Real Without Regret
by Michael Doyle

You started real
And sold out for a mansion.
It's the corporate feel,
Soulless suits were never in fashion.

Life is raw,
And only sometimes pretty.
Singing about what you saw
In every man's town and city.

This world can be strongly frayed.
You hear it in every note played.
Until some arranger takes the sting
To make more dollars just to sing.

I won't be tearing down legacy
When I tell the tale of what it's meant to me.
Selling out for no other need
Then, to fill the treasury of corporate greed.

Road dogs are down for one more tour,
Never ones to mind the detours.
Building an empire, brick by brick,
Just like family, it was that thick

This world can be strongly frayed.
You hear it in every note played.
Until some arranger takes the sting
To make more dollars just to sing.

There for every single mile,
Footnotes lost within a smile.
Brotherhood has become a ragged rivalry,
And broken dreams hold little sympathy.

Downtown trains on a rail going nowhere
Have the feel of a downtrodden stare.
There is no theft in the serendipity
Of a loss bleeding into cold sympathy.

This world can be strongly frayed.
You hear it in every note played.
Until some arranger takes the sting
To make more dollars just to sing.

MTV styles were poison to the soul.
Flash and bang revive the rock-n-roll.
Concepts breed into a bleak distraction
There's no truth needed in fast-food satisfaction.

Life is lived best when lived out of step.
The future is what the past has left.
Though there is a lot to forget,
Let's live rock-n-roll without regret.

This world's strings are strongly frayed.
You hear it in every note that's played.
That is until some arranger takes the sting,
And removes the soul from the songs we sing.

(c) August 5, 2025    Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved