Anyone Who Had A Heart lyrics - Elvis Costello
(Live In London at Royal Festival Hall, October 29, 1998)
Anyone who ever loved
Would look at me and know that I love you
Anyone who ever dreamed
Would look at me and know I dream of you
Knowing I love you so
Anyone who had a heart
Would take me in her arms and love me too
You couldn't really have a heart
And hurt me like you hurt me
And be so untrue
What am I to do?
Every time you go away
I always say
"This time it's goodbye, dear."
Loving you the way I do
I take you back
Without you I'd die, dear
Knowing I love you so
Anyone who had a heart
Would take me in her arms and love me too
You couldn't really have a heart
And hurt me like you hurt me
And be so untrue
What am I to do?
Knowing I love you so
Anyone who had a heart
Would take me in her arms and love me too
You couldn't really have a heart
And hurt me like you hurt me
And be so untrue
Anyone who had a heart would love me too
Anyone who had a heart would surely take me in her arms and always love me
Why can't you?
Anyone who had a heart would love me too
Anyone who had a heart would surely take me in her arms and always love me
Why can't you?
Anyone who had a heart would love me too
Anyone who had a heart would surely take me in her arms and always love me
Why can't you?
Blue Minute lyrics - Elvis Costello
Blue minute, blue minute, blue minute
I don't know how I got in it
I thought about you for a while
And then I tried to dial you anyway
Can't get you out of my day
I tried to get you off my mind
I'm better off without your kind
Then I get along just fine for a day or two
But now that I'm on my own again
I find that every now and then
Something always seems to remind me of you
Blue minute, blue minute, blue minute
I don't know how I got in it
I thought about you for a while
And then I tried to dial you anyway
Can't get you out of my day
Why oh why do you affect me this way
Oh I get that helpless feeling any time any day
Blue minute, blue minute, blue minute
I don't know how I got in it
I thought about you for a while
And then I tried to dial you anyway
Can't get you out of my day
Can't get you out of my day
Can't get you out of my day
Blue minute, blue minute, blue minute
But Not For Me lyrics - Elvis Costello (feat. Larry Adler)
Old man sunshine, listen you
Never tell me dreams come true
Just try it and I'll start a riot
Beatrix Fairfax, don't you dare
Ever tell me she will care
I'm certain it's the final curtain
I never want to hear from any cheerful Pollyannas
Who tell you fate provides a mate
It's all bananas
They're writing songs of love
But not for me
A lucky star's above
But not for me
With love to lead the way
I've found more skies of gray
Than any Russian play could guarantee
I was a fool to fall and get that way
Hi ho alas and also lackaday
Although I can't dismiss
The memory of her kiss
I guess she's not for me
I was a fool to fall and get that way
Hi ho alas and also lackaday
Although I can't dismiss
The memory of her kiss
I guess she's not for me
I guess she's not for me
Here, There And Everywhere lyrics - Elvis Costello & The Imposters
(originally by The Beatles)
To lead a better life
I need my love to be here
Here
Making each day of the year
Changing my life with a wave of her hand
Nobody can deny that there's something there
There
Running my hands through her hair
Both of us thinking how good it can be
No one is speaking, but she doesn't know he's there
I want her everywhere
And if she's beside me I know I need never care
But to love her is to need her everywhere
Knowing that love is to share
Each one believing that love never dies
Watching her eyes
And hoping I'm always there
I will be there and everywhere
Here, there and everywhere
Honeyhouse (Cruel No. 2) lyrics - Elvis Costello
I exit through the spotlight glare
I stepped out into thin air
Into a perfume so rarefied
Here comes the bride
Not quite aside, they snide, she's number four
There's number three just by the door
Those in the know, don't even flatter her, they go one better
She was selling speedboats in a trade show when he met her
Look at her now
She's starting to yawn
She looks like she was born to it
But it was so much easier
When I was cruel
She reaches out her arms to me
Imploring another melody
So she can dance her husband out on the floor
The captains of industry just
Lie there where they fall
In eau-de-nil and pale carnation creation
A satin sash and velvet elevation
She straightens the tipsy head-dress of her spouse
While hers recalls a honey house
There'll be no sorrows left to drown
Early in the morning in your evening gown
But it was so much easier
When I was cruel
The entrance hall was arranged
With hostesses and ushers
Who turned out to be the younger wives
Nursing schoolgirl crushes
Parting the waves of those
Few feint friends
Fingers once offered are now too
Heavy to extend
The ghostly first wife glides up
On stage, whispering to raucous talkers
Spilling family secrets out to
Flunkey's and castrato walkers
See that girl, watch that scene
Digging the dancing queen
Two newspaper editors like playground sneaks
Running a book on which of them is going to last the week
One of them calls to me and he says, I know you
You gave me this tattoo back in '82
You were a spoilt child then with a record to plug
And I was a shaven headed, seaside thug
Things haven't really changed that much
One of us is still getting paid too much
There are some things I [?] report
The memory of his last retort
But it was so much easier
When I was cruel, oh
Look at me now, she's starting to yawn
She looks like she was born to it
Ah, but it was so much easier
When I was cruel
I'll Still Love You lyrics - Elvis Costello
(originally by Johnny Cash)
One of these mornings
I'm gonna rise up flying
One of these mornings
I'll sail away
Beyond the blue
I've gotta promise
There's a world ahead
I want you to know that when I come
I'll still love you
I'll still love you
I won't be a stranger
When I get to heaven
'Cause you gave me heaven
Right here on earth
If I get rewarded
With an ancient heart of gold
[?] for what it's worth
I'll still love you
One of these mornings
When my trouble's over
One of these morning
When all my suffering is through
I'll go out singing
It'll be a day to sing about
And I'll guarantee for eternity
I'll still love you
I'll still love you
I'll still love you
I'll still love you
Let Me Roll It lyrics - Elvis Costello & The Imposters
You gave me something
I understand
You gave me loving in the palm of my hand
I can't tell you how I feel
My heart is like a wheel
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
I want to tell you
And now's the time
I want to tell you that
You're going to be mine
I can't tell you how I feel
My heart is like a wheel
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
You gave me something
I understand
You gave me loving in the palm of my hand
I can't tell you how I feel
My heart is like a wheel
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
Magnificent Hurt (Remix) lyrics - Elvis Costello, The Imposters & chelmico
[Rachel:]
Shita o dashite sonobashinogi
Airashī sono ko shibai
Mirai mitaina shinajī
Shisen no oku ni wa mada mu i wadachi
Kawaiito kanashī wa kamihitoe
Wakaranainara sono sakini tobe
Taimingu wa osokare hayakare
Wakaranainara soko no kami ni toe
2tsu no engi kakeru tenbin
Kara mawaru made fukasu enjin
Boku ni wa nai sekinin
Kimi no katachi ni nuritsubushita sutenshiru
Nan datte shitterushi
Dokoni datte ikeru bokutachi
It's the way you make me feel, magnificent hurt
[Mamiko:]
Kore matamata mukashi no hanashi
Sōtei-gaina boku no me o choromakashi
Akai sora no shita mō dō surya ī
Iunareba kore wakagenoitari
Eda kara ringo ochiru toki
Boku no kokoro mo mata ochikomi
Tokidoki wakan'naku naru
Yueni kimi ni muchū subete sasagete ita
Rikai shitai
Shigeki-zai o nonde aruku
Kimi wa ippo rīdo itsu datte
Itsu datte kimi wa boku o warau
Korya migotona hodo no itamida
It's the way you make me feel, magnificent hurt
I stood at the door, and I almost went through with it
Tight as the angle of my amen and I swore
To ゙ u shiyō mo nai
Kimi ka ゙ sonoke ni sa seru toki
Furimawasare ni itteru
Waraeyo
To ゙ u shiyō mo nai
Kimi ka ゙ sonoke ni sa seta toki
Itaiyo kuse ni natteru
Baka nanoha to ゙ tchi
It's the way you make me feel, magnificent hurt
I stood at the door, and I almost went through with it
Tight as the angle of my amen
And I swore
To ゙ u shiyō mo nai
Kimi ka ゙ sonoke ni sa seru toki
Furimawasare ni itteru
Waraeyo
Utsukushi suki ゙ru kimi
Yurushi wa shi ゙-meta kokoro to karada
Mō tomaru koto wanai
Shigeki-teki sa
Ā itai na
[Japanese:]
[Rachel:]
舌を出してその場しのぎ
愛らしいその小芝居
未来みたいなシナジー
視線の奥にはまだ無い轍
可愛いと悲しいは紙一重
分からないならその先に飛べ
タイミングは遅かれ早かれ
分からないならそこの神に問え
２つの演技 かける天秤
から回るまでふかすエンジン
僕には無い責任
君の形に塗りつぶしたステンシル
なんだって知ってるし
どこにだって行ける僕たち
It's the way you make me feel, magnificent hurt
[Mamiko:]
これまたまた昔のハナシ
想定外な僕の目をちょろまかし
赤い空の下もうどうすりゃいい
いうなればこれ若気の至り
枝からりんご落ちる時
僕の心もまた落ちこみ
時々分かんなくなる
故に君に夢中全て捧げていた
理解したい
刺激剤を飲んで歩く
君は一歩リードいつだって
いつだって君は僕を笑う
こりゃ見事なほどの痛みだ
It's the way you make me feel, magnificent hurt
I stood at the door, and I almost went through with it
Tight as the angle of my amen and I swore
どうしようもない
きみがその気にさせる時
振り回されにいってる
笑えよ
どうしようもない
きみがその気にさせた時
痛いよ クセになってる
バカなのはどっち
It's the way you make me feel, magnificent hurt
I stood at the door, and I almost went through with it
Tight as the angle of my amen
And I swore
どうしようもない
きみがその気にさせる時
振り回されにいってる
笑えよ
美しすぎるきみ
許しはじめた心と身体
もう止まることはない
刺激的さ
ああ痛いな
Make It Easy On Yourself lyrics - Elvis Costello
(Live In London at Royal Festival Hall, October 29, 1998)
'Cause breaking up is so very hard to do
If you really love him
And there's nothing I can do
Don't try to spare my feelings
Just tell me that we're through
And make it easy on yourself
Make it easy on yourself
'Cause breaking up is so very hard to do
And if the way I hold you
Can't compare to his caress
No words of consolation
Will make me miss you less
My darling, if this is goodbye
I just know I'm gonna cry
So run to him
Before you start crying too
And make it easy on yourself
Make it easy on yourself
'Cause breaking up is so very hard to do
It's so hard to do
It's so hard to do
My Little Red Book lyrics - Elvis Costello
(Live In London at Royal Festival Hall, October 29, 1998)
I just got out my little red book
The moment that you said goodbye
I thumbed right through my little red book
I wasn't gonna sit and cry
And I went from A to Z
I called up every pretty girl in town
They danced with me and as I held them
All I did was talk about you
Hear your name and I'd start to cry
There's just no getting over you
No girl who's in my little red book
Just ever could replace your charms
And each girl in my little red book
Knows you're the one I'm thinking of
Won't you please come back to me?
Without your precious love I can't go on
Where can you be? I need you so much
All I do is to talk about you
Hear your name and I start to cry
There is just no getting over you
Won't you please come back to me?
Without your precious love I can't go on
Where can you be? I need you so much
All I do is to talk about you
Hear your name and I start to cry
There is just no getting over you
All I do is to talk about you
Hear your name and I start to cry
There is just no getting over you
I just got out my little red book
I just got out my little red book
I just got out my little red book
Out Of Time lyrics - Elvis Costello & The Imposters
(originally by The Rolling Stones)
You don't know what's going on
You've been away for far too long
You can't come back and think you are still mine
You're out of touch my baby
My poor discarded baby
I said, baby, baby, baby, you're out of time
Well, baby, baby, baby, you're out of time
I said, baby, baby, baby, you're out of time
Yes, you are left out, yeah, you're out of there without a doubt
Baby, baby, baby, you're out of time
You thought you was a clever girl
Giving up your social whirl
You can't come back and be the first in line
You're obsolete, my baby
My poor old-fashioned baby
I said baby, baby, baby you're out of time
Yeah, baby, baby, baby, you're out of time
I said, baby, baby, baby, you're out of time
Yes, you are left out
Yeah, you're out of there without a doubt
Baby, baby, baby, you're out of time
Oh, oh, oh, baby, baby, baby you're out of time
I said, baby, baby, baby you're out of time
Yes, you are left out
Yeah, you're out of there without a doubt
Baby, baby, baby, you're out of time
Oh, yeah
Baby, baby, baby, you're out of time
I said, baby, baby, baby you're out of time
You're left out
Yeah, you're out of there without a doubt
Baby, baby, baby, you're out of time
Phonographic Memory lyrics - Elvis Costello
"We have not come so much to a fork in the road, as a fork on the plate, scraping the last lick off the gravy train of history"
There was nervous laughter round from the dais that rolled outwards through the crowd on a breeze that rustled flags and banners.
