Lyrics: We Do What We Can

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

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 these guys have

He says
I do what I can
I work for a living
That’s who I am
Yeah that’s who I am
It’s good to be alive

But everything’s different since Leo died
Since Leo died
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
He does what he can

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 I am now
He says I do what I can
I work for a living
That’s who I am
Yeah that’s who I am

It’s good to be alive
These are the choices
We make to survive
We do what we can