It happened one night   At three in the morning   The devil appeared   In my studio room      And he said I'm your pal   And I'll make you a deal   Blow away your struggle   And I'll take your soul for a toy      After rubbing my eyes   I looked all around me   At the half-finished drivel   I'd worked on for days      And I told him my dream   Was to live for all time   In some perfect refrain   Like the man who wrote 'Danny Boy'      And I said if you're real   Then I'll ask you a question   While most of us turn   Into ashes or dust      Just you and that other guy   Go on forever   But who writes the history   And who do I trust?      He gave me a wink   And he said it was funny   How mortals would pour   All their blood, sweat and tears      Onto tape, onto paper   Or into the air   To be lost and forgotten   Outside of his kind employ      Then I thought I could hear   A great sound in the distance   Of whiskey-soaked singing   And laughter and cheers      And they're saying   That song could bring tears to a glass eye   So pass me the papers   I'll sign them in blood      And the smell of the brimstone   Was turned into greasepaint   And the roar of the crowd   Like the furies of hell      And I hear the applause   And I hear the bells ringing   And the sound of a woman's voice   From the next room      Saying come to me now   Come lay down beside me   Whatever you're doing   You're too gone to see      You can't hold onto shadows   No more than two years   So be glad for the pleasures   We're young enough to enjoy      So maybe I'm drunk or maybe a liar   Or maybe we're all living inside a dream   You can say what you like   When I'm gone, then you'll see      I'll be down in the dark   Down underground   With Shakespeare and Bach   And the man who wrote 'Danny Boy'