It was the voice of Orson Welles, his baritone coming to us over decades of dead silence through a metallic tannoy, each word meticulously tape-spliced from various soundtracks and radio broadcasts in the Library of Congress.
It wowed the crowd before it fluttered and faltered as the powder of lost oxide caused a catch in his voice just as the spool ran out.
Curiously, the simulated address seemed to be delivered in the same, strange, stage-Irish accent that Welles had possibly purloined from the actor, Michael MacLiammóir, when he had bluffed his way onto the Dublin stage as a teenager.
Now it was just one in a queue of immigrant inflections that might have taken the day.
It was also the voice that Orson had used in "Lady From Shanghai". You know, the one with the shootout amidst the shattered reflections of fun house mirrors.
Few remembered that motion picture now.
One man in the third row remarked to his wife that he seemed to remember this voice selling him sweet sherry in his youth but there were many in the crowd who knew nothing of this "Citizen" and the "Kane" he had once raised, back when the worst one could imagine was an invasion from another sphere.
After the peace was negotiated and the internet switched off, knowledge returned to its medieval cloister, in this and that illuminated volume, the jealous possession of the pious and the superstitious, who might once again wield ignorance like a scythe.
There were but dimly remembered facsimiles after many of the public libraries had been torched. Untouched books now went for the price of a Vuitton handbag.
Ever since the U.S. Mint was sucked dry and spat out, bookworms paid for rare tomes with wheelbarrows full of banknotes, some of them worthless Confederate money, stashed in plinths of various toppled statues.
They bartered it on a Mississippi square with the irony and arrogance of victors.
None of it helped the healing.
Yet in the absence of a noble woman or a statesman equal to the task, a tireless engineer had magically assembled the random words of Welles' oration into a speech worthy of the occasion from the depths of the national archive.
President Swift gave a slight, shy smile of pearl and pillar-box red and began to sing a plain song of her acceptance.
Smile lyrics - Elvis Costello
(originally by Nat King Cole)
Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though it's breaking
When there are clouds in the sky
You'll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You'll see the sun come shining through
For you
Light up your face with gladness
Hide every trace of sadness
Although a tear
May be ever so near
That's the time you must keep on tryin'
Smile, what's the use of cryin'
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
If you'd just smile
Light up your face with gladness
Hide every trace of sadness
Although a tear
May be ever so near
That's the time you must keep on tryin'
Smile, what's the use of cryin'
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
If you'd just smile
Smile
So You Want To Be A Rock ‘N’ Roll Star lyrics - Elvis Costello & The Imposters
So you want to be a rock-and-roll star?
Then listen now to what I say
Just get an electric guitar
Then take some time and learn how to play
And with your hair swung right
And your pants too tight
It's gonna be all right
Then it's time to go downtown
Where the agent man won't let you down
Sell your soul to the company
Who's waiting there to sell plastic ware
And in a week or two if you make the charts
The girls'll tear you apart
The price you paid for your riches and fame
Was it all a strange game?
You're a little insane
The money, the fame
And the public acclaim
Don't forget what you are
You're a rock-and-roll star
La, la la la la la, la la la la la la
La la la la la
La, la la la la la, la la la la la la
La la la la la
Someone Else's Heart lyrics - Elvis Costello
I got nosy and I read her letters
I read her diary it's the same story and nothing better
The words remind me of someone else's heart
Has gone and left a mark
And the pop music plays
On the local radio
There's people on the streets but no one that I know
And like my heart is now
I know not where they go
Same words different meaning
Same heart different feeling
So much for him so much for her 'cause that's past
Now I know about that someone else's heart
She got nosy and read my letters too
And my notebook surprised to find that
Love is not so new
So we both took
Someone else's heart
And walked it through the dark
A feeling so rich
I turned around to laugh
We had both indulged in each other's past
To find out that our love
Was true enough to last
Same words different meaning
Same heart different feeling
So much for him so much for her 'cause that's past
Now I know about that someone else's heart
(Someone else's heart)
Now I know about that someone else's heart
That's Me lyrics - Elvis Costello
(from "Ghost Brothers of Darkland County" soundtrack)
Am I fine, am I pleasing
Are you pitying, are you teasing
You shouldn't look at me
You shouldn't look at me that way
Should a glance from you, just shoot through me
If a glimpse of you could undo me
You shouldn't look at me
You shouldn't look at me that way
Time among all of your enemies
Leaves you nothing but bitter memories
From the first splash of affection
To avoiding your own reflection
You shouldn't look at me
You shouldn't look at me that way
Now the flashbulbs may dazzle
While you're figuring out this puzzle
You shouldn't look at me
You shouldn't look at me that way
Don't take more than I offer
All my love or I'll make you suffer
You shouldn't look at me
You shouldn't look at me that way
Time among all of your enemies
Makes disguises from drastic remedies
From the first splash of detection
To avoiding your own reflection
You shouldn't look at me
You shouldn't look at me that way
You shouldn't look at me that way
Truth Drug - Memphis Magnetic Version lyrics - Elvis Costello & The Imposters
I've been taking the truth drug
I've been telling a friend
It's alright
I've been up all night
I've been taking the lid off
I've been telling a friend
Like it is
In the mood to fizz
Rushing here and there
Talking everywhere
I'll see everything
'Cause I don't care
Hands are getting wet
Drugs are feeling warm
I'm a modern boy
In the whole light of dawn
On the truth drug
On the truth drug baby
I've been taking the truth drug
I've been telling a friend
It's wonderful
Like an animal
I've been taking the truth drug
I've been telling a friend
It's alright
I've been up all night
One more
One more
One more
When I Was Cruel No. 1 lyrics - Elvis Costello
Did you talk your way out of this?
Did someone flip your switch?
Now there is only right or wrong
Can you tell which is which?
But it was so much easier
When I was cruel
Why did you leave your happy home?
Why did you travel far abroad?
So you could sleep with strangers?
You must have heard just how absurd
The words poured out of you, you fraud
I guess you don't know what pain is
So dont pretend you're innocent
Do I look like your fool?
I guess you have forgotten
When I was cruel
Oh, when I was cruel, I could make you so unhappy
Lonely cowards followed me like ghouls
And you liked me too, when I was cruel
Oh, you know you did
But if you should feel anything, a signal from within
Go back in your laboratory and try to dial it in
And if you should feel anything, a signal from without
Abandon your dreams of vengence
So don't protest your innocence
The truth is hard to judge
Perhaps you have forgetten when
I had a grudge
Oh, but I was cruel and I would make you very sorry
Lonely cowards followed me like ghouls
And you liked me too, when I was cruel
Oh, you know you did
Wrong, Wrong, Wrong About Me lyrics - Elvis Costello
(from "Ghost Brothers of Darkland County" soundtrack)
Well you look down your noses
When anyone's having fun
I guess you can't remember
What it's like to be young
You got no fun lovin' spirit left in you at all
Just two young lovers here tryin' to have a ball
It's people like you
Who think that heaven's the place to be
But you're wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong about me
Well you've lied to your children
About what's good and bad
And you falsify the truth
About all the fun that you've had
You always act so goody-goody
With your "thank you, dear" and "please"
But you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong about me
In summation just to bring this to a close
I bet you've done some things yourself
That nobody's supposed to know
Don't forget who you're talkin' to, dear
Because everything you do I see
But you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong about me
Ten commandments, hell!
With me, there's only one
Each individual has the right
The fella next to you has none
You're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong about me
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
Come The Meantimes lyrics - Elvis Costello (with The Roots)
What are you going to say to me?
Will you be betraying me?
Come The Meantimes
Will you be deceiving me?
And beyond believing in me?
Come The Meantimes
He came back, (right back)
And nobody blinked
He came back, (right back)
At least I think that he did
He came back, (right back)
And he ran and he hid
And he muttered and moaned
And said "Let's go get stoned"
Will you be denying me?
Will you still come crying to me
Come The Meantimes
Are you still obeying me?
Will you still be praying to me?
Come The Meantimes
Will you sit in judgment then?
Be the first one to condemn
Come The Meantimes
Now you've got nobody else to blame
And trouble remembering my name
Will you still be cursing me
Come my anniversary
Come The Meantimes
He came back, (right back)
And they followed and failed
He came back, (right back)
He got hammered and nailed
He came back, (right back)
And he wandered alone
They said let's gather some stones
And make them atone
Now I'm in a hall of mirrors
With my secret thoughts and terrors
Come The Meantimes
And I'm drinking to your health
Find I'm only talking to myself
Come The Meantimes
He came back, (right back)
And nobody blinked
He came back, (right back)
At least I think that he did
He came back, (right back)
Then he ran and he hid
And he muttered and moaned
And said "Let's go get stoned"
Blossoms fragrant opening
Poppies full of opium
Come The Meantimes
Phony prophets offer hope
That's a different kind of dope
Come The Meantimes
Right now!
Right now!
Right now!
Gather some stones and make them atone
Come The Meantimes
(Let's go get stoned)
Come The Meantimes
Will you be betraying me?
Come The Meantimes
Will you be deceiving me?
And beyond believing in me?
Come The Meantimes
He came back, (right back)
And nobody blinked
He came back, (right back)
At least I think that he did
He came back, (right back)
And he ran and he hid
And he muttered and moaned
And said "Let's go get stoned"
Will you be denying me?
Will you still come crying to me
Come The Meantimes
Are you still obeying me?
Will you still be praying to me?
Come The Meantimes
Will you sit in judgment then?
Be the first one to condemn
Come The Meantimes
Now you've got nobody else to blame
And trouble remembering my name
Will you still be cursing me
Come my anniversary
Come The Meantimes
He came back, (right back)
And they followed and failed
He came back, (right back)
He got hammered and nailed
He came back, (right back)
And he wandered alone
They said let's gather some stones
And make them atone
Now I'm in a hall of mirrors
With my secret thoughts and terrors
Come The Meantimes
And I'm drinking to your health
Find I'm only talking to myself
Come The Meantimes
He came back, (right back)
And nobody blinked
He came back, (right back)
At least I think that he did
He came back, (right back)
Then he ran and he hid
And he muttered and moaned
And said "Let's go get stoned"
Blossoms fragrant opening
Poppies full of opium
Come The Meantimes
Phony prophets offer hope
That's a different kind of dope
Come The Meantimes
Right now!
Right now!
Right now!
Gather some stones and make them atone
Come The Meantimes
(Let's go get stoned)
Come The Meantimes
(She Might Be A) Grenade lyrics - Elvis Costello (with The Roots)
She's pulling out the pin
That lets her hair fall down
She's pulling out the pin
She shakes her head
And it goes tumbling
Her smile was out of place
So she swept it off her face
Let me find the words and say them
Like some softly whispered "Amen"
But she starts to pull away
And the lights begin to dim
Is she thinking of me?
Or is she thinking of him?
She's pulling out the pin…
She's slipping off the hook
Unbuttoning her dress
She's slipping off the hook
There's just enough to make some man a mess
She tears away the veil
With her fingernails
She came out high and kicking
While the band played "Hey, Good Looking"
Do you hear something ticking?
Did somebody tell her she could really be redeemed?
And could she actually be as desperate as she seems?
