It Worked for Faust

               It worked for Faust.
               It worked for Beethoven.

You can’t be famous while you’re alive
unless you’ve got a funny sounding name.
Vonnegut. Solzhenitzen.
Even that doesn’t mean anything.
How many Fausts or Beethovens
live on your street?
No matter. They’re both dead.

               It’s easier to wait
               until you’re dead…

You could cut off your ear,
make believe you’re deaf,
but that only helps if you paint…
‘cause anything done by a deaf guy
is magic.

Faust never had a hit.
Neither did Beethoven.
Never hit the Bestseller List
while they were alive.

               It’s easier to wait
               until you’re dead…

Nobody named Smith was ever any good.
It’s all in the name. It took God
to write the bestseller of all time,
and it took Him four thousand years,
and He’s the best there ever was.
I haven’t got that kind of time.

               It’s easier to wait
               until you’re dead...