Walk Us Uptown lyrics - Elvis Costello (with The Roots)
[Elvis Costello]
Will you walk us uptown?
And wherever you go, you know we will follow
Will you walk us uptown? And we'll stand in the light
of your new killing ground, and we won't make a sound
...Except to sing our sorrow
Will you walk us uptown while our tears run in torrents
to suffer in silence or pray for some solace
Will you wash away our sins in the cross-fire and cross-currents?
As you uncross your fingers, and take out some insurance
No matter what the price
It's your own paradise
Will you walk us uptown?
Will you walk us uptown?
Some hearts are sinking and some hearts are a-flutter
Some scoop gold from the dirt in the gutter
Or swallow the earth, pouring into your mouth
As they bury us upright saying, "Everything's alright"
Will you walk us uptown like some said that you could
We will feast on your flesh and drink down your blood
Will you haul down that flag and dishonour that vow?
Cause we must not change its color now
Will you walk us uptown?
No matter what the price
Each crushed on the corner of their own paradise
Will you walk us uptown?
Will you walk us uptown? That's always assuming
that you're partly divine and partly human
You're the king of our hearts, you're the clown with the drum
Will you walk us uptown if we promise not to run?
Will you walk us uptown? Will you gather us near
as cowards flee and traitors sneer?
Keep a red flag flying, keep a blue flag as well
and a white flag in case it all goes to hell (hell!)
Sugar Won't Work lyrics - Elvis Costello (with The Roots)
Lightning Up!
And shake the ground
Is that a horn that's blowing?
Or a bell that's tolling?
Walls are falling
Ships pulled out from their mooring
Is that a river or just a road the storm has stolen?
And this will predict the times these signs will bring
Me and my stupid heart
We were never apart
But now sugar won't work
Lightning Up!
And fly the coop
Far from this tin-pan alley oop
Did you think I was your dupe?
I hear such lies and howlers
Words to pull out your molars
And this will predict the times these signs will bring
Me and my stupid heart
We were never apart
But now sugar won't work
Lightning Up!
Sugar the pill
A wall of ocean ten miles high
Metal darts torn from the sky
Like wanton boys make noise pull wings from flies
And this will predict the times these signs will bring
Me and my stupid heart
We were never apart
But now sugar won't work
And shake the ground
Is that a horn that's blowing?
Or a bell that's tolling?
Walls are falling
Ships pulled out from their mooring
Is that a river or just a road the storm has stolen?
And this will predict the times these signs will bring
Me and my stupid heart
We were never apart
But now sugar won't work
Lightning Up!
And fly the coop
Far from this tin-pan alley oop
Did you think I was your dupe?
I hear such lies and howlers
Words to pull out your molars
And this will predict the times these signs will bring
Me and my stupid heart
We were never apart
But now sugar won't work
Lightning Up!
Sugar the pill
A wall of ocean ten miles high
Metal darts torn from the sky
Like wanton boys make noise pull wings from flies
And this will predict the times these signs will bring
Me and my stupid heart
We were never apart
But now sugar won't work
Refuse To Be Saved lyrics - Elvis Costello (with The Roots)
Now that you set everybody free
What you going to do about me?
Don't want to be treated like some poor grateful clown
I'd rather go back in the sweet underground
Where I can tell the time by the colour of my skin
And I know my neighbour 'cos he's the one, yes he's the one
Who always turns me in
A woman works the tunnel in the middle of the night
Picking up every lost object in sight
Handbags, toupees, lost legs and fingernails
The black market eats up all your failures
Her transistor offers no salvation or regrets
No pool, no pets, no cigarettes
Just non-stop Disco Tex and the Sex-o-lettes
There's no name, there's no name
There's no name, there's no name
There's no name, there's no name
For the pain we'll cause you again and again
For the pain we'll cause you again and again
The Liberation Forces make movies of their own
Playing their Doors records and pretending to be stoned
Drowning out a broadcast that wasn't authorised
Incidentally the revolution will be televised
With one head for business and another for good looks
Until they started arriving with their rubber aprons and their butcher's hooks
There's no name, there's no name
There's no name, there's no name
There's no name, there's no name
For the pain we'll cause you again and again
For the pain we'll cause you again and again
They're hunting us down here with Liberty's light
A handshaking double talking procession of the mighty
Pursued by a T.V. crew and coming after them
A limousine of singing stars and their brotherhood anthem
The former dictator was impeccably behaved
They're mopping up all the stubborn ones who just refuse to be saved
I refuse to be saved
What you going to do about me?