She's tearing at the seams
She's going to extremes
Nobody told her it was a sin
So she's pulling out the pin
She's taping up her hands just like a boxer will
And they started laughing
But if looks could kill
She'd take them down right now
She's covering her mouth
With some unholy vow
There's nothing more to say
This is her wedding day
Full of shattered glass and mayhem
Not some softly whispered "Amen"
While the shock announcement dawns
And the smoke begins to thin
Where the world without ends
And the next one begins
She's pulling out the pin
She's pulling out the pin
She's pulling out the pin
She's pulling out the pin
That lets her hair fall down
She's pulling out the pin
She shakes her head
And it goes tumbling
Her smile was out of place
So she swept it off her face
Let me find the words and say them
Like some softly whispered "Amen"
But she starts to pull away
And the lights begin to dim
Is she thinking of me?
Or is she thinking of him?
She's pulling out the pin…
She's slipping off the hook
Unbuttoning her dress
She's slipping off the hook
There's just enough to make some man a mess
She tears away the veil
With her fingernails
She came out high and kicking
While the band played "Hey, Good Looking"
Do you hear something ticking?
Did somebody tell her she could really be redeemed?
And could she actually be as desperate as she seems?
She's tearing at the seams
She's going to extremes
Nobody told her it was a sin
So she's pulling out the pin
She's taping up her hands just like a boxer will
And they started laughing
But if looks could kill
She'd take them down right now
She's covering her mouth
With some unholy vow
There's nothing more to say
This is her wedding day
Full of shattered glass and mayhem
Not some softly whispered "Amen"
While the shock announcement dawns
And the smoke begins to thin
Where the world without ends
And the next one begins
She's pulling out the pin
She's pulling out the pin
She's pulling out the pin
She's pulling out the pin
Cinco Minutos Con Vos lyrics - Elvis Costello (with The Roots & La Marisoul)
I stood at the kerb trying not to disturb
The dark carnival crew and a glittering voice
Far off there said, "Rejoice"
"As the casualties are but few"
Going to tell you now
Before I forget myself
I could let you loose
But the key won't undo the lock
And the face of the clock
Seemed to merrily mock
These five minutes with you
Mi padre sabía
Y me lo susurro
Vete a Montevideo y espérame ahí
Por dónde empezar?
Escuchando siempre están
Por cinco minutos o mas
Si te atreves
La sirenas lamentan
La plaga que encuentran
Las balas caen
Y te harán desaparecer
El faro oscurece hay poca esperanza
Cinco minutos con vos
[English Version:]
My father would know
So he whispered it low
"Go to Montevideo and wait for me there"
How can I begin?
They're always listening in
For five minutes or more if you dare
Now the sirens wail
There is a fever in the winding sheets
And the bullets hail
And they pull you right off the streets
Our chances are slim but the searchlights will dim in five minutes for you
The propeller was droning, I woke up alone
They opened the door and they threw me through
And down I went down, like the twist of a screw
Down into the silver, above me the blue
And you stood there waiting but you never knew
Five Minutes With You
They can scatter the earth and find nothing of worth
Wipe out those years of triangular tears
The colours will fly
And the wild wind will cry I'm strapped to that mast
Knowing they wouldn't last for
Five Minutes With You
The dark carnival crew and a glittering voice
Far off there said, "Rejoice"
"As the casualties are but few"
Going to tell you now
Before I forget myself
I could let you loose
But the key won't undo the lock
And the face of the clock
Seemed to merrily mock
These five minutes with you
Mi padre sabía
Y me lo susurro
Vete a Montevideo y espérame ahí
Por dónde empezar?
Escuchando siempre están
Por cinco minutos o mas
Si te atreves
La sirenas lamentan
La plaga que encuentran
Las balas caen
Y te harán desaparecer
El faro oscurece hay poca esperanza
Cinco minutos con vos
[English Version:]
My father would know
So he whispered it low
"Go to Montevideo and wait for me there"
How can I begin?
They're always listening in
For five minutes or more if you dare
Now the sirens wail
There is a fever in the winding sheets
And the bullets hail
And they pull you right off the streets
Our chances are slim but the searchlights will dim in five minutes for you
The propeller was droning, I woke up alone
They opened the door and they threw me through
And down I went down, like the twist of a screw
Down into the silver, above me the blue
And you stood there waiting but you never knew
Five Minutes With You
They can scatter the earth and find nothing of worth
Wipe out those years of triangular tears
The colours will fly
And the wild wind will cry I'm strapped to that mast
Knowing they wouldn't last for
Five Minutes With You
Viceroy's Row lyrics - Elvis Costello (with The Roots)
Now there's a crank in every crowd
Sprinkling gunpowder
Seems that everything is about to blow
They lit the burning paper
With a waxen taper
Sitting up here on Viceroy's Row
And they're gathering flowers
In the crack of hours where all of the nightmares go
Watching the pipeline as it overflowed
Sitting pretty here on Viceroy's Row
He made a fortune out of barbed wire
In the last days of the Empire
Built a cast-iron curtain
Just to keep control
He was a tycoon, then a cheapskate
Went out looking for a keepsake
To tuck into his suitcase on Viceroy's Row
And they're gathering flowers
In the crack of hours where all of the nightmares go
Watching the pipeline as it overflowed
Sitting pretty here on Viceroy's Row
He had a satchel full of cash
And dishes full of ashes
He went from boom to bust
In the blinking of a lash
Heard the rat-a-tat of the late patrol
Shooting out the lights up on Viceroy's Row
And they're gathering flowers
In the crack of hours where all of the nightmares go
They're coming for him slowly
Now the war is over
Sitting up here on Viceroy's Row
The woman in a blindfold
She doesn't want her hand held
Walking through a minefield
Saying "How does this feel?"
Stepping on the quicksand
Going down slow
Hiding up here on Viceroy's Row
Nothing satisfies
The ruins of his blue eyes
Like blood stains on a diamond mine
And deep within you felt
Not one measure of his guilt
Staring in the dark up on Viceroy's Row
Yet her penitent lover
Took a ribbon of rubber
Tied her to the bed made of silken thread
But without an ounce of mercy
They denounced him with a curse
Hammering on the door upon Viceroy's Row
Now his little concubine in her cemetery drag
Her face all smeared with charcoal
Is leaving all her cares, so
Take 500 acres and see what you can sow
We came to overthrow those on Viceroy's Row
They're gathering flowers
In the crack of hours where all of the nightmares go
Watching the pipeline as it overflowed
Sitting up here on Viceroy's Row
Wise Up Ghost lyrics - Elvis Costello (with The Roots)
Last lions roar before they're tamed
I stood out in the glorious reign
Knowing full well I can't go home again
Wise Up Ghost
Wise Up
When are you going to rise up?
Wise Up Ghost
Yield some sighs up
Wise Up Ghost
Go on your merry way now if you must
Fool's Gold turns rivets into rust
'Til you don't know who to trust
Wise Up Ghost
Wise Up
When are you going to rise up?
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)
Yield some sighs up (Wise Up Ghost)
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)
Old woman living in a cardboard shoe
Lost so many souls, she don't know what to do
So, say your prayers 'cos down the stairs it's 1932
Wise Up Ghost
She revolves around a sparkling pole
Stares into the mirrored wall
Sees another woman walking through a market stall
(She's pulling out the pin)
Wise Up Ghost
(She's pulling out the pin)
Wise Up
When are you going to rise up?
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)
Yield some sighs up (Wise Up Ghost)
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)
Lost girl found on the radio
Down around Larado
Go direct to hell you murdering so-and-so
Wise Up Ghost
Trapped within a House of Feathers
Sitting in a Shirt of Wire
Howling at a Wall of Flowers
Saying "Wise Up Ghost"
Wise Up
When are you going to rise up?
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)
Yield some sighs up (Wise Up Ghost)
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)
I walked along an iron pier
Where Rose's kisses turned to tears
Saltwater rushing over the pebbles under there
Wise Up Ghost
Last sigh of passion
Slipped into the room like an assassin
Glad tidings we bring
For you and your King
Wise Up Ghost
Wise Up
When are you going to rise up?
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)
Yield some sighs up (Wise Up Ghost)
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)
Last lions roar before they're tamed
I stood out in the glorious reign
Knowing full well I can't go home again
Wise Up Ghost
Wise Up
When are you going to rise up?
Wise Up Ghost
Yield some sighs up
Wise Up Ghost
I stood out in the glorious reign
Knowing full well I can't go home again
Wise Up Ghost
Wise Up
When are you going to rise up?
Wise Up Ghost
Yield some sighs up
Wise Up Ghost
Go on your merry way now if you must
Fool's Gold turns rivets into rust
'Til you don't know who to trust
Wise Up Ghost
Wise Up
When are you going to rise up?
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)
Yield some sighs up (Wise Up Ghost)
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)
Old woman living in a cardboard shoe
Lost so many souls, she don't know what to do
So, say your prayers 'cos down the stairs it's 1932
Wise Up Ghost
She revolves around a sparkling pole
Stares into the mirrored wall
Sees another woman walking through a market stall
(She's pulling out the pin)
Wise Up Ghost
(She's pulling out the pin)
Wise Up
When are you going to rise up?
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)
Yield some sighs up (Wise Up Ghost)
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)
Lost girl found on the radio
Down around Larado
Go direct to hell you murdering so-and-so
Wise Up Ghost
Trapped within a House of Feathers
Sitting in a Shirt of Wire
Howling at a Wall of Flowers
Saying "Wise Up Ghost"
Wise Up
When are you going to rise up?
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)
Yield some sighs up (Wise Up Ghost)
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)
I walked along an iron pier
Where Rose's kisses turned to tears
Saltwater rushing over the pebbles under there
Wise Up Ghost
Last sigh of passion
Slipped into the room like an assassin
Glad tidings we bring
For you and your King
Wise Up Ghost
Wise Up
When are you going to rise up?
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)
Yield some sighs up (Wise Up Ghost)
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)
Last lions roar before they're tamed
I stood out in the glorious reign
Knowing full well I can't go home again
Wise Up Ghost
Wise Up
When are you going to rise up?
Wise Up Ghost
Yield some sighs up
Wise Up Ghost
If I Could Believe lyrics - Elvis Costello (with The Roots)
If I could believe two and two is five
Two wrongs make a right
Well then, man alive
Lost in my insolence and sneers
That might sound like prayers
If I could believe
If I could believe
You were from heaven sent
Then just losing you
Would be my punishment
But in the hour of disgrace
I might see his face
If I could believe
If I could believe
Then I know I might
Sleep all through the night
But how many times must I wake in fright
Nagging doubts still tugging on my sleeve
If I could believe two and two is five
Two wrongs make a right
Well then, man alive
Lost in my insolence and sneers
That might sound like prayers
If I could believe
If I could believe
Two wrongs make a right
Well then, man alive
Lost in my insolence and sneers
That might sound like prayers
If I could believe
If I could believe
You were from heaven sent
Then just losing you
Would be my punishment
But in the hour of disgrace
I might see his face
If I could believe
If I could believe
Then I know I might
Sleep all through the night
But how many times must I wake in fright
Nagging doubts still tugging on my sleeve
If I could believe two and two is five
Two wrongs make a right
Well then, man alive
Lost in my insolence and sneers
That might sound like prayers
If I could believe
If I could believe
My New Haunt lyrics - Elvis Costello (with The Roots)
My New Haunt
Gives me everything I want
My New Haunt
Gives me everything I want
And I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind
If she turns out to be crazy in time
Bring me black strap molasses
Light me a burning witch
Bring me my bristle brushes
Bring me my tar and pitch
Bring me my feather pillow
And I'll unpick the stitch
We've lived too well
Too long
So long
So strong
My New Haunt
Brings me everything I want
And I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind
If she turns out to be faithless in time
My New Haunt
Sometimes disappears
Then comes back in the night
And whispers in my ears
Saying "Don't you know you little fool
You've nothing to fear
I'll tell you everything you want to know
Everything you want to hear"
And I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind
Raise up that flaming torch
Watch as the ships approach
An invitation on her lips
The homeless, tempest-tossed, she grips
Make her beautiful
Make her dutiful and rich
Sing me a love song
So long
So strong
My New Haunt
Has just been repossessed
And I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind
if I have to guess my next address
I'm out on the horizon
Just as the sun was rising
First rays bestow a kiss
So you would never guess
I'm sailing off a precipice
Dragons and gold down in the hold
Burning leaves and spices choking back the stench of piss
My New Haunt
Requires a coat of paint
And I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind
If the walls are peeling and the ceiling is revealing the stars out there reeling
My New Haunt
Sometimes disappears
Comes back in the night
And whispers in my ears
Saying "Don't you know you little fool
You've nothing to fear
I'll tell you everything you want to know
Everything you want to hear"
And I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind
At the end of the working day
He's tired of kneeling, and praying
"As I lay down to die"
I can't remember why
Up on the silent screen
A cowboy ropes a trick
And in the second feature
Some lovely creature saved by a yankee dick
Make her beautiful
Make her dutiful and rich
Sing me a love song
So long
So strong
My New Haunt
The shiver of a chill
And I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind
Start making babies
Beat out those bayonets
Stop making bullets
Reverse the planets
Pick all my pockets
Cut off those bracelets
Have you no remorse?
