Every Dial Still Warm

Verse 1

I ran the auction floor for thirty years

Gavel in hand and a head full of numbers

Then a stranger bought the warehouse lot next door

Brought in crates marked only with a stamp

I signed for them when he was out of town

Curiosity is a slow and patient thief

Pre-Chorus

Inside were radios from nineteen fifty-eight

Every dial still warm

Every dial still warm

Chorus

I wound them up

One by one

I wound them up

And heard a world that never got to end

I wound them up

Verse 2

He came back and found me sitting on the crates

Didn't yell just pulled a chair up slow

Said his father built them for a fair in Belgium

Said the fair got canceled weather and a war

Forty units shipped and never sold a single

He'd been moving them from town to town

Pre-Chorus

He said help me test the frequencies tonight

Every band still hums

Every band still hums

Chorus

So we wound them up

One by one

We wound them up

And heard a world that never got to end

We wound them up

Bridge

Static gave way to a choir in Flemish

Then a horn section then applause

I heard a crowd that died before I was born

Cheering for a song I'll never know

He was crying and laughing at the same dial

I was too

Guitar Solo

Verse 3

We cleared the lot and opened it as a hall

Free admission anyone who brings a battery

Kids came in for the noise and stayed for the dials

His father's name is painted on the wall

I sold my gavel and I bought a soldering iron

At sixty-three I finally learned to fix

Pre-Chorus

Now every Thursday night we tune the room

Every band still hums

Every band still hums

Chorus

We wind them up

One by one

We wind them up

And hear a world that never got to end

We wind them up

Post-Chorus

Oh-oh-oh

Turn the dial

Oh-oh-oh

Turn the dial

Outro

One by one

One by one