I walked into the lounge of the Windsor Arms Hotel
Where a band was playing Fifties songs
The ones we know so well

And they played just like the record
Not a note was out of place
Then they finished with "Goodnight Sweetheart"

By the guy who played the bass

As he walked by the table I offered him a beer

Said I was a player too
I had been for many years
And we talked about the business

All the years out on the road
How forever sweet sixteen
Was such a heluva heavy load


And he said, "Ya know I could have made it once
If I’d have listened to a friend

He had set up this audition
With a fifties group back when
But it was 1967 and I had dreams of moving on

The man who could’ve played bass for Shanana

Shanana, Shanana


He said, "I see them on the TV shows
Every now and again and I see my buddy playing

The saxophone the way he did back then
Oh we used to play the circuit
Any dive that had the pay

But we’d have done it all for nothing
Just to get a chance to play"


He said, "I talk to my family on every Sunday night
And I tell ‘em where I’m working next
And how the band is getting tight

And my children always ask me
How much longer I’ll be gone"
The man who could’ve played bass for Shanana


Shanana, Shanana


Well, we all have our stories
How we try but can’t forget
And how we sit in contemplation

And we lick our own regret
There’s the one we could've married
There’s the job we could've had

There’s the winning run we could've hit
If we had a more loving dad
And there’s the house we could’ve bought

When the prices weren’t so high
And there’s the loving words we could’ve said
Before that loved one died

There’s the road we could’ve traveled
There’s the one we traveled on and on and on
And there’s the man who could’ve played bass for Shanana


Shanana, Shanana, Shanana