Peel off your corsets
Of course
Gives me everything I want
My New Haunt
Gives me everything I want
And I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind
If she turns out to be crazy in time
Bring me black strap molasses
Light me a burning witch
Bring me my bristle brushes
Bring me my tar and pitch
Bring me my feather pillow
And I'll unpick the stitch
We've lived too well
Too long
So long
So strong
My New Haunt
Brings me everything I want
And I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind
If she turns out to be faithless in time
My New Haunt
Sometimes disappears
Then comes back in the night
And whispers in my ears
Saying "Don't you know you little fool
You've nothing to fear
I'll tell you everything you want to know
Everything you want to hear"
And I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind
Raise up that flaming torch
Watch as the ships approach
An invitation on her lips
The homeless, tempest-tossed, she grips
Make her beautiful
Make her dutiful and rich
Sing me a love song
So long
So strong
My New Haunt
Has just been repossessed
And I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind
if I have to guess my next address
I'm out on the horizon
Just as the sun was rising
First rays bestow a kiss
So you would never guess
I'm sailing off a precipice
Dragons and gold down in the hold
Burning leaves and spices choking back the stench of piss
My New Haunt
Requires a coat of paint
And I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind
If the walls are peeling and the ceiling is revealing the stars out there reeling
My New Haunt
Sometimes disappears
Comes back in the night
And whispers in my ears
Saying "Don't you know you little fool
You've nothing to fear
I'll tell you everything you want to know
Everything you want to hear"
And I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind
At the end of the working day
He's tired of kneeling, and praying
"As I lay down to die"
I can't remember why
Up on the silent screen
A cowboy ropes a trick
And in the second feature
Some lovely creature saved by a yankee dick
Make her beautiful
Make her dutiful and rich
Sing me a love song
So long
So strong
My New Haunt
The shiver of a chill
And I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind
Start making babies
Beat out those bayonets
Stop making bullets
Reverse the planets
Pick all my pockets
Cut off those bracelets
Have you no remorse?
Peel off your corsets
Of course
Can You Hear Me? lyrics - Elvis Costello (with The Roots)
Signal fading
Listen to what I'm saying
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
Testing, testing
Can you hear me?
This better be worth all of the breath I'm wasting
Hear him coming through loud and clear
Hear him treacling in your ear
Well, you know your time has come
And you're sorry for what you've done
All you gangsters
You should have never have been playing with a gun
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
Hear him coming through loud and clear
Hear him treacling in your ear
Next week there'll be some fashionable new sin
For each harlot and each puritan
Pull off their wings, stick 'em on a pin
Can you hear me?
And just let the money roll in
Can you hear me?
Signal fading
Listen to what I'm saying
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
Testing, testing
Can you hear me?
This better be worth all of the breath I'm wasting
Hear him coming through loud and clear
Hear him treacling in your ear
There's a line that you must toe
And it's time for you to go
All you gangsters
It's darker than you know
Can you hear me?
Hear him coming through loud and clear
Hear him treacling in your ear
The hands of the helpless are raised
Your dead little secrets are praised
The people stand dumbstruck and dazed
Can you hear me?
By the inches that you have erased
Hear him treacling in your ear
Do those drug dealer still polish women made of wax
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
Gangsters and world leaders
Require the same protection from attack
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
Libraries filled up with failed ideas
There's nothing more for me there
I trust in tender ink and gentle airs
Tape starts running
He's going to tell you something
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
Strings start strumming
Another humdrum conundrum...
Hear him coming through loud and clear
Hear him treacling in your ear
Barricaded in the talk radio station
Hostage taken
Can you hear me
The red "On-Air" light shines on
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
All you gangsters
So pay the ransom
Before the run-out groove
Hear him coming through loud and clear
Hear him treacling in your ear
Get my wife down here
A helicopter on the roof
No police marksman
Maintaining radio silence from now on
Signal fading
Listen to what I'm saying
Mystery voices drowned out by too much choice
Testing, testing
Maintaining radio silence
Listen to what I'm saying
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
Testing, testing
Can you hear me?
This better be worth all of the breath I'm wasting
Hear him coming through loud and clear
Hear him treacling in your ear
Well, you know your time has come
And you're sorry for what you've done
All you gangsters
You should have never have been playing with a gun
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
Hear him coming through loud and clear
Hear him treacling in your ear
Next week there'll be some fashionable new sin
For each harlot and each puritan
Pull off their wings, stick 'em on a pin
Can you hear me?
And just let the money roll in
Can you hear me?
Signal fading
Listen to what I'm saying
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
Testing, testing
Can you hear me?
This better be worth all of the breath I'm wasting
Hear him coming through loud and clear
Hear him treacling in your ear
There's a line that you must toe
And it's time for you to go
All you gangsters
It's darker than you know
Can you hear me?
Hear him coming through loud and clear
Hear him treacling in your ear
The hands of the helpless are raised
Your dead little secrets are praised
The people stand dumbstruck and dazed
Can you hear me?
By the inches that you have erased
Hear him treacling in your ear
Do those drug dealer still polish women made of wax
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
Gangsters and world leaders
Require the same protection from attack
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
Libraries filled up with failed ideas
There's nothing more for me there
I trust in tender ink and gentle airs
Tape starts running
He's going to tell you something
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
Strings start strumming
Another humdrum conundrum...
Hear him coming through loud and clear
Hear him treacling in your ear
Barricaded in the talk radio station
Hostage taken
Can you hear me
The red "On-Air" light shines on
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
All you gangsters
So pay the ransom
Before the run-out groove
Hear him coming through loud and clear
Hear him treacling in your ear
Get my wife down here
A helicopter on the roof
No police marksman
Maintaining radio silence from now on
Signal fading
Listen to what I'm saying
Mystery voices drowned out by too much choice
Testing, testing
Maintaining radio silence
The Puppet Has Cut His Strings lyrics - Elvis Costello (with The Roots)
They pulled the stars down one by one
Hauled up the moon to shine upon
A velvet curtain rising
Now her puppet has cut his strings
The footlights glare
The trumpets blare
Why is your face drawn on so glum, old chum
Paintbrush dragging on a drum
The rimshot on the punchline that you fumbled
The crowd went home and left you
For dead
My old woodenhead
Took the thimble and the thread
Choked back tears like a cymbal
The breath is slow and shallow too
The sky is bright Venetian blue
The cardboard sun is all ablaze
The air is painted Clifford Brown
Caressing "Yesterdays"
The steady gaze of your glass eye
Head in a basket smiling still
Free of will, free of wisdom
Can't feel my fingers anymore
Can't raise my hand and ask for more
Dance my doll across the floor
Or fire a flag from a pistol
("Bang")
They pulled the stars down one by one
Hauled up the moon to wish upon
The puppet finally cut his strings
And free at last from earthly things
He's dancing on the ceiling
With a showgirl in a feather dress
Time is meaningless
We carried you on buckled limbs
Through mournful airs and martyrs hymns
Then one blue and one more yellow pill
One keeps you quiet
One keeps you still
You sang "The Way You Looked Tonight"
Your voice is ringing true and clear
Then you wore them down like candlelight
And in the darkness
You'd best beware
And in the darkness
You'd best beware
You'd best beware
You'd best beware
I used to love him
When I used to care
Canopy
Satin trim
Slowly closing
The puppet has cut his strings
Hauled up the moon to shine upon
A velvet curtain rising
Now her puppet has cut his strings
The footlights glare
The trumpets blare
Why is your face drawn on so glum, old chum
Paintbrush dragging on a drum
The rimshot on the punchline that you fumbled
The crowd went home and left you
For dead
My old woodenhead
Took the thimble and the thread
Choked back tears like a cymbal
The breath is slow and shallow too
The sky is bright Venetian blue
The cardboard sun is all ablaze
The air is painted Clifford Brown
Caressing "Yesterdays"
The steady gaze of your glass eye
Head in a basket smiling still
Free of will, free of wisdom
Can't feel my fingers anymore
Can't raise my hand and ask for more
Dance my doll across the floor
Or fire a flag from a pistol
("Bang")
They pulled the stars down one by one
Hauled up the moon to wish upon
The puppet finally cut his strings
And free at last from earthly things
He's dancing on the ceiling
With a showgirl in a feather dress
Time is meaningless
We carried you on buckled limbs
Through mournful airs and martyrs hymns
Then one blue and one more yellow pill
One keeps you quiet
One keeps you still
You sang "The Way You Looked Tonight"
Your voice is ringing true and clear
Then you wore them down like candlelight
And in the darkness
You'd best beware
And in the darkness
You'd best beware
You'd best beware
You'd best beware
I used to love him
When I used to care
Canopy
Satin trim
Slowly closing
The puppet has cut his strings
National Ransom lyrics - Elvis Costello
Running pell-mell and harum-scarum
Running as hot as they do or dare
Stick out your tongue
And drink down all the venom
From Cut-Throat Cuthbert
And Millicent St. Cyr
From the real old Macau
To the new False Americas
In the liberated territories
Unusual suspects shake down, shake down, shake down various dubious characters
Mother's in the kitchen picking bones for breakfast
Boiling them down by the bushel and the score
Pull out your thumb and count what's left of your fist
There's a wolf at the window with ravening maw
Did you find how to lie?
Did you find out just how to cheat?
The elite bleat, their obsolete
But are your prospects?
Exact, perfect object
Now, if you'd only genuflect
They're running wild
Just like some childish tantrum
Meanwhile we're working every day
Paying off the National Ransom
Woe betide all this hocus-pocus
They're running us ragged at their first attempt
Around the time the killing stopped on Wall St.
You couldn't hold me, baby with anything but contempt
Letters peal slowly from our speech
The claxton attempts to preach
Stretching for stars still out of reach
Drowning
Flailing
Outside someone's wailing
They're running wild
Just like some childish tantrum
Meanwhile we're working every day
Paying off the National Ransom
Running as hot as they do or dare
Stick out your tongue
And drink down all the venom
From Cut-Throat Cuthbert
And Millicent St. Cyr
From the real old Macau
To the new False Americas
In the liberated territories
Unusual suspects shake down, shake down, shake down various dubious characters
Mother's in the kitchen picking bones for breakfast
Boiling them down by the bushel and the score
Pull out your thumb and count what's left of your fist
There's a wolf at the window with ravening maw
Did you find how to lie?
Did you find out just how to cheat?
The elite bleat, their obsolete
But are your prospects?
Exact, perfect object
Now, if you'd only genuflect
They're running wild
Just like some childish tantrum
Meanwhile we're working every day
Paying off the National Ransom
Woe betide all this hocus-pocus
They're running us ragged at their first attempt
Around the time the killing stopped on Wall St.
