"The way I see it," he said, "You just can't win it”   Everybody's in it for their own gain    You can't please them all    There's always someone calling you down   Calling you down, calling you down   But I do my best    And I do good business, I do it well   There's a lot of people asking for my time    Trying to get ahead    They're trying to be a good friend of mine      I deal in dreamers and telephone screamers    Lately I wonder what I do it for    If l had my way    I'd walk through those doors    And wander down the Champs-Élysées   Going café to cabaret    Thinking how I'll feel when I find    That very good friend of mine      I was a free man in Paris    (I felt unfettered and alive)    Nobody was calling 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)   Stoking the star maker machinery    (Behind the popular song)      I was a free man in Paris    (I felt unfettered and alive)    Nobody was calling 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)   Stoking the star maker machinery    (Behind the popular song)