I Can't Turn It Off lyrics - Elvis Costello

Basement babies strangling saxophones
They got twisted motives, they got eyes of stone
But it's a terminal condition that is tattered through and through
It's not that they don't need you
They're too mixed up to choose

Broken noses hung up on the wall
Back-slapping drinkers cheer the championship brawl
And they're so punch drunk they don't understand the word defeat
They can take you out and shoot you
They can't confiscate that beat

Steam engineer breaks down in the newsreel
He's seen the future of the diesel wheel
Listen to the hammers falling in the breaker's yard
When you're used to the glamour it comes at you twice as hard

Sometimes I think that I have had enough
Sometimes I scare myself I get enough
But you know that I can't turn it off

Young girl rehearses all her blackmail faces
She's looking for a love that lasts
She'd never break the heart of any aces
And she's learning pretty fast

I've seen those clowns running all over town
Trying to satisfy all of their carnival desires
You start out looking for your own melody
They end up in the closing time choirs

All you lucky people crying in your beer
When it comes down to silence not even tears
You're in real trouble between the two
When it comes down to me
When it comes down to you

But it must be something you're allowed to keep
In between the longest pantomimes
'Cos it's very easy to let love fall asleep
When you are worrying about hard times

Sometimes I think that I have had enough
Sometimes I scare myself I get enough
But you know that I can't turn it off
But you know that I can't turn it off