You couldn't hold me, baby with anything but contempt
Letters peal slowly from our speech
The claxton attempts to preach
Stretching for stars still out of reach
Drowning
Flailing
Outside someone's wailing
They're running wild
Just like some childish tantrum
Meanwhile we're working every day
Paying off the National Ransom
Jimmie Standing In The Rain lyrics - Elvis Costello
Third-Class ticket in his pocket
Punching out the shadows underneath the sockets
Tweed coat turned up against the fog
Slow coaches rolling o'er the moor
Between the very memory
And approaches of war
Stale bread curling on a luncheon counter
Loose change lonely, not the right amount
Forgotten Man of an indifferent nation
Waiting on a platform at a Lancashire station
Somebody's calling you again
The sky is falling
Jimmie's standing in the rain
Nobody wants to buy a counterfeited prairie lullaby in a colliery town
A hip flask and fumbled skein with some stagedoor Josephine is all he'll get now
Eyes going in and out of focus
Mild and bitter from tuberculosis
Forgotten Man
Indifferent nation
Waiting on a platform at a Lancashire station
Somebody's calling you again
The sky is falling
Jimmie's standing in the rain
Her soft breath was gentle on his neck
If he could choose the time to die
Then he would come and go like this
Underneath a painted sky
She woke up and called him "Charlie" by mistake
And then in shame began to cry
Tarnished silver band peals off a phrase
And then warms their hands around the brazier
Forgotten Man
Indifferent nation
Waiting on a platform at a Lancashire station
Somebody's calling you again
It's finally dawning
Jimmie's standing in the rain
Brilliantine glistening
Your soft plaintive whistling
And your wan wandering smile
Died down at The Hippodrome
Now you're walking off to jeers, the lonely sound of jingling spurs, the "toodle-oos" and "Oh, my dears" down at "The Argyle"
Vile vaudevillians applaud sobriety
There's no place for a half-cut cowboy in polite society
Forgotten Man
Indifferent nation
Waiting on a platform at a Lancashire station
Somebody's calling you again
It's finally dawning
Jimmie's standing in the rain
Stations Of The Cross lyrics - Elvis Costello
The tempest blows up from a squall
Past the Cape of Bad Conscience
Into the Gulf of the Cauldron
Roars over the coastline to batter and flatten
Exposing the roots like the dyed hair of slattern
Scrapper and mauler in a rope ring this small
Outside the wind is punching
There's no one left to hear it
No one hears the bell ring
Except the one who comes to fear it
And they continue to brawl
He's buying his way into heaven I suppose
He weeps at the blows
But down in a location that we cannot disclose
He turns the dial slowly
Through the Stations of the Cross
Crowd done up dandy
In diamonds and finery
Baying and howling
All bloodlusty calling
Fists like pistons
Faces like meat spoiling
Haul, boys, haul, bully-boys haul
Later that evening
Molly and her gunman
Go down the stairs to a dive like a dungeon
Meanwhile in the backroom there's a girl like a sponge
Saying, "Bring him in long as a constable's truncheon"
The gunman wants Molly to kingdom come
Then blows them all to the hereafter
Who's scuttling away now and hidden from our view?
Who tightened the tourniquet, turning her blue?
They're hurling themselves into heaven I suppose
Before the gates are closed
But down in a location that we cannot disclose
They'll turn the dial slowly through the Stations of the Cross
The gale of hale laughter
Scales up the ivory
The black keys of her fine whine descend into the minor
Die away breathless
Diminishing behind her
Haul boys haul, bully-boys haul
The water came up to the eaves
You'd think someone had opened a valve
It's too soon to stay now and too late to leave
So spare your remorse all the way up to Calvary
They're hurling themselves into heaven I suppose
Before the gates are closed
But down in a location that we cannot disclose
I'm turning the dial slowly through the Stations of the Cross
Past the Cape of Bad Conscience
Into the Gulf of the Cauldron
Roars over the coastline to batter and flatten
Exposing the roots like the dyed hair of slattern
Scrapper and mauler in a rope ring this small
Outside the wind is punching
There's no one left to hear it
No one hears the bell ring
Except the one who comes to fear it
And they continue to brawl
He's buying his way into heaven I suppose
He weeps at the blows
But down in a location that we cannot disclose
He turns the dial slowly
Through the Stations of the Cross
Crowd done up dandy
In diamonds and finery
Baying and howling
All bloodlusty calling
Fists like pistons
Faces like meat spoiling
Haul, boys, haul, bully-boys haul
Later that evening
Molly and her gunman
Go down the stairs to a dive like a dungeon
Meanwhile in the backroom there's a girl like a sponge
Saying, "Bring him in long as a constable's truncheon"
The gunman wants Molly to kingdom come
Then blows them all to the hereafter
Who's scuttling away now and hidden from our view?
Who tightened the tourniquet, turning her blue?
They're hurling themselves into heaven I suppose
Before the gates are closed
But down in a location that we cannot disclose
They'll turn the dial slowly through the Stations of the Cross
The gale of hale laughter
Scales up the ivory
The black keys of her fine whine descend into the minor
Die away breathless
Diminishing behind her
Haul boys haul, bully-boys haul
The water came up to the eaves
You'd think someone had opened a valve
It's too soon to stay now and too late to leave
So spare your remorse all the way up to Calvary
They're hurling themselves into heaven I suppose
Before the gates are closed
But down in a location that we cannot disclose
I'm turning the dial slowly through the Stations of the Cross
A Slow Drag With Josephine lyrics - Elvis Costello
The snitch, the snoop, the tattletale
Lead a threadbare up stairs
Adieu, my little ballyhoo
You broke my heart in two
And now I haunt the bars and scent those trite affairs
She went home to gather her comb
And caught him unawares
And there was her man enjoying the lay of the land
He took a walk in the dark with a dish from the stand
Girls and their creations
Tight in the brightest grenadine
But I'd take all that I've seen
For a Slow Drag with Josephine
Josephine, Josephine
But I'd trade all that I've seen for a Slow Drag with Josephine
Gavotte, garrotes, Cotillions and slow Arabesques
Drum-rolls and Farandoles were all made in jest
But when you make that move
I can't resist
When will you declare your armistice?
Josephine, Josephine
But I'd trade all that I've seen for a Slow Drag with Josephine
In another time and place a different fate was cast
He tried to skeddle-daddle-do
She might have slapped him
Just for saying "Grant one more chance before you pass"
"Then curse the nurse that named me the first or bury me at last"
And in three-quarter time
The true and the false
Dancing the "Hesitation Waltz"
Then comes the "Flirtation"
And temptation
Hip, hip hooray
Listen to what I say
Then you can take it away...
Five Small Words lyrics - Elvis Costello
Maybe you'll recognize in time
Maybe one day you will discover
All the pain that lies behind
You and your unfortunate love
Somebody might be more
Unsuitable and strange
With eyes that offer everything
And are capable of danger
My mind turns over lies you told
Things said to your other lover
Sweet as they had been to me
You lay there telling them to each other
Now I stand outside the door
My head is filled phrases
Inside someone's calling out
Their voices rise with praises
Five Small Words
"I don't want you anymore"
Five Small Words
"I don't need you anymore"
Five Small Words
Coward that you are, you would faithlessly implore
"Baby please don't leave me"
"Why don't you believe me?"
"Why did you deceive me?"
It didn't take some shiny dagger
The tattooed fingers grip and hone
I walked under some dark ladder
Heard your final loving moan
All your indiscretions are
So merciful and brief
Genteel poison sprinkled on your Spanish handkerchief
Five Small Words
"Don't you love me anymore?"
Five Small Words
But then who is keeping score?
Coward that you are, you would so faithlessly implore
"Baby please don't leave me"
"Why don't you believe me?"
"Why did you deceive me?"
Maybe in time you'll want me more
Accidentally like this '45
This '44
Maybe one day you will discover
All the pain that lies behind
You and your unfortunate love
Somebody might be more
Unsuitable and strange
With eyes that offer everything
And are capable of danger
My mind turns over lies you told
Things said to your other lover
Sweet as they had been to me
You lay there telling them to each other
Now I stand outside the door
My head is filled phrases
Inside someone's calling out
Their voices rise with praises
Five Small Words
"I don't want you anymore"
Five Small Words
"I don't need you anymore"
Five Small Words
Coward that you are, you would faithlessly implore
"Baby please don't leave me"
"Why don't you believe me?"
"Why did you deceive me?"
It didn't take some shiny dagger
The tattooed fingers grip and hone
I walked under some dark ladder
Heard your final loving moan
All your indiscretions are
So merciful and brief
Genteel poison sprinkled on your Spanish handkerchief
Five Small Words
"Don't you love me anymore?"
Five Small Words
But then who is keeping score?
Coward that you are, you would so faithlessly implore
"Baby please don't leave me"
"Why don't you believe me?"
"Why did you deceive me?"
Maybe in time you'll want me more
Accidentally like this '45
This '44
Church Underground lyrics - Elvis Costello
She stood spotlit in a plain print dress
Came howling out of the wilderness
There beat a cunning and murderous heart
Beneath that calm exterior
"You know my name
You don't know my mind
Don't doubt my eyes
They betray the past
And I've already forgotten
Much more than you will ever know"
And every word that I have spoken is true
Except for those that were broken in two
I'm trying to make peace after a long night of pretend
I need a pawnbroker or moneylender
Why do you do me down, Mister?
Sing "Hallelujah," Sister
Turn up the volume, just to turn it down
The trivial secrets buried with profound
It's enough to put a Church Underground
Deflowered young and then ever since
She's tried to wash off his fingerprints
So every charlatan and prince
Was made to feel inferior
She worked for tips in a 10-cent dance
Said moving pictures might pay perchance
10,000 one-way tickets to the sparkling coast
From the blank interior
Everybody's either talking in code
Or getting ready to explode
Then she was singing with five-piece band
But seems that no-one wants this sound
Why do you do me down, Mister?
Sing "Hallelujah," Sister
Turn up the volume, just to turn it down
The trivial secrets buried with profound
It's enough to put a Church Underground
The shaft of fanlight streaked with rain
Poured through the glass, punched through the pain
A holy picture hidden in the midden of that poisoned stitch
Her lonely voice was just a ruin in these riches
Must have been dreaming this all along
Could she be redeeming herself in song?
"I'm no-one's martyred, plaster saint
Below the grease, beneath the paint"
I'm rolling like barrel
Swinging like a gallows
I'm rising up fast like all hell and all hallows
Why do you do me down, Mister?
Sing "Hallelujah," Sister
I'll be damned or purgatory bound
Before those jokers ever understand
It's enough to put a Church Underground
Came howling out of the wilderness
There beat a cunning and murderous heart
Beneath that calm exterior
"You know my name
You don't know my mind
Don't doubt my eyes
They betray the past
And I've already forgotten
Much more than you will ever know"
And every word that I have spoken is true
Except for those that were broken in two
I'm trying to make peace after a long night of pretend
I need a pawnbroker or moneylender
Why do you do me down, Mister?
Sing "Hallelujah," Sister
Turn up the volume, just to turn it down
The trivial secrets buried with profound
It's enough to put a Church Underground
Deflowered young and then ever since
She's tried to wash off his fingerprints
So every charlatan and prince
Was made to feel inferior
She worked for tips in a 10-cent dance
Said moving pictures might pay perchance
10,000 one-way tickets to the sparkling coast
From the blank interior
Everybody's either talking in code
Or getting ready to explode
Then she was singing with five-piece band
But seems that no-one wants this sound
Why do you do me down, Mister?
Sing "Hallelujah," Sister
Turn up the volume, just to turn it down
The trivial secrets buried with profound
It's enough to put a Church Underground
The shaft of fanlight streaked with rain
Poured through the glass, punched through the pain
A holy picture hidden in the midden of that poisoned stitch
Her lonely voice was just a ruin in these riches
Must have been dreaming this all along
Could she be redeeming herself in song?
"I'm no-one's martyred, plaster saint
Below the grease, beneath the paint"
I'm rolling like barrel
Swinging like a gallows
I'm rising up fast like all hell and all hallows
Why do you do me down, Mister?
Sing "Hallelujah," Sister
I'll be damned or purgatory bound
Before those jokers ever understand
It's enough to put a Church Underground
You Hung The Moon lyrics - Elvis Costello
The homecoming fanfare is echoing still
Now tapping on tables
And sensing a chill
Poor families expecting loved one's return
Only summon some charlatan spectre
Oh, when will they learn?
