Elvis Costello Five Small Words
Đóng góp:
National Ransom
Running pell-mell and harum-scarum
Runnin g 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
Unusu al suspects shake down, shake down, shake down various dubious characters
Mother 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
F lailing
Outside someone’s wailing
They’re running wild
Just like some childish tantrum
Meanwhile we’re working every day
Paying off the National Ransom
1929 to the Present Day
Jimmie Standing In The Rain
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
Forg otten 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
Accrington - 1937
Stations Of The Cross
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
Diminish ing 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
In An Undisclosed Location, Possibly New Orleans, 2005
A Slow Drag With Josephine
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
Josephi ne, Josephine
But I'd trade all that I've seen for a Slow Drag with Josephine
Gavotte , garrotes, Cotillions and slow Arabesques
Drum-rol ls and Farandoles were all made in jest
But when you make that move
I can't resist
When will you declare your armistice?
Joseph ine, 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
S he 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…
Under The Napoleonic Code – 1921
Five Small Words
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
Tucson, Arizona, 1978
National Ransom
Running pell-mell and harum-scarum
Runnin g 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
Unusu al suspects shake down, shake down, shake down various dubious characters
Mother 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
F lailing
Outside someone’s wailing
They’re running wild
Just like some childish tantrum
Meanwhile we’re working every day
Paying off the National Ransom
1929 to the Present Day
Jimmie Standing In The Rain
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
Forg otten 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
Accrington - 1937
Stations Of The Cross
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
Diminish ing 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
In An Undisclosed Location, Possibly New Orleans, 2005
A Slow Drag With Josephine
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
Josephi ne, Josephine
But I'd trade all that I've seen for a Slow Drag with Josephine
Gavotte , garrotes, Cotillions and slow Arabesques
Drum-rol ls and Farandoles were all made in jest
But when you make that move
I can't resist
When will you declare your armistice?
Joseph ine, 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
S he 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…
Under The Napoleonic Code – 1921
Five Small Words
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
Tucson, Arizona, 1978
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