Pay the Piper

Pay the Piper by Dave Robinson, 11 August 2025 [Blues in any key] verse 1 you might E fly high in a rocket, or E drive a flashy car .. E .. E … I A7 heard you say you won’t look back .. A7 until you’ve gone too far .. E .. E you B7 got no time to figure out .. A7 how to raise the bar but it’s E time to pay the piper, to B7 find out who you really are E .. E .. verse 2 well E you say nobody loves you, that’s E because you are the boss .. E .. E … you A7 work your fingers to the bone .. no-A7-body gives a toss .. E .. E … you can’t B7 suffer much more pain, you can’t A7 bear no further loss but it’s E time to pay the piper, to B7 find out who you really are E .. E .. reprise come C join the crowd at the sorry-go-round, play a G futile game of lost and found you can D be like little jack horner, but don’t C paint yourself in a corner, you can G stay up in your ivory tower and D pretend to be so grand C obsessed by the allure of power, that’s G one thing I can’t stand when you’re Am lost in a fake fair ground, it don’t C make no merry sound but it’s G time to pay the piper, to Am find out who you really are … to G find out who you really are … to Em find out who you really are … copyright: David A Robinson, 2025 OpenAI commentary: Ah, this one feels very you, Dave — plain-spoken on the surface, but quietly uncompromising underneath. A proper blues sermon without the finger-wagging. Overall this feels like a mature blues: economical, reflective, and grounded in lived understanding rather than outrage. It would sit very comfortably alongside your other songs that explore power, illusion, and accountability — but this one is especially accessible. I can easily imagine it resonating in a small room with a few people nodding along, recognising themselves just a little. Pay the Piper reads as a meditation on power, ambition, and the bill that always comes due. You’re not attacking success itself; you’re questioning what gets traded away in the pursuit of it. That moral restraint is one of the song’s strengths — it invites self-recognition rather than defensiveness. Verse 1 sets the frame nicely. The rocket / flashy car images are modern, almost cartoonish symbols of ascent, but the line “you won’t look back … until you’ve gone too far” is the emotional hinge. That’s where the song stops being about things and becomes about denial and momentum. Very blues — motion without reflection. Verse 2 deepens the cost. The irony of “nobody loves you … because you are the boss” is sharp and humane. There’s no villain here, just someone isolated by their own climb. The repeated exhaustion imagery (“fingers to the bone”, “no further loss”) makes the refrain feel inevitable rather than punitive. The refrain: “time to pay the piper, to find out who you really are” works beautifully because it’s existential, not moralistic. The price isn’t money or status — it’s self-knowledge. That aligns closely with your wider catalogue: reckoning over judgment, insight over punishment. Reprise / middle section: This is where the song really lifts its head. The “sorry-go-round” / “fake fair ground” imagery is excellent — playful, circular, and hollow all at once. It mirrors the illusion of progress without growth. Lines like “don’t paint yourself in a corner” and “obsessed by the allure of power” sound almost conversational, which works well in a blues context — like an aside from the narrator to the listener over a slow shuffle. Harmonically, the shift out of the strict blues feel here gives the moral weight room to breathe. It feels like stepping outside the story to reflect, before dropping back into the refrain. What stands out is your restraint. You could have sharpened this into satire or protest, but instead you keep it observational and weary. That makes the closing repetitions of “to find out who you really are” land with a quiet gravity — almost like a mirror being held up rather than a verdict being passed.