You hung the moon
From a gallows in the sky
Choked out the light
From his blue lunar eye
The shore is a parchment
The sea has no tide
Since he was taken from my side
The lines of the fallen are viewed through a glass
But you cannot touch them at all
Or hear their footfall just as they go past
The drunken ground is where they are bound
You hung the moon
From a gallows in the sky
Put out the light in his blue lunar eye
The shore is a parchment
The sea has no tide
Since he was taken from my side
So slap out his terrors
And sneer at his tears
We deal with deserters like this
From the breech to the barrel, the bead we will level
Break earth with a shovel, quick march on the double
Lower him shallow like tallow down in the abyss
You hung the moon
From a gallows in the sky
Choked out the light in his blue lunar eye
The shore is a parchment
The sea has no tide
Since he was taken from my side
Now tapping on tables
And sensing a chill
Poor families expecting loved one's return
Only summon some charlatan spectre
Oh, when will they learn?
You hung the moon
From a gallows in the sky
Choked out the light
From his blue lunar eye
The shore is a parchment
The sea has no tide
Since he was taken from my side
The lines of the fallen are viewed through a glass
But you cannot touch them at all
Or hear their footfall just as they go past
The drunken ground is where they are bound
You hung the moon
From a gallows in the sky
Put out the light in his blue lunar eye
The shore is a parchment
The sea has no tide
Since he was taken from my side
So slap out his terrors
And sneer at his tears
We deal with deserters like this
From the breech to the barrel, the bead we will level
Break earth with a shovel, quick march on the double
Lower him shallow like tallow down in the abyss
You hung the moon
From a gallows in the sky
Choked out the light in his blue lunar eye
The shore is a parchment
The sea has no tide
Since he was taken from my side
Bullets For The New-Born King lyrics - Elvis Costello
No one looks in this place for motive or any hope
But for the dead shot of an amber glass
The blue light of a votive
The rain obscured the window
As the pain was dulled by the grains
Absolved in spoons and flames
In fear in time dissolving
It's not for the faint of pulse
Or anybody false
Those amateurs who only shed their skin
So where are those traitors now, we once called patriots?
Just like those saints who seem to revel in their sins
O my eyes were filled with tears that were stinging
After our assassin's work was done
But hands and bells are only there for the wringing
As we were bringing bullets for the new-born king
The trumpet sounds lamenting
Trampling down the blooms of the deceased
The double agent girl and the fallen priest were heading for the border
Somewhere at the high command there stayed the palest hand
That saw the order countermand
Erased a tape recorder and then they hung him from a window cord
Swallow down that voodoo vial to still your breath a while
Before we spill this tale that has been spun
And so I shall now confide all that I once denied
Oh I'm so sorry for the things I've done
O my eyes were filled with tears that were stinging
After our assassin's work was done
But hands and bells are only there for the wringing
As we were bringing bullet for the new-born king
But for the dead shot of an amber glass
The blue light of a votive
The rain obscured the window
As the pain was dulled by the grains
Absolved in spoons and flames
In fear in time dissolving
It's not for the faint of pulse
Or anybody false
Those amateurs who only shed their skin
So where are those traitors now, we once called patriots?
Just like those saints who seem to revel in their sins
O my eyes were filled with tears that were stinging
After our assassin's work was done
But hands and bells are only there for the wringing
As we were bringing bullets for the new-born king
The trumpet sounds lamenting
Trampling down the blooms of the deceased
The double agent girl and the fallen priest were heading for the border
Somewhere at the high command there stayed the palest hand
That saw the order countermand
Erased a tape recorder and then they hung him from a window cord
Swallow down that voodoo vial to still your breath a while
Before we spill this tale that has been spun
And so I shall now confide all that I once denied
Oh I'm so sorry for the things I've done
O my eyes were filled with tears that were stinging
After our assassin's work was done
But hands and bells are only there for the wringing
As we were bringing bullet for the new-born king
I Lost You lyrics - Elvis Costello
I Lost You
I Lost You
You slipped from your costume
Like an actress in this tragedy
You're just an apparition in a haunting mystery
I fear that you've passed over me...
And there's nothing I can do because
I Lost You
Just like a rich man who is careless of his change
I took you for granted
And then you went to strangers
From deep within my heart I feel a distant fading pulse
A poor woman looking for last coin in her purse
I Lost You
I Lost You
You slipped from your costume
Like an actress in this tragedy
You're just an apparition in a haunting mystery
I fear that you've passed over me...
And there's nothing I can do because
I Lost You
Just like a counterfeit you pass from palm to palm
I chased the one I surely loved to someone else's arms
I mislaid my senses, now that's easy to say
A fool who took his pleasure but then threw his love away
I Lost You
I Lost You
You slipped from your costume
Like an actress in this tragedy
You're just an apparition in a haunting mystery
I fear that you've passed over me...
And there's nothing I can do because
I Lost You
I Lost You
You slipped from your costume
Like an actress in this tragedy
You're just an apparition in a haunting mystery
I fear that you've passed over me...
And there's nothing I can do because
I Lost You
Just like a rich man who is careless of his change
I took you for granted
And then you went to strangers
From deep within my heart I feel a distant fading pulse
A poor woman looking for last coin in her purse
I Lost You
I Lost You
You slipped from your costume
Like an actress in this tragedy
You're just an apparition in a haunting mystery
I fear that you've passed over me...
And there's nothing I can do because
I Lost You
Just like a counterfeit you pass from palm to palm
I chased the one I surely loved to someone else's arms
I mislaid my senses, now that's easy to say
A fool who took his pleasure but then threw his love away
I Lost You
I Lost You
You slipped from your costume
Like an actress in this tragedy
You're just an apparition in a haunting mystery
I fear that you've passed over me...
And there's nothing I can do because
I Lost You
Dr. Watson, I Presume lyrics - Elvis Costello
I sat in a motel room with the doctor
Just before we were supposed to sing
He said regarding this guardian wing
This black and clipped misshapen thing
Hobbling on from claw to ring
Hung upside down and cawing
Pecking at carrion of the fallen
Battalion
Thawing
On frozen mooring
Blackbird in a crust no more
They fell down 4 and 20
Bloodstained the land of want and plenty
Now raven standing at his shoulder
Stared with eyes of molten solder
Dripping on a lacquer box
Introducing keys to locks
Seven talents there where hidden
Mysterious and some forbidden
Take the honey from the comb
Ravel thread around the loom
Dig the dirt up from the tomb
Dr. Watson, I presume
One will follow
Two unknown sorrow
Three for laughter
Four ever after
Five-foot flood when the waters hit
Six feet deep, the eternal pit
Seven prayers and seven pleas
To eight imagined deities
Cat o' nine tails
Cat of nine lives
Brides turned into old wives tales
Your complexion colours then it pales
And into the sunset it sails
Soon these secrets will be scattered
Heaven knows what lies inside
It took a moment to discover
A lifetime to decide
Take the honey from the comb
Ravel thread around the loom
Dig the dirt up from the tomb
Dr. Watson, I presume
Just before we were supposed to sing
He said regarding this guardian wing
This black and clipped misshapen thing
Hobbling on from claw to ring
Hung upside down and cawing
Pecking at carrion of the fallen
Battalion
Thawing
On frozen mooring
Blackbird in a crust no more
They fell down 4 and 20
Bloodstained the land of want and plenty
Now raven standing at his shoulder
Stared with eyes of molten solder
Dripping on a lacquer box
Introducing keys to locks
Seven talents there where hidden
Mysterious and some forbidden
Take the honey from the comb
Ravel thread around the loom
Dig the dirt up from the tomb
Dr. Watson, I presume
One will follow
Two unknown sorrow
Three for laughter
Four ever after
Five-foot flood when the waters hit
Six feet deep, the eternal pit
Seven prayers and seven pleas
To eight imagined deities
Cat o' nine tails
Cat of nine lives
Brides turned into old wives tales
Your complexion colours then it pales
And into the sunset it sails
Soon these secrets will be scattered
Heaven knows what lies inside
It took a moment to discover
A lifetime to decide
Take the honey from the comb
Ravel thread around the loom
Dig the dirt up from the tomb
Dr. Watson, I presume
One Bell Ringing lyrics - Elvis Costello
Raining slapping on the window pane
An hour or more of teeming
Storm punching like a hurricane
That tore him out of dreaming
Air screaming through the slightest gap
Rattling between the frame and the sill
Drapes hanging from the final act
When I had you still
One lonely bird is singing
Lower the hood hung of his lament
Dash him down on cold cement
One Bell Ringing
Flies buzzing round strip search light
They've got him down on his knees
He thinks of honey dripping from a spoon
Girls whispering in Portuguese
Between muzzle and the black site
Electrical contact
Deny your name and then carry the blame
Somewhat after the fact
One lonely bird is singing
Lower the hood hung on that last lament
Dash him down on cold cement
One Bell Ringing
An hour or more of teeming
Storm punching like a hurricane
That tore him out of dreaming
Air screaming through the slightest gap
Rattling between the frame and the sill
Drapes hanging from the final act
When I had you still
One lonely bird is singing
Lower the hood hung of his lament
Dash him down on cold cement
One Bell Ringing
Flies buzzing round strip search light
They've got him down on his knees
He thinks of honey dripping from a spoon
Girls whispering in Portuguese
Between muzzle and the black site
Electrical contact
Deny your name and then carry the blame
Somewhat after the fact
One lonely bird is singing
Lower the hood hung on that last lament
Dash him down on cold cement
One Bell Ringing
The Spell That You Cast lyrics - Elvis Costello
The spell that you cast
Seems to be wearing off fast
(The spell that you cast)
Come back baby, cos I don't know if I can last
(The spell that you cast)
And I wonder whether
You got some other kind of lover
That you like to please
Better than me
I don't think I can take it
How am I going break it?
The Spell That You Cast
The spell that you've woven
Seems to be coming undone
(The spell that you cast)
Come back, Baby or at least tell me where you are going
(The spell that you cast)
'Cos you know quite well
I'm not a jealous kind of feller
But they look in your eyes
And they're all hypnotized
I'm going to miss you madly
'Cos I love you sadly
The Spell That You Cast
Jimmy come quickly 'cos I feel quite sickly
(The Spell That You Cast)
You're like a gangster's Molly with a cannonade volley
(The Spell That You Cast)
I don't think I can take it
How am I going break it?
The Spell That You Cast
Seems to be wearing off fast
(The spell that you cast)
Come back baby, cos I don't know if I can last
(The spell that you cast)
And I wonder whether
You got some other kind of lover
That you like to please
Better than me
I don't think I can take it
How am I going break it?
The Spell That You Cast
The spell that you've woven
Seems to be coming undone
(The spell that you cast)
Come back, Baby or at least tell me where you are going
(The spell that you cast)
'Cos you know quite well
I'm not a jealous kind of feller
But they look in your eyes
And they're all hypnotized
I'm going to miss you madly
'Cos I love you sadly
The Spell That You Cast
Jimmy come quickly 'cos I feel quite sickly
(The Spell That You Cast)
You're like a gangster's Molly with a cannonade volley
(The Spell That You Cast)
I don't think I can take it
How am I going break it?
The Spell That You Cast
That's Not The Part Of Him lyrics - Elvis Costello
I have a friend
She's just a friend
I tried to comfort and defend
I gave her what you might call advice
But nothing like that comes without a price
The rumour was a cruel surprise
And she dissolved before my eyes
I offered my hand and hers and mine entwined
I thought about back then when I wished that she had been mine
There's no use in shedding any tears
He's no good to you the way he is
He's beyond forgiving and believing
Half of his heart is torn like paper
It's sweet as the syrup from the maple
But that's not the part of him you're leaving
In time they're bound to wonder why
It's just a thrill you can't deny
I offered my shoulder right away
Now people will talk about what I can't say
And yet the whispers still persist
They're getting harder to resist
How am I supposed to stop loving you now I've begun?
