City, put me on a T-shirt Put me on a rooftop where the Friday nights hurt I got a song in my mouth and a price on my throat The neon owes me rent, but it never pays what it owes I am Nashville, I am Nashville The neon owes me rent

[Verse 2] Down on Music Row, the little houses lean With a publisher's lamp and a microphone dream Studio A and B keep their ghosts in tune While the high-rises throw a longer afternoon

[Pre-Chorus] The cranes hum louder than the six-string strings And a song gets measured by the room it brings

[Chorus] I am Music City, put me on a T-shirt Put me on a rooftop where the Friday nights hurt I got a song in my mouth and a price on my throat The neon owes me rent, but it never pays what it owes I am Nashville, I am Nashville The neon owes me rent

[Verse 3] On Lower Broad, the buses cough and glow A hundred borrowed choruses in a row My own people take the long way home When the weekend turns the sidewalk into chrome The visitor buys the hat, the city buys the brand The player keeps the rhythm and the landlord keeps the land

[Bridge] I was a room with a song in the wall Now I am a room where the song must sell If I give you my name, will you give me a place Or just paint my old face on the side of the hotel?

[Instrumental Break]

[Final Chorus] I am Music City, put me on a T-shirt Put me on a rooftop where the Friday nights hurt I got a song in my mouth and a price on my throat The neon owes me rent, but it never pays what it owes I am Nashville, still tuning the wire Still making a living from setting things on fire I am Nashville, I am Nashville The neon owes me rent

[Outro] When the last bus leaves and the big signs blink I hear one cheap guitar at the edge of the drink I am Nashville, Tennessee And the rent is due in every key I am Nashville The neon owes me rent