Pop: Lyric Sheets

With Blondie at the top of the charts again for the first time in 17 years, the unlikely comeback seems to be the next big thing. The recent comebacks of Tony Christie, Andy Williams, Lonnie Donegan and

Engelbert Humperdinck may just be the tip of the iceberg

The Comeback Kid

A picture of a younger man

With bouffant hair

And shoes like scuppered sampans

Adorn the journals of that day

The Comeback Kid is on his way

On breakfast time/daytime TV

A rodeo of memories

That mustang never threw the Kid

A cowboy who'd survived the change

The Voice not quite the way it was

But still at home on its old range

Who could forget the string of hits?

He wails: "I've never been away"

Just took a break in cabaret

For twenty years or so - in theory

A revamped hit: "Girl From Nilgiri"

Finds favour with a college crowd

Who suddenly discover that

The trademark shoes and cardigans

For one whole term, are where it's at

The Comeback Kid is coming back

Through drink, divorce and heart attack

Is shunted squinting out on stage

Blinks, unfamiliar in the lights

A smile tarries on his lips

Half-arrogance, half-gratitude

But in the wings coughs like a tractor

And throws up in a vase of flowers

Nervous. Like a rusty actor

And out the brash young pundits come

Panting puppies, waggy tails

Pleased to see the old boy back

Fans for years. Know every track.

"A total pro!" Of course he is.

"Mysteriously overlooked"

(Forgotten by the music biz.)

Blew everyone apart he did.

In hotel lifts. The Comeback Kid