And I'm sorry for what I might do more than what I have done
There's no use in shedding any tears
He's no good to you the way he is
He's beyond forgiving and believing
Half of his heart is filled with pain
That's sweet as a lick of sugarcane
But that's not the part of him you're leaving
Love is a many splintered thing
That only cuts roses and ribbons that cling
But that's not the part of him you're leaving
She's just a friend
I tried to comfort and defend
I gave her what you might call advice
But nothing like that comes without a price
The rumour was a cruel surprise
And she dissolved before my eyes
I offered my hand and hers and mine entwined
I thought about back then when I wished that she had been mine
There's no use in shedding any tears
He's no good to you the way he is
He's beyond forgiving and believing
Half of his heart is torn like paper
It's sweet as the syrup from the maple
But that's not the part of him you're leaving
In time they're bound to wonder why
It's just a thrill you can't deny
I offered my shoulder right away
Now people will talk about what I can't say
And yet the whispers still persist
They're getting harder to resist
How am I supposed to stop loving you now I've begun?
And I'm sorry for what I might do more than what I have done
There's no use in shedding any tears
He's no good to you the way he is
He's beyond forgiving and believing
Half of his heart is filled with pain
That's sweet as a lick of sugarcane
But that's not the part of him you're leaving
Love is a many splintered thing
That only cuts roses and ribbons that cling
But that's not the part of him you're leaving
My Lovely Jezebel lyrics - Elvis Costello
She attracts dark rumours
Travels in blue and other humours
Each time she walks in the room
Brings in much more than you'd assume
Ooo, I looked in her eyes and out through that window I fell
She's My Lovely Jezebel
She neglects you and then ransacks you so very well
She suspects your sweet confection
When you talk in contradictions
Then she walks without detection
Overrules all your objections
Ooo, I looked in her eyes and through that window I fell
She's My Lovely Jezebel
Man is miserable ape and sad pile of sticks
He comes out swinging, gets in a few licks
The longest of drumrolls for the shortest of tricks
So she attracts bad intentions
She distracts all my attention
With her ways and her wild inventions
The facts of life they forgot to mention
Ooo, I looked in her eyes and down through that window I fell
She's My Lovely Jezebel
She neglects you and then ransacks you so very well
Travels in blue and other humours
Each time she walks in the room
Brings in much more than you'd assume
Ooo, I looked in her eyes and out through that window I fell
She's My Lovely Jezebel
She neglects you and then ransacks you so very well
She suspects your sweet confection
When you talk in contradictions
Then she walks without detection
Overrules all your objections
Ooo, I looked in her eyes and through that window I fell
She's My Lovely Jezebel
Man is miserable ape and sad pile of sticks
He comes out swinging, gets in a few licks
The longest of drumrolls for the shortest of tricks
So she attracts bad intentions
She distracts all my attention
With her ways and her wild inventions
The facts of life they forgot to mention
Ooo, I looked in her eyes and down through that window I fell
She's My Lovely Jezebel
She neglects you and then ransacks you so very well
All These Strangers lyrics - Elvis Costello
"Mistreat me darling and I might just disappear"
Upon freighter running dark out of Algiers
Put tiny grains in children's tears
While taking 25% of all the flashbulbs and mementoes
From the mechanized divisions rolling over your frontiers
I saw my baby talking with another man to day
Speaking softly in a confidential way
I saw a shadow pull his glove off
As a bluebird flew over
Life's is no pleasure
When you doubt the one you love
Who Are All These Strangers?
I never will go back again
Go back into the past
For the flood is rising fast
You can break your window and look down
Into a muddy glass
It's mirror or lens to burn...
There was a deal done in Benghazi and Belgrade...
Upon a scimitar or other crooked blade
Ransacks and loots, vacated suits
And pistol points but never shoots, army sitting in a locomotive yard without their boots
Upstairs your man is painting the rain out in the street
Imagines woman that he's destined still to meet
He's trying sidetrack one to count on
Caught somewhere between countess or a courtesan
And it's only love to feign and then it's gone
Who Are All These Strangers?
He's a privateer as dusk gets near
A brigand after dark, his victim lined with chalk
A corsair, filled with horsehair to the core
Dashed on your eyes of Adamantine, you despised his stripling whine
That little smudger and the mouthpiece that he's with
Using his clause just like a practised fingersmith
I dreamed I took his digit prints
And then sewed then on a villain's hands
Watched him ransom and demand
Until called the flatfoots in
I never will go back again
Go back into the past
For the flood is rising fast
You can break your window and look down
Into a muddy glass
It's a mirror or lens to burn...
Who Are All These Strangers?
All These Strangers
I sat down on a narrow bed
I thought about the things she said
All These Strangers
How I wished the night would never end
So tried to stop the days ahead
I'd carve her name down in the wood
Some small remembrance if I could
Upon freighter running dark out of Algiers
Put tiny grains in children's tears
While taking 25% of all the flashbulbs and mementoes
From the mechanized divisions rolling over your frontiers
I saw my baby talking with another man to day
Speaking softly in a confidential way
I saw a shadow pull his glove off
As a bluebird flew over
Life's is no pleasure
When you doubt the one you love
Who Are All These Strangers?
I never will go back again
Go back into the past
For the flood is rising fast
You can break your window and look down
Into a muddy glass
It's mirror or lens to burn...
There was a deal done in Benghazi and Belgrade...
Upon a scimitar or other crooked blade
Ransacks and loots, vacated suits
And pistol points but never shoots, army sitting in a locomotive yard without their boots
Upstairs your man is painting the rain out in the street
Imagines woman that he's destined still to meet
He's trying sidetrack one to count on
Caught somewhere between countess or a courtesan
And it's only love to feign and then it's gone
Who Are All These Strangers?
He's a privateer as dusk gets near
A brigand after dark, his victim lined with chalk
A corsair, filled with horsehair to the core
Dashed on your eyes of Adamantine, you despised his stripling whine
That little smudger and the mouthpiece that he's with
Using his clause just like a practised fingersmith
I dreamed I took his digit prints
And then sewed then on a villain's hands
Watched him ransom and demand
Until called the flatfoots in
I never will go back again
Go back into the past
For the flood is rising fast
You can break your window and look down
Into a muddy glass
It's a mirror or lens to burn...
Who Are All These Strangers?
All These Strangers
I sat down on a narrow bed
I thought about the things she said
All These Strangers
How I wished the night would never end
So tried to stop the days ahead
I'd carve her name down in the wood
Some small remembrance if I could
A Voice In The Dark lyrics - Elvis Costello
You can read right through a book of matches
But that won't make you smart
You can laugh in the face of watches
But time will only break your heart
Kings reign beneath umbrellas
Hide pennies down in cellars
And money pours down and yet
No everyone gets soaking wet
When bores and bullies conspire
To stamp out your spark
Listen for...
A Voice In The Dark
Not a moment too soon as we blue the moon
And a wolf begins to howl in tune
I announced for all mankind
A boon
Stand aside you big baboon
Now I'm the a prize invention
You're the image of yourself
Forget your cares
And disapproving stares
I'm not here to try to jump your borders
Just ask your nieces and daughters
I'm flat as sole, I'm happy as a clam
But they don't know the kind of man I am
Little fish swimming in a jealous shoal
Now my net is overflowing
And I suddenly seem to be all seeing and all knowing
I've got something right there
They you need to hear
But have no fear
Lend a hand
Lend an ear
If your rent-money is in arrears
We'll be striking up a symphony bandstand
Long of hair and loose of tooth
There'll be pirouettes and startling handstands
And who but acrobats know how to tell the truth
When is said that then redundant
They gallivant in peg-leg pants
I'll be your servant
You'll be my pal
I'll be ever faithful you know I shall
There's no fool like an old fool
Who blames it all upon his youth
When times are tough and you find you're down
Without a star to wish upon
Just listen for...
A Voice In The Dark
I was striking through a box of matches
Hoping that one would spark
I heard somebody calling to me
A voice in the dark
A sound both wild and gentle
Daring and confidential
I thought there was music playing
But it was all and only talk
When liars and bullies conspire to stamp out spark
Fill up that empty space in your heart
Listen up, when the herald says, "Hark"
Believe in just a voice in the dark...
But that won't make you smart
You can laugh in the face of watches
But time will only break your heart
Kings reign beneath umbrellas
Hide pennies down in cellars
And money pours down and yet
No everyone gets soaking wet
When bores and bullies conspire
To stamp out your spark
Listen for...
A Voice In The Dark
Not a moment too soon as we blue the moon
And a wolf begins to howl in tune
I announced for all mankind
A boon
Stand aside you big baboon
Now I'm the a prize invention
You're the image of yourself
Forget your cares
And disapproving stares
I'm not here to try to jump your borders
Just ask your nieces and daughters
I'm flat as sole, I'm happy as a clam
But they don't know the kind of man I am
Little fish swimming in a jealous shoal
Now my net is overflowing
And I suddenly seem to be all seeing and all knowing
I've got something right there
They you need to hear
But have no fear
Lend a hand
Lend an ear
If your rent-money is in arrears
We'll be striking up a symphony bandstand
Long of hair and loose of tooth
There'll be pirouettes and startling handstands
And who but acrobats know how to tell the truth
When is said that then redundant
They gallivant in peg-leg pants
I'll be your servant
You'll be my pal
I'll be ever faithful you know I shall
There's no fool like an old fool
Who blames it all upon his youth
When times are tough and you find you're down
Without a star to wish upon
Just listen for...
A Voice In The Dark
I was striking through a box of matches
Hoping that one would spark
I heard somebody calling to me
A voice in the dark
A sound both wild and gentle
Daring and confidential
I thought there was music playing
But it was all and only talk
When liars and bullies conspire to stamp out spark
Fill up that empty space in your heart
Listen up, when the herald says, "Hark"
Believe in just a voice in the dark...
I Hope lyrics - Elvis Costello
Sometime, somewhere
We're gonna meet again, I know
And I won't love you anymore
I hope
Somewhere, somehow
You're gonna need me
Like I'm needing you right now
I hope
Keep on dancing and let the music play
Tonight's the night I'm gonna dance the night away
Tomorrow, tomorrow
You'll be gone
So long, goodbye
I know that I'm gonna cry
But I'll forget you by and by
I hope, I hope
We're gonna meet again, I know
And I won't love you anymore
I hope
Somewhere, somehow
You're gonna need me
Like I'm needing you right now
I hope
Keep on dancing and let the music play
Tonight's the night I'm gonna dance the night away
Tomorrow, tomorrow
You'll be gone
So long, goodbye
I know that I'm gonna cry
But I'll forget you by and by
I hope, I hope
Down Among The Wine And Spirits lyrics - Elvis Costello
Down among the wines and spirits
Where a man gets what he merits...
Once it was written in letters 'bout nine feet tall
Now he sees how far he's fallen
Since he set his mind on her completely
But then I guess that you couldn't have seen him lately
Walking around with a pain that just never ceases
He starts to speak and then he goes to pieces...
Down among the wines and spirits
Where a man gets what he merits...
Lives with the echoing words of their final quarrel
The vacant chamber
The empty barrel
But as he picks himself up from a sawdust floor
Clicks his fingers to that swinging door
Suddenly he's calling out, "More, more, more..."
"I'm twice the foolish man I was before..."
Down among the wines and spirits
Bubbles escaping from him at the rim a glass of grape
She sails through his memory just like a ship of shapely
And then as it started sink he drowns his sorrows
That fill his nights and empty tomorrows
But as he picks himself up from a sawdust floor
Clicks his fingers to that swinging door
Suddenly he's calling out, "More, more, more..."
Speaks of invisible things he hardly credits
Down among
Down among the wines and spirits
Where a man gets what he merits...
Once it was written in letters 'bout nine feet tall
Now he sees how far he's fallen
Since he set his mind on her completely
But then I guess that you couldn't have seen him lately
Walking around with a pain that just never ceases
He starts to speak and then he goes to pieces...
Down among the wines and spirits
Where a man gets what he merits...
Lives with the echoing words of their final quarrel
The vacant chamber
The empty barrel
But as he picks himself up from a sawdust floor
Clicks his fingers to that swinging door
Suddenly he's calling out, "More, more, more..."
"I'm twice the foolish man I was before..."
Down among the wines and spirits
Bubbles escaping from him at the rim a glass of grape
She sails through his memory just like a ship of shapely
And then as it started sink he drowns his sorrows
That fill his nights and empty tomorrows
But as he picks himself up from a sawdust floor
Clicks his fingers to that swinging door
Suddenly he's calling out, "More, more, more..."
