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Last Call is an original song written, produced and with lyrics by Paul Robert Thomas with music exclusively commercially licensed to Paul from the album More Folk
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Last Call is available to download at all good download stores as well as on Bandcamp
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You can download the album More Folk at all download stores HERE and on Bandcamp HERE
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“Last Call” is a gritty, tragic, and intensely dramatic theatrical folk song that pulls back the velvet curtain on the exhausting, soul-crushing reality of a life spent in showbiz. It serves as a powerful, bitter monologue of an aging entertainer who has reached their absolute breaking point.
The musical arrangement is brilliant—the contrast between that steady, slightly melancholy acoustic guitar strumming and the deep, rich theatrical delivery of the vocals really captures the feeling of someone standing on the edge of the stage, utterly drained but forced to carry on.
The track opens in the tense, quiet moments before the curtain rises, where the performer is masking a deep, “vile” depression with a forced smile, putting out a cigarette in a glass of gin. The lyrics expose a harrowing contrast between the glamour of the stage and the hollow reality behind it: the stage is likened to a humiliating “circus ring,” and the performance itself feels utterly fake. As the song progresses, a narrative of exploitation emerges; the narrator directs a searing verse toward a parasitic figure (likely an agent, manager, or the industry itself) who took their “pound of meat” and cheated them for “nickels and dimes.”
Driven by a breathless, claustrophobic chorus (“My throat feels tight / How can I go on?”), the song climaxes in the wings of the theater. Staring into a cracked mirror, unable to even feel their own face, the character delivers a desperate plea for escape from a “God-forsaken place.” “Last Call” is a haunting, cinematic exploration of identity loss, exploitation, and the final, definitive end of a career built on illusions.
This has such a brilliant, dark, Brechtian theatrical vibe to it. Because the narrator is so exhausted and trapped, as the music grinds and builds into something incredibly heavy.
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Last Call lyrics
I wear a smile
I mask what is true
I feel so vile
I feel so blue
The stage is set
And the house lights dim
Put out my cigarette
In this glass of gin
I can’t stand up
Don’t want no more
I’ve had enough
Forgot the score
I’ll walk the boards
For one last time
I will fall on my sword
For nickels and dimes
Night after night
I sing the same song
My throat feels tight
How can I go on?
I feel so fake
As I bow and grin
How much more can I take
In this circus ring?
It’s the last call
You took your cut
Your pound of meat
To feed your big fat gut
And mouth that cheats
I played your game
Now leave me alone
Forget my name
I won’t answer the phone
Night after night
I sing the same song
My throat feels tight
How can I go on?
I feel so fake
As I bow and grin
How much more can I take
In this circus ring?
It’s the last call
I stand in the wings
I’ve done it all
For the poor for kings
I’ve done it all
Life’s one big act
I can’t feel my face
The mirror’s cracked
Christ, get me outta this God forsaken place!
Night after night
I sing the same song
My throat feels tight
How can I go on?
I feel so fake
As I bow and grin
How much more can I take
In this circus ring?
It’s the last call
Night after night
I sing the same song
My throat feels tight
How can I go on?
Night after night
Night after night
Last call
Last call
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Paul Robert Thomas PRS No. 497904008 (London)
PRS Tunecode: 032265MK ISWC: T-341.172.062-8
Audiosparx Catalogue ID: 1426775 ISRC: US5UL2655131
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You can check out Paul’s complete Music Discovery HERE that includes 53 of Paul’s albums, as well as 569 of Paul’s songs catogorized according to their music genre HERE and you can also read Paul’s interesting and eventful Bio HERE
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Take a tour of Paul’s music site HERE where you’ll find not only great songs, but you can also read about Paul’s meeting with Andy Warhol, the letter that Robert Johnson’s grandson’s sent to Paul, the letter to Paul from Buckingham Palace, Paul’s successful court battle against the London police, Paul’s Dylan concert reviews, articles and much much more!
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Paul is a member of the PRS (London) CAE 497904008
Join Paul on YouTube HERE and on Facebook HERE and on Bandcamp HERE
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You can contact Paul via email at paul@paullyrics.com
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