Don't want to be treated like some poor grateful clown
I'd rather go back in the sweet underground
Where I can tell the time by the colour of my skin
And I know my neighbour 'cos he's the one, yes he's the one
Who always turns me in
A woman works the tunnel in the middle of the night
Picking up every lost object in sight
Handbags, toupees, lost legs and fingernails
The black market eats up all your failures
Her transistor offers no salvation or regrets
No pool, no pets, no cigarettes
Just non-stop Disco Tex and the Sex-o-lettes
There's no name, there's no name
There's no name, there's no name
There's no name, there's no name
For the pain we'll cause you again and again
For the pain we'll cause you again and again
The Liberation Forces make movies of their own
Playing their Doors records and pretending to be stoned
Drowning out a broadcast that wasn't authorised
Incidentally the revolution will be televised
With one head for business and another for good looks
Until they started arriving with their rubber aprons and their butcher's hooks
There's no name, there's no name
There's no name, there's no name
There's no name, there's no name
For the pain we'll cause you again and again
For the pain we'll cause you again and again
They're hunting us down here with Liberty's light
A handshaking double talking procession of the mighty
Pursued by a T.V. crew and coming after them
A limousine of singing stars and their brotherhood anthem
The former dictator was impeccably behaved
They're mopping up all the stubborn ones who just refuse to be saved
I refuse to be saved
Wake Me Up lyrics - Elvis Costello (with The Roots)
I've got this phosphorescent portrait of gentle Jesus meek and mild
I've got this harlot that I'm stuck with carrying another man's child
The solitary star announcing vacancy burnt out as we arrived
They'd throw us back across the border if they knew that we survived
And they were surprised to see us
So they greeted us with palms
They asked for ammunition, acts of contrition and small alms
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
With a slap or a kiss
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
There must be something better than this
I've got this imaginary radio, and I'm punching up the dial
I've got the A.C. trained on the T.V. so it won't blow up in my eye
And everything that I thought fanciful or mocked as too extreme
Must be family entertainment here in the strange land of my dreams
And I'm practising my likeness of St. Francis of Assisi
And if I hold my hand outstretched
A little bird comes to me
And I might recite a small prayer
If I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame
And found myself in Bedlam
Stepping on the fingers that were stretching through the bars
Wailing echoes down the corridors
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
With a slap or a kiss
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
There must be something better than this
They've got this scared and decorated girl strapped to the steel trunk of a Mustang
They drove her down a cypress grove where traitors hang and stars still spangle
They dangled flags and other rags along a coloured thread of twine
They dragged that bruised and purple heart along the road to Palestine
Someone went off muttering, he mentioned thirty pieces
Easter saw a slaughtering, each wrapped in bloodstained fleeces
My thoughts returned to vengeance but I put up no resistance
Though I seemed a long way from my home
It really was no distance
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
With a slap or a kiss
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
There must be something better than this
And the player piano picks out "Life Goes On"
The Ringtone rang out "Jerusalem"
Into the pit of sadness
Where the wretched plunge
We've buried all the Innocents
We must bury revenge
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
There must be something better than this
There must be something better than this
There must be something better than this
In the name of the Father and the Son
In the name of Gasoline and a Gun
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
I've got this harlot that I'm stuck with carrying another man's child
The solitary star announcing vacancy burnt out as we arrived
They'd throw us back across the border if they knew that we survived
And they were surprised to see us
So they greeted us with palms
They asked for ammunition, acts of contrition and small alms
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
With a slap or a kiss
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
There must be something better than this
I've got this imaginary radio, and I'm punching up the dial
I've got the A.C. trained on the T.V. so it won't blow up in my eye
And everything that I thought fanciful or mocked as too extreme
Must be family entertainment here in the strange land of my dreams
And I'm practising my likeness of St. Francis of Assisi
And if I hold my hand outstretched
A little bird comes to me
And I might recite a small prayer
If I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame
And found myself in Bedlam
Stepping on the fingers that were stretching through the bars
Wailing echoes down the corridors
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
With a slap or a kiss
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
There must be something better than this
They've got this scared and decorated girl strapped to the steel trunk of a Mustang
They drove her down a cypress grove where traitors hang and stars still spangle
They dangled flags and other rags along a coloured thread of twine
They dragged that bruised and purple heart along the road to Palestine
Someone went off muttering, he mentioned thirty pieces
Easter saw a slaughtering, each wrapped in bloodstained fleeces
My thoughts returned to vengeance but I put up no resistance
Though I seemed a long way from my home
It really was no distance
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
With a slap or a kiss
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
There must be something better than this