Speaks of invisible things he hardly credits
Down among
Down among the wines and spirits
Complicated Shadows lyrics - Elvis Costello
Well you know your time has come and you're sorry for what you've done
You should've never have been playing with a gun
In those Complicated Shadows
Well there's a line that you must toe
and it'll soon be time to go
but it's darker than you know in those Complicated Shadows
All you gangsters and rude clowns
Who were shooting up the town
When you should have found someone to put the blame on
Though the fury's hot and hard
I still see that cold graveyard
There's a solitary stone that's got your name on
You don't have to take it from me
But I know what I spake
You think you're like iron and steel
But iron and steel will bend and break
In those Complicated Shadows
Go!
Sometimes justice you will find
Is just dumb not colour-blind
And your poor shattered mind can't take it all in
All those phantoms and those shades
Should Jump up on Judgement Day
And say to the Almighty "I'm still stinking of sin"
But the jury was dismissed
Took his neck and they give it a twist
So you see you won't be missed in those Complicated Shadows
You can say just what you like in a voice like a John Ford film
Take the law into your hands
You will soon get tired of killing
In those Complicated Shadows
Complicated Shadows
Complicated Shadows
Complicated Shadows
Go!
You should've never have been playing with a gun
In those Complicated Shadows
Well there's a line that you must toe
and it'll soon be time to go
but it's darker than you know in those Complicated Shadows
All you gangsters and rude clowns
Who were shooting up the town
When you should have found someone to put the blame on
Though the fury's hot and hard
I still see that cold graveyard
There's a solitary stone that's got your name on
You don't have to take it from me
But I know what I spake
You think you're like iron and steel
But iron and steel will bend and break
In those Complicated Shadows
Go!
Sometimes justice you will find
Is just dumb not colour-blind
And your poor shattered mind can't take it all in
All those phantoms and those shades
Should Jump up on Judgement Day
And say to the Almighty "I'm still stinking of sin"
But the jury was dismissed
Took his neck and they give it a twist
So you see you won't be missed in those Complicated Shadows
You can say just what you like in a voice like a John Ford film
Take the law into your hands
You will soon get tired of killing
In those Complicated Shadows
Complicated Shadows
Complicated Shadows
Complicated Shadows
Go!
I Felt The Chill lyrics - Elvis Costello
Well, there's a difference in the way that you kissed me
And there's a sadness in your eyes that you can't hide
Why do you tremble when I hold you?
I wonder if you feel the same
I felt the chill before the winter came
But it's easy to say that I won't give in again
I was just tempted for a moment and then some
But it's so easy when you love to lose to control
Now look here if you will
At the faithful man you stole
I felt the chill before the winter came
I suffered the guilt and then accepted the blame
I wanted you before you ever spoke my name
But I knew that we would go wrong
Just as they do in all in those old tragic songs
Did that melody haunt your mind?
Just like a linger of perfume
Now you're in someone else's arms,
Locked up in another room
Is there's a difference in the way that he loves you
Is there still sadness in your eyes, you can't deny?
Do you tremble and sigh when he holds you just like I do?
What were you thinking of to throw away our love?
And it's easy to say that you won't give in again
You were just tempted for a moment and half
But it's so hard when you desire to lose control
I don't know what this feeling is but it sure seems cold
I felt the chill before the winter came
I suffered the pain and then accepted the shame
I will have lost your love by end of this sad refrain?
I felt the cold creeping over my skin...
Still as the air until the wind rushed in
Still in control, holding on to my heart and soul
Only inches from sin
And there's a sadness in your eyes that you can't hide
Why do you tremble when I hold you?
I wonder if you feel the same
I felt the chill before the winter came
But it's easy to say that I won't give in again
I was just tempted for a moment and then some
But it's so easy when you love to lose to control
Now look here if you will
At the faithful man you stole
I felt the chill before the winter came
I suffered the guilt and then accepted the blame
I wanted you before you ever spoke my name
But I knew that we would go wrong
Just as they do in all in those old tragic songs
Did that melody haunt your mind?
Just like a linger of perfume
Now you're in someone else's arms,
Locked up in another room
Is there's a difference in the way that he loves you
Is there still sadness in your eyes, you can't deny?
Do you tremble and sigh when he holds you just like I do?
What were you thinking of to throw away our love?
And it's easy to say that you won't give in again
You were just tempted for a moment and half
But it's so hard when you desire to lose control
I don't know what this feeling is but it sure seems cold
I felt the chill before the winter came
I suffered the pain and then accepted the shame
I will have lost your love by end of this sad refrain?
I felt the cold creeping over my skin...
Still as the air until the wind rushed in
Still in control, holding on to my heart and soul
Only inches from sin
My All Time Doll lyrics - Elvis Costello
When I was away I needed you so
And now coming I'm home to stay
I won't wake in the night and reach for you
And turn on the light and to my dismay
You're not there
You're never around
Or is it me?
It's so hard to see
I flick off the switch
And stare in dark
And wait for you to appear
You're My All-Time Doll
I'm out of control
It's broken my mind
But that's not all that you stole
You're My All-Time Doll
You're all I adore
I'd swear to it now it
But I already swore
My eyes are blinded with tears
But it's all my own fault
My lips taste of cruel words
My eyes sting with salt
But you can take the way I feel about you
And put it in a vault
You're My All-Time Doll
From near and from far
I've known many a girl,
Now... I'm closing in
My heart is beating
Like a whip on a hide
It's raining outside
You're My All-Time Doll
I'm out of control
It's broken my mind
That's not all that you stole
You're My All-Time Doll
You're all I adore
I'd swear to it now it
But I already swore
Every time I rant and rail
Every time I try and fail
Any time I want to quit
And say, "That's the end of it"
When I stand and start to leave
You cool my brow, you tug my sleeve
You're My All-Time Doll
I'm walking, I'm pacing, my heart is racing
I swear that clock is running slow
It only speeds up for a moment or so
Each time it's time for me to go
You're My All-Time Doll
I'm out of control
It's broken my mind
That's not all that you stole
You're My All-Time Doll
You're all I adore
I'd swear to it now it
But I already swore
In the far flung cry of a closing saloon
On the blank back side of that poisonous moon
I tried not to think about you
I thought I was immune..
You're My All-Time Doll
And now coming I'm home to stay
I won't wake in the night and reach for you
And turn on the light and to my dismay
You're not there
You're never around
Or is it me?
It's so hard to see
I flick off the switch
And stare in dark
And wait for you to appear
You're My All-Time Doll
I'm out of control
It's broken my mind
But that's not all that you stole
You're My All-Time Doll
You're all I adore
I'd swear to it now it
But I already swore
My eyes are blinded with tears
But it's all my own fault
My lips taste of cruel words
My eyes sting with salt
But you can take the way I feel about you
And put it in a vault
You're My All-Time Doll
From near and from far
I've known many a girl,
Now... I'm closing in
My heart is beating
Like a whip on a hide
It's raining outside
You're My All-Time Doll
I'm out of control
It's broken my mind
That's not all that you stole
You're My All-Time Doll
You're all I adore
I'd swear to it now it
But I already swore
Every time I rant and rail
Every time I try and fail
Any time I want to quit
And say, "That's the end of it"
When I stand and start to leave
You cool my brow, you tug my sleeve
You're My All-Time Doll
I'm walking, I'm pacing, my heart is racing
I swear that clock is running slow
It only speeds up for a moment or so
Each time it's time for me to go
You're My All-Time Doll
I'm out of control
It's broken my mind
That's not all that you stole
You're My All-Time Doll
You're all I adore
I'd swear to it now it
But I already swore
In the far flung cry of a closing saloon
On the blank back side of that poisonous moon
I tried not to think about you
I thought I was immune..
You're My All-Time Doll
Hidden Shame lyrics - Elvis Costello
I'm sorry to say that you don't know me
I'm sad in ways you never understood
Each time I try to tell the ugly truth
You always let it pass you by
You said I 'd never tell you a lie
Just because I could
Did you really think I was a bad man?
You always said that that should be my middle name
But you don't know the half of it
You don't know how that name fits
You don't know my hidden shame
[Chorus:]
Hidden shame, shame, shame
That I can't get free
From the blame and the torture
And the misery
Must it be my secret for eternity?
Till you know my hidden shame you really don't know me
Well, there's a different kind of prison
And it don't even have to look much like a cell
It's already on your mind
Boy, we can see it in your eyes
So, here's the bars and walls as well
Well, you know I'm never coming home, babe
You said you'd stand by me until I cleared my name
Sure it's easy to be strong
When you know the charge is wrong
But the days and weeks get long
When you've got a hidden shame
[Chorus]
I had a friend when I was just a boy
We were like brothers, we would run and hide
And we went walking on a high hillside
And I really don't how it happened
He turned to me and had this strange look in his eye
And not a single word was spoken
I must have pushed him, but I don't remember why
And all at once, he lay there broken
And I walked down without him and I didn't even sigh
CHORUS
They say you always hurt the one you love
And I'm not saying if I did or if I didn't
But like my shame, that kind of love is always hidden
They locked me up here for the ideas in my head
They never got me for the thing I really did
[Chorus]
I'm sad in ways you never understood
Each time I try to tell the ugly truth
You always let it pass you by
You said I 'd never tell you a lie
Just because I could
Did you really think I was a bad man?
You always said that that should be my middle name
But you don't know the half of it
You don't know how that name fits
You don't know my hidden shame
[Chorus:]
Hidden shame, shame, shame
That I can't get free
From the blame and the torture
And the misery
Must it be my secret for eternity?
Till you know my hidden shame you really don't know me
Well, there's a different kind of prison
And it don't even have to look much like a cell
It's already on your mind
Boy, we can see it in your eyes
So, here's the bars and walls as well
Well, you know I'm never coming home, babe
You said you'd stand by me until I cleared my name
Sure it's easy to be strong
When you know the charge is wrong
But the days and weeks get long
When you've got a hidden shame
[Chorus]
I had a friend when I was just a boy
We were like brothers, we would run and hide
And we went walking on a high hillside
And I really don't how it happened
He turned to me and had this strange look in his eye
And not a single word was spoken
I must have pushed him, but I don't remember why
And all at once, he lay there broken
And I walked down without him and I didn't even sigh
CHORUS
They say you always hurt the one you love
And I'm not saying if I did or if I didn't
But like my shame, that kind of love is always hidden
They locked me up here for the ideas in my head
They never got me for the thing I really did
[Chorus]
She Handed Me A Mirror lyrics - Elvis Costello
She handed me a mirror
That she had gazed upon
The glass still held an image
The glass still held an image
But it was of a man
I turned from the reflection
To see who it might be
Is that poor vanity
Quite how she pictures me?
She handed me a mirror
Rather than tell me "no"
She let slip a handkerchief
Gentle laughter flowed
Just as her lips bestowed
A dashing word like "brother"
The crushing word like "friend"
If there was no beginning
How could this be the end?
She handed me a mirror
So I could recognise
The distance from my heart to hers
The distance from my heart to hers
The pity in her eyes
She liked my pretty story
I thanked her for her song
And then I wrote a tale not very long to tell
"You are much more than pretty. You are beautiful."
She handed me mirror
But I saw her instead
She handed me a mirror
She handed me a mirror
And that is all she did...
That she had gazed upon
The glass still held an image
The glass still held an image
But it was of a man
I turned from the reflection
To see who it might be
Is that poor vanity
Quite how she pictures me?
She handed me a mirror
Rather than tell me "no"
She let slip a handkerchief
Gentle laughter flowed
Just as her lips bestowed
A dashing word like "brother"
The crushing word like "friend"
If there was no beginning
How could this be the end?
She handed me a mirror
So I could recognise
The distance from my heart to hers
The distance from my heart to hers
The pity in her eyes
She liked my pretty story
I thanked her for her song
And then I wrote a tale not very long to tell
"You are much more than pretty. You are beautiful."
She handed me mirror
But I saw her instead
She handed me a mirror
She handed me a mirror
And that is all she did...
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