Elvis Costello

[fox69]

"Can You Be True?"

"Can You Be True?"



Can you be true?
Can this possibly be real?
I knew quite suddenly
Do you sense how I feel?
I long to hear you whisper my name
'Til you tell me
"My Darling, you may be my man."

There will be days when you must go from my sight
There may be nights when clouds deny us starlight
Only time will tell us
I hope that it speaks gently if it isn't meant to be
Then again
By then we might not be listening so attentively

I will be there
If the days bring torments and trials
To close the distances only measured in miles
I long to hold you all through the night
And to tell you
"My Darling, you make everything seem right"
And then I'll hear you calling in my name
And I'll answer
"My Darling, I may be your man"

 

[fox69]

"Can You Hear Me?"
(with The Roots)

"Can You Hear Me?"
(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

 

[fox69]

"Changing Partners"

"Changing Partners"



We were dancing together to a dreamy melody
When they called out "Change partners"
And you waltzed away from me
Now my arms feel so empty as I gaze around the floor
And I'll keep on changing partners
Till I hold you once more

Though we danced for one moment and too soon we had to part
In that wonderful moment somethin' happened to my heart
So I'll keep changing partners till you're in my arms and then
Oh, my darlin' I will never change partners again

Though we danced for one moment and too soon we had to part
In that wonderful moment somethin' happened to my heart
So I'll keep changing partners till you're in my arms and then
Oh, my darlin' I will never change partners again

 

[fox69]

"Charm School"

"Charm School"



Men made out of monkeys
Men made into mice
Happy days are here again
And all the drinks half price
A girl with a trick and a man with a calling
Trying to make a living out of your downfalling
TRYING TO MAKE A LIVING out of anything at all
Didn't they teach you anything except how to be cruel
In that charm school

You and I as lovers
Were nothing but a farce
TRYING TO MAKE A SILK PURSE
OUT OF A SOW'S ARSE
Saying 'Why don't you watch me'
Hardly speaking SOTTO VOCE

I've got a notion
I've got an angle
Take your dreams and promises
And put them through the mangle
They say it's hell to finance too
And I just want to romance you

In this perpetual nightclub
I'll be yours eternal
Though the hours are long
And the noise infernal
JUST ONE SHAMEFUL ACT OR SOMETIMES TWO
WE MAKE BELIEVE WE'RE MAKING DO

 

[fox69]

"Cheap Reward"

"Cheap Reward"



Oh, well, I feel so loose tonight I might fall to pieces
So be prepared to sweep me out the door
And I might be horizontal by the time the music ceases
So I think I'll get acquainted with the floor
Oh, I was trying to get away from the things that I always do
Hello, floorboards once again - how are you?

Lip Service - well, that's all you'll ever get from me
Well, how could you believe I'll take you seriously?
With your cheap rewards, your blackmail, and your comical rage
Just remember you'll only be the boss so long as you pay my wage

All the sign posts on this road that point one way
Don't act like you're above me, just look at your shoes
I'll turn the light out now 'cause there's nothing more to say
And it's all been lost before so there's nothing to lose

Oh, but you could say that you love me very painlessly
I would've done the same for you, oh, but you said to me:

Lip service - well, that's all you'll ever get from me
Well, how could you believe I'd take you seriously?
With your cheap rewards, your blackmail, and your comical rage
Just remember you'll only be the boss so long as you pay my wage

Just remember you'll only be the boss so long as you pay my wage

 

[fox69]

"Chemistry Class"

"Chemistry Class"


She throws back her hair [hands] and she shows you her mouth
The breath that I waste trying to ruin your life
Beauty's on a budget but you take it on the chin
'Cause you have to do your duty taking orders from the kingpin

[Chorus:]
You've got a chemistry class I want a piece of your mind
You don't know what you started when you mixed it up with mine
Are you ready for the final solution? Oh. Oh.

[They] chopped you up in butcher's school
Threw you out of the academy of garbage
You'll be a joker all your life
A student at the comedy college
People pleasing people pleasing people like you
You've been around so long but you still don't know what to do

[Chorus]

Sparks are flying from electrical pylons
Snakes and ladders running up and down her nylons
Ready to experiment, you're ready to be burned
If it wasn't for some accidents then some would never ever learn

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Chewing Gum"

"Chewing Gum"


With their cardboard hands by their sides,
here's a naked man and lady
And they're yours to cut out and keep
So you can dress them up maybe
They don't know just who they are, or who they're
supposed to be
You can make them happy or sad
Or assume their identity
So here they are in the departure lounge
It's the "Gateway to the East"
She is just another mail-order bride
She doesn't know he's a kinky beast
So he gives her a picture of Maradona and child
She wants to "roll and rock"
As he spills his beer over her, bumps and he
grinds, as he repeats "Bang-Cock"

[Chorus:]
There must be something that is better than this
It starts with a slap and ends up with a kiss
Begins with you bawling and it ends up in tears
Oh my little one, take that chewing gum out of
your ears

She might as well be in the jungle
She might as well be on the moon
He's away on a business trip, in Dusseldorf [sic], but
she's becoming immune
To the lack of glamour and danger in a West-
German city today
The nearest she comes to the "Dynasty" he
promised her
Is a Chinese takeaway

[Chorus]

Though he only taught her three little words, it
doesn't matter if they're dirty or clean
He can only control what they look like
He can never possess what they mean
Now he wants to whisper in her ear
All the shrinking nothingness
But something always comes between them,
I wonder if you can guess

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Church Underground"

"Church Underground"



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

 

[fox69]

"Cinco Minutos Con Vos"
(with The Roots & La Marisoul)

"Cinco Minutos Con Vos"
(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

 

[fox69]

"Clean Money"

"Clean Money"



Payday's coming and we wash it away
Clean money, clean money
Payday's coming and we wash it away
Clean money, clean money
That's what I want to do
I want to spend it on you
Checking on a checkmate
Grassing on a classmate
So beautiful and fortunate
He hates to love, you love to hate
He can fix you for good
'Cause he is the neighborhood
You can't get money for blood
Blood money for doin' no good
But they won't take my love for tender

Payday's coming and we wash it away
Clean money, clean money
Payday's coming and we wash it away
Clean money, clean money
That's what I want to do
I want to spend it on you

Have you made your selection ?
Are you ready for correction ?
'Cause the wages of sin
Are an expensive infection
And it's under the counter
Under the Geiger counter
Who stole your thunder ?
But they won't take my love for tender