[Intro] [train rhythm on drums, piano chugs, brass stabs] [confident vocal, energetic and forward-driving] Verse 1 The city woke with a steel-lined grin, Streetcars sparked and the day rolled in, Typewriter clatter and a headline cry, Smoke in the morning and a clean hard sky. Tailor-made boys and the stenograph queens, Lunch-cart steam and impossible dreams, Every soul on the avenue swore They’d be ten feet tall by quarter to four. [Pre-Chorus] [clarinet climbs, trombone answers] Radio towers and rooftop signs, Everybody racing electric time, The old world’s out and the new one roars, Kicking the dust off a thousand doors. Chorus [full band, anthemic] This is a city of brass and motion, Fast-talk hearts and a restless ocean, Shoes on pavement, eyes on fire, Climbing every rung a little higher. City of brass and motion, hear that sound, Jazz in the rafters and wheels on the ground, From the factory line to the cabaret flame, Everybody here came chasing a name. Verse 2 [add banjo and stronger brass punctuation] There’s a banker counting his bright gold stack, And a trumpet player with his coat worn black, There’s a girl downtown with a law-school stare, And a dockside boy trying to breathe better air. Some drink hidden where the red lights glow, Some preach virtue where the bootlegs flow, Some got the map and some got none, Still they all run hard when the whistle’s blown. [Pre-Chorus 2] [slightly darker tone, then lift] This town shines, but it cuts, too, Hands out fortune to a chosen few, Still the dream keeps calling down every block, Like a brass-band pulse in a five-cent clock. Chorus [repeat bigger] This is a city of brass and motion, Fast-talk hearts and a restless ocean, Shoes on pavement, eyes on fire, Climbing every rung a little higher. City of brass and motion, hear that sound, Jazz in the rafters and wheels on the ground, From the factory line to the cabaret flame, Everybody here came chasing a name. [Bridge] [drop to piano and snare, then slowly rebuild] [more earnest delivery] No one sleeps when the skyline burns, Every lesson costs and every dream earns, You can lose your hat, your rent, your pride, But the age itself is on your side. So raise that chin to the radio light, Learn to dance with the day and the night, If tomorrow’s made by the bold and the fleet, Then hammer it out in the city street. [Instrumental Break] [hot trumpet solo, clarinet run, trombone punch, piano stride climb] Final Chorus [bigger, triumphant, full backup harmonies] This is a city of brass and motion, Fast-talk hearts and a restless ocean, Shoes on pavement, eyes on fire, Climbing every rung a little higher. City of brass and motion, hear that sound, Jazz in the rafters and wheels on the ground, From the factory line to the cabaret flame, Everybody here came chasing a name. [Outro] [big brass ending, final piano hit] Streetcars hum and the skyline gleams, That’s how an age makes modern dreams.