And the player piano picks out "Life Goes On"
The Ringtone rang out "Jerusalem"
Into the pit of sadness
Where the wretched plunge
We've buried all the Innocents
We must bury revenge
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
There must be something better than this
There must be something better than this
There must be something better than this
In the name of the Father and the Son
In the name of Gasoline and a Gun
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
Tripwire lyrics - Elvis Costello (with The Roots)
Just because you don’t speak the language
Doesn’t mean that you can’t understand
Just because you don’t speak the language
Doesn’t mean that you can’t understand
The twist in the script of the insult
Scrawled on the back of your hand
Torn from the pages of scripture
Sprayed on the wall in the frays of a flag
Kisses forbidden on lips
And all of your fine clothes worn into rags
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
There’s a tripwire
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
Don’t open the door ‘cos they’re coming
Don’t open the door ‘cos they’re here
Above there’s an ominous humming
Below there’s a murmur of prayer
Torn from the pages of scandal
Sprayed on a wall in the frays of the flag
Kisses forbidden on lips
and all of your fine clothes blown into rags
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
There’s a tripwire
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
There’s a cross in the line there’s a circus
There’s a voice that you might overhear
There’s a lens making the picture perfect
They say you have nothing to fear
Torn from the pages of pamphlets
Thrown in the air like confetti in church
Far, far away there’s a target
and the sound of an army just starting to march
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
There’s a tripwire
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
Just because I don’t read the language
Doesn’t mean that I'm blind to the threat
Though I thought there was more to forgiveness
Than all we conveniently forget
Torn from the pages of history
Repeated again and again and again
You’re either for or against us
and that is how the hatred begins
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
There’s a tripwire
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
Doesn’t mean that you can’t understand
Just because you don’t speak the language
Doesn’t mean that you can’t understand
The twist in the script of the insult
Scrawled on the back of your hand
Torn from the pages of scripture
Sprayed on the wall in the frays of a flag
Kisses forbidden on lips
And all of your fine clothes worn into rags
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
There’s a tripwire
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
Don’t open the door ‘cos they’re coming
Don’t open the door ‘cos they’re here
Above there’s an ominous humming
Below there’s a murmur of prayer
Torn from the pages of scandal
Sprayed on a wall in the frays of the flag
Kisses forbidden on lips
and all of your fine clothes blown into rags
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
There’s a tripwire
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
There’s a cross in the line there’s a circus
There’s a voice that you might overhear
There’s a lens making the picture perfect
They say you have nothing to fear
Torn from the pages of pamphlets
Thrown in the air like confetti in church
Far, far away there’s a target
and the sound of an army just starting to march
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
There’s a tripwire
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
Just because I don’t read the language
Doesn’t mean that I'm blind to the threat
Though I thought there was more to forgiveness
Than all we conveniently forget
Torn from the pages of history
Repeated again and again and again
You’re either for or against us
and that is how the hatred begins
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
There’s a tripwire
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
Stick Out Your Tongue lyrics - Elvis Costello lyrics - Elvis Costello (with The Roots)
They talked to the sister, the father and the mother
With a microphone in one hand and a chequebook in the other
And the camera noses in to the tears on her face
The tears on her face
The tears on her face
You can put them back together with your paper and paste
Stick out your tongue
Drink down the venom
She sleeps with the shirt of a late, great country singer
Stretched out upon her poor jealous husband's pillow
In time you can turn these obsessions into careers
While the parents of those kidnapped children start the bidding for their tears
What would you say?
What would you do?
Children and animals two by two
Give me the needle
Give me the rope
We're going to melt them down for pills and soap
Four and twenty crowbars, jemmy your desire
Out of the frying pan into the fire
The king is in the counting house
Some folk have all the might
And majesty will run on Bombay Gin and German spite
They come from lovely people
(They come from lovely people)
With a hard line in hypocrisy
There are tears of mediocrity
For the fag ends of the aristocracy
What would you say?
What would you do?
Children and animals two by two
Give me the needle
Give me the rope
We're going to melt them down for pills and soap
Stick out your tongue
Stick out your tongue
Drink down the venom
The sugar-coated pill is getting bitterer still
You think your country needs you but you know it never will
So pack up your troubles in a stolen handbag
Don't dilly dally boys rally 'round the flag
Give us our daily bread in individual slices
And something in the daily rag to cancel any crisis
What would you say?
What would you do?
(Did you find out how to lie?)
Children and animals two by two
(Did you find out how to cheat?)
Give me the needle
(The elite bleat, they're obsolete)
We're going to melt them down
Stick out your tongue
(We're going to melt them down for pills and soap)
Now if you'd only genuflect
Stick out your tongue
Now if you'd only genuflect
Stick out your tongue
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