The way I see it,
  You just can't win it.
  Everybody's in it for their own gain
  You can't please 'em all
  There's always somebody calling you down
  
  And I do my best
  And I do good business
  There's a lot of people asking for my time
  They're trying to get ahead
  They're trying to be a good friend of mine
  
  I was a free man in Paris
  I was unfettered and alive
  There was nobody to call me up for favors
  And no one's future to decide
  You know I'd go back there tomorrow
  But for the work I've taken on
  Stokin' the star maker machinery
  Behind the popular song
  
  I deal in dreamers
  And telephone schemers
  Lately I wonder what I do it for
  If l had my way, I'd walk through that door
  And wander down the Champs Elysees
  Going cafe to cabaret
  Thinking how I'll feel when I find
  That very good friend of mine
  
  I was a free man in Paris
  I was unfettered and alive
  There was nobody to call me up for favors
  And no one's future to decide
  You know I'd go back there tomorrow
  But for the work I've taken on
  Stokin' the star maker machinery
  Behind the popular song
  
  I deal in dreamers
  And telephone schemers
  Lately I wonder what I do it for
  If l had my way
  I'd walk through that door
  And wander down the Champs Elysees
  Going cafe to cabaret
  Thinking how I'll feel when I find
  That very good friend of mine