Downstairs they're playing Kenton   The house set to swing   I lay in my bed   And listen to everything   Cause Leo's in rare form tonight   His trombone sings so sweet   This is the room   Where they all come to meet      He said   I do what I can   I live for the moment   And that's who I am   Yeah that's who I am      And isn't it good   If we could freeze moments in time   We all would   But I do what I can   I do what I can      Downstairs he's playing Kenton   The Magnavox sighs   But oh how the music has changed   In all of our lives   He says "nobody listens   To modern jazz"   And I'll never have what those guys have      He says   I do what I can   I work for a living   And that's who I am   Yeah that's who I am      And it's good to be alive   But everything's different since Leo died   I do what I can      Is this the end of the modern world   What could it mean for a young girl   Who sees the pain on his face   He does what he can      The procession on the TV screen   What could it possibly mean for a man   Who's come this far just to turn around   Could there still be life in Kenton's swing   With the Kennedys gone and everything   Those sad rows of houses with their optimistic colors   Democrat grandparents and draft-dodging brothers   Riots down the street and discontented mothers   We do what we can      Downstairs it's quiet   Less alive somehow   Somehow he was everything that I am now      And he says   I do what I can   I work for a living   And that's who I am   And that's who I am      But it's good to be alive   And these are the choices   We make to survive   You do what you can