[Verse 1]
Greasepaint grin on a shaky reel
Wobbling cane
Too big shoes
Crowds roar
Pennies on the projector light
He just stares past the pews
Hotel rooms and whispers
Suitcase always half-zipped
Half gone
Paper rings on trembling fingers
Ink still wet by dawn
[Chorus]
Oh
Little tramp on a trembling wire
Living fast over someone’s fire
Silver screen can’t hide your name
Two lives flicker in the same frame
Charlie
Dancing on a fault line
Smile stuck on in the close-up shine
[Verse 2]
Flashbulbs outside a courthouse door
Hand in hand with a girl still small
Judge’s gavel
Camera shutters
Quick “I do” to stop a fall
Suitors turning into headlines
Rumors stitched into his coat
He signs one more shaking signature
Just to silence one more throat
[Chorus]
Oh
Little tramp on a trembling wire
Living fast over someone’s fire
Silver screen can’t hide your name
Two lives flicker in the same frame
Charlie
Dancing on a fault line
Smile stuck on in the close-up shine
[Bridge]
Then came the red-ink papers
Secret files
Whispered lists
Passport stamped in disappearing ink
Country crossing off a myth
The kings of celluloid kingdoms
Watched him boarding that gray ship
Crowd on shore
A scattered clapping
Salt wind on his bitten lip
[Chorus]
Oh
Little tramp on a trembling wire
Living fast over someone’s fire
Silver screen can’t hide your name
Two lives flicker in the same frame
Charlie
Exiled from the headline
Just a ghost in a flickering line