Elvis Costello

[fox69]

"Either Side Of The Same Town"

"Either Side Of The Same Town"



Nothing can ever be the same
All of the promises we made seem hollow
But there's still some streets in this town
Oh, they're marked, they're marked with your shadow

So if you see me, look surprised
Well, well, well, if you don't
Oh, just pass me by
And I may, I may even brush your sleeve
Oh, as you turn around, turn around and leave

Now it's hard to act like strangers
When we used to be so strong
Everything is changing
And most of it is wrong
What do we know of anything
Two fools of some renown
Either side, either side of the same town

Somewhere there's a light
Oh, I can sense it
Though I may fall back again
Oh, I know, yes, I know it's a fight
Oh, but I must, Lord, I must
Withstand the strain

Now it's hard to keep ignoring
Someone you recognise
And if I seem contented
Well, that's only my disguise
What do we know of anything
Two fools of some renown
Either side, either side of the same town
Oh, yeah, either side, either side of the same town

 

[fox69]

"Episode Of Blonde"

"Episode Of Blonde"


I spy for the "Spirit of Curiosity"
All the scandals of each vain monstrosity
I gossip and I pry and I insinuate
If the failure is great
Then it tends to fascinate

A tornado dropped a funnel cloud with twenty tons of rain
Though she had the attention span of warm cellophane
Her lovers fell like skittles in a 10-pin bowling lane
But nothing could compare with the explosion of fame

So you jumped back with alarm
Every Elvis has his army
Every rattlesnake his charm
Can you still hear me?
Am I coming through just fine?
Your memory was buried in simple box of pine

[Chorus:]
Did her green eyes seduce you and make you get so weak?
Was there fire engine red that she left upon your cheek?
It's such a shame you had to break the heart
You could have counted on but the last thing you need is another
...Episode of blonde

Revolving like a jeweller's figure on a music box
Spangled curtain parted and night-club scene unlocks
Pinned and fixed and fastened in a follow spot
Arms thrown out to everyone, she's giving all she's got
To the last gasp of a wounded bandeon
Tiny man imploring to the ceiling fan
This stolen feeling
Amplified up through a busted speaker
Blaring, blasting, advertising, distorted beyond reason
Into the street where petty crime-coats shadow panic drunkards,
Half out of the taxi cab the barker seized my elbow
He thought I was another lonely, likely pilgrim looking for St. Telmo

[Chorus]

I tried to keep a straight face but you know it never pays
He would stare into those eyes and then vacation in her gaze
She was a cute little ruin that he pulled out of the rubble
Now they are both living in a soft soap bubble

The film producer's contemplating, entertaining suicide
The picture crumpled in his fist, his runaway child bride
The timepiece stretched across his wrist
She couldn't care less cast aside
The scent that so repelled him that he swore: "insecticide"
And there's farewell note to mother
That will conclude "your loving Son"
"Oh, tell your other children not to do as I have done"

[Chorus]

So an artist drags a toothbrush across the first thing that he sees
And names the painting "Christ's Last Exit into Purgatory"
Receiving secret messages from an alien intelligence
Paying off his stalker it's a legitimate expense
So paste up pictures of those shrill and hollow girls
With puckered lips
She's a trophy on your arm
A magnet for your money clip
The moral of this story is the sorry tale to say
They're pieced with links of chains so they can never run away

 

[fox69]

"Everybody's Crying Mercy"

"Everybody's Crying Mercy"



I can't believe the things I've seen
I wonder bout some things I've heard
Everybody's crying mercy
When they don't know the meaning of the word
A bad enough situation
Is sure enough getting worse
Everybody's crying justice
Just as long as there's business first
Toe to toe
Touch and go
Give a cheer
Get your souvenier

People running round in circles
Don't know what they're headed for
Everybody's crying peace on Earth
Just as soon as we win this war

Straight ahead
Knock em dead
Pack your kid
Choose your hypocrite

Well you don't have to go to off broadway
To see something played absurd
Everybody's crying mercy
When they don't know the meaning of the word

