Chance In A Million

Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Greg Anton, Steve Kimock

One of the songs Hunter wrote for Zero. In an interview in 2020, Greg Anton explained the backgrounnd:

[Zero] played primarily instrumental music for a bunch of years. ... I was at a party that - Robert Hunter was at the party. I knew Hunter, I had played drums behind him in a band with Keith and Donna Godchaux from the Grateful Dead, and Robert Hunter and some other guys - I played drums. So that's how I knew him. So Hunter comes over to me, and he says 'you know Greg, that band Zero, it's a great band. And you can go on like you are being a favourite of all the Bay Area musicians. But if you want to get out a little more, maybe you should have some songs' And I said 'got any?' And he says 'yeah, got any music?' I said 'yeah' So that's how the relationship started. We had recently recorded a record ... the second Zero record. It was called 'Nothing Goes Here' ... I had just gotten a copy of it, and I had it in my car, and I gave it to Hunter. And the first song he wrote for Zero was to an instrumental that we had recorded. The instrumental was called 'Golden Road' and the song was called 'Chance In A Million'. So we developed a working relationship."

"For 'Chance In A Million' he gave me maybe twelve verses And the final version of 'Chance In A Million', is: first verse, second verse, repeat first verse. So I cut it down"

Chance in a million, might as well try
Chance in a million to do it or die
Chance in a million to call your own shot
Better believe it, it's all that you've got

Opportunity don't really knock
Just ticks loud like a dynamite clock
Chance in a million, stay with the beat (note 1)
Get all I got, it was coming to me

Nine hundred ninety nine thousand goodbyes
Don't make one hello, you got to improvise
One in a million to turn it around
Follow that hunch, baby, follow that sound

Star-struck, hazy, caught up in lies
Burned-out, crazy, tears in my eyes
Chance in a million's better than none
Sink into madness or reach for the sun

Certain as sunshine after the rain
Certain as solace after the pain
Chance in a million, when all's said and done
Chance in a million is better than none

Nine hundred ninety nine thousand goodbyes
Don't make one hello, you got to improvise
One in a million to turn it around
Follow that hunch, baby, follow that sound

Chance in a million, winner take all
Chance in a million to follow that call
Better than zero divided by one
Chance in a million is better than none

Star-struck, hazy, caught up in lies
Burned-out, crazy, tears in my eyes
Chance in a million's better than none
Sink into madness or reach for the sun

Certain as sunshine after the rain
Certain as solace after the pain
Chance in a million, when all's said and done
Chance in a million is better than none

Nine hundred ninety nine thousand goodbyes
Don't make one hello, you got to improvise
One in a million to turn it around
Follow that hunch, baby, follow that sound

Chance in a million
Chance in a million
Chance in a million