Cecily Smith - Will Connolly

The war was over, I was living with my folks

I yelled upstairs, «Hey mom, I’m off to grab some smokes»

And my father called, «Why you need to smoke so late?»

Well I’d lied, I had a date

Free from my folks' enslavement

Skippin' along the pavement

To see a brunnette, who I’d never met

But I never would forget, how she looked in that dress

How she stuck out her hand and said

«My name is Cecily Smith and I hope you like music

'Cause I’ve got two tickets for La Traviata»

That’s when I said, «I hate opera»

She laughed and said, «Well lucky for you

That you’re with Cecily Smith

Who cares what you are listening to

It’s who you’re listening with»

So we take our seats, her hands are folded in her lap

If not a kiss, then I at least will get a nap

So I close my eyes as the orchestra begins

Then I hear violins

And the hair on my neck was rising

A feeling new and surprising

But it wasn’t the sound that made my heart pound

No, it was because I found her hand is in mine

And that’s where it will stay until they play the final chord

She says, «Were you bored?»

And I say, «I guess it wasn’t quite so bad;

It was the best time that I ever had»

She laughed and said, «Well lucky for you

I got seats to Beethoven’s Fifth,

Who cares what you are listening to

It’s who you’re listening with.»

A perfect wife

A perfect life

The time exploded like a bullet from a gun

A week, a year, and then a marriage, and a son

And a rental where I still can hear her laugh

When I play the phonograph

So I let the music guide me

And Cecily sits beside me

A girl of nineteen, with a nervous marine

Feel her head begin to lean, as the melody soars

And though it was real, it doesn’t feel like it could be

That night when you said to me

That I’ve got two tickets for La Traviata

It’s sad but true, how much I miss you

I miss you Cecily Smith

Life is not the things that we do

It’s who we’re doing them with