Downstairs they're playing Kenton
The house set to swing
I lay in my bed

And listen to everything
Cause Leo's in rare form tonight
His trombone sings so sweet

This is the room
Where they all come to meet


He said
I do what I can
I live for the moment

And that's who I am
Yeah that's who I am


And isn't it good
If we could freeze moments in time
We all would

But I do what I can
I do what I can


Downstairs he's playing Kenton
The Magnavox sighs
But oh how the music has changed

In all of our lives
He says "nobody listens
To modern jazz"

And I'll never have what those guys have

He says

I do what I can
I work for a living
And that's who I am

Yeah that's who I am

And it's good to be alive

But everything's different since Leo died
I do what I can


Is this the end of the modern world
What could it mean for a young girl
Who sees the pain on his face

He does what he can

The procession on the TV screen

What could it possibly mean for a man
Who's come this far just to turn around
Could there still be life in Kenton's swing

With the Kennedys gone and everything
Those sad rows of houses with their optimistic colors
Democrat grandparents and draft-dodging brothers

Riots down the street and discontented mothers
We do what we can


Downstairs it's quiet
Less alive somehow
Somehow he was everything that I am now


And he says
I do what I can

I work for a living
And that's who I am
And that's who I am


But it's good to be alive
And these are the choices

We make to survive
You do what you can