Working nights in a country bar a few miles out of town

Driven by this endless need to pass my soul around

They said it's easy money and an easy road to fame

But they never felt the music and they never knew my name

I give you the years paid to the art

The blood from my fingers and tears from my heart

And you say it's good and you say it's fine

Then you ask for yellow ribbons and auld lang syne

So they brought on the court jester with a pocket full of jokes

And they sat him in the corner with his whisky and his smokes

And he sold the songs for laughter that he couldn't call his own

And he sang of good old Ireland and the green grass of home

I could only give the years paid to the art

The blood from my fingers and tears from my heart

And though you say it's good and though you say it's fine

Still you ask for yellow ribbons and auld lang syne

Now here I stand to wonder in telling them apart

The distance grown between the entertainment and the art

One is given freely and passes like the time

The other comes with feeling from the dreams we keep inside

Comes from the years paid to the art

The blood from my fingers and tears from my heart

And you say it's good and you say it's fine

Then you ask for yellow ribbons just one more time

Now I don't have an angel's wings or fingers that can fly

Just something here inside me wants to reach the sky

With the words that come from silence and the dreams held in my hand

Once the music's touched you you can maybe understand

So I give you the years paid to the art

The blood from my fingers and tears from my heart

And if you say it's good if you say it's fine

Don't ask for yellow ribbons and auld land syne

Please don't ask for yellow ribbons and auld lang syne