Rhythm Guitar

(album: Loving You Beats All I've Ever Seen - 1975)

Nobody wants to play rhythm guitar behind Jesus
Everybody wants to be the lead singer in the band

A preacher I once talked to in Washington DC
Told me that preaching the gospel isn't all that it should be
I said it didn't really surprise me but I've often wondered why
I'll never forget the words he said or the look that came to his eye

When he said

Nobody wants to play rhythm guitar behind Jesus
Everybody wants to be the lead singer in the band
Well it's hard to get a bead on what's divine
With everybody pushing for the head of the line
I don't think it's working out at all the way he planned

I once shared a pizza with a pop star on a New York City street
He was the most unhappy prophet you'd ever want to meet
He said he really wanted to change the world but he couldn't imagine how
But he'd written a song about what's gone wrong and I'm a-singing it to you now

And he said

Nobody wants to play rhythm guitar behind Jesus
Everybody wants to be the lead singer in the band
Well it's hard to get a bead on what's divine
With everybody pushing for the head of the line
I don't think it's working out at all the way he planned

Nobody wants to play rhythm guitar behind Jesus
Everybody wants to be the lead singer in the band