Nobody knows the meaning of the word
When they don't know the meaning of the word
Nobody knows the meaning of the word
Nobody knows the meaning of the word

 

[fox69]

"Everyday I Write The Book"

"Everyday I Write The Book"



Don't tell me you don't know what love is
When you're old enough to know better
When you find strange hands in your sweater
When your dreamboat turns out to be a footnote
I'm a man with a mission in two or three editions
And I'm giving you a longing look
Everyday, everyday, everyday I write the book

Chapter One we didn't really get along
Chapter Two I think I fell in love with you
You said you'd stand by me in the middle of Chapter Three
But you were up to your old tricks in Chapters Four, Five and Six

The way you walk
The way you talk, and try to kiss me, and laugh
In four or five paragraphs
All your compliments and your cutting remarks
Are captured here in my quotation marks

Don't tell me you don't know the difference
Between a lover and a fighter
With my pen and my electric typewriter
Even in a perfect world where everyone was equal
I'd still own the film rights and be working on the sequel

 

[fox69]

"Expert Rites"

"Expert Rites"



I marvel at the wonder of it in our souless age
Fast flow the tears upon the page
Don't be alarmed I am her friend
Will I be excused if I presume
It's more than disappointment that we share
You share the same sorry life, the families fight,
that unhappy blade you both invite
This romantic ideal has a lonely appeal
I once loved someone the way that you do
But I had to let her go
I live with my regret
Don't despair my would-be Juliet

 

[fox69]

"Fake Tin Star"

"Fake Tin Star"



Things these days are better by far,
A horse can out run a motor car,
If the wheels are rubber and the rails are steel
That beast can outrun any automobile

Here's the story of progress and all the bullets they spent
On a sheet hung up in a circus tent
There's a lantern shining - it's pointing the way
This kind man has probably had his day
But they keep him around with his last vain hope
For selling tickets while spinning a rope.

They brought him down off the vanishing trail
But nobody these days wants to hear his tale
So he spends his nights leaning up at the bar
The real gone cowboy with the fake tin star.

Up on the screen there's a boy half his age
They pay him 20 times his weekly wage
For dodging phony bullets and catching blunt blades
For blowing up horses and kissing young maids.

Children cheer
Women throw flowers
Men just glower
Up at the screen
But they don't know
Just what it means
Vengeance and dreams.

Girls just swoon at the mention of him
With his face all powdered and his immaculate brim
And his hair pommaded and his fingernails clean
While old men whisper "Just look at him preen"
And outside muttering through a cheap cigar
There's a real gone cowboy with a fake tin star.

 

[fox69]

"Fallen"

"Fallen"



All the leaves are turning yellow, red and brown
Soon they'll be scattered as they tumble down
Although they may be swept up so invitingly

I never did what I was told
I trampled though the amber and the burnished gold
But now I clearly see how cruel the young can be

You can convince yourself of anything
If you wish both hard and long
And I believed that life was wonderful
Right up to the moment when love went wrong
I gaze up at the tree-tops and laugh
I need somebody to shake me loose
I want to know what happens next
'Til I don't care at all
There I go
Beginning to fall

 

[fox69]

"Favourite Hour"

"Favourite Hour"


Figure hanging on a leather band
Cog consults the watch he cups in his hand
Bejewelled movement measures lost and vanished time
Pray for the boy who makes his bed in cold earth and quicklime

[Chorus:]
So stay the hands, arrest the time
Till I am captured by your touch
Blessings I don't count
Small mercies and such
The flags may lower as we approach the favourite hour

Now there's a tragic waste of brutal youth
Strip and polish this unvarnished truth
The tricky door that gapes beneath the ragged noose
The crippled verdict begs again for the lamest excuse

[Chorus]

Put out my eyes so I may never spy
Waving branches as they're waving goodbye
Their vile perfume brings to my mouth a bitter taste
The murmuring brooks had best speak up, it's a terrible waste

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Fire Suite 1"

"Fire Suite 1"



I remember that dance
On the roof of my car
When St. Lucy's mad torch
Took away our best bar

Say we drank
And we prayed
Some just sat like a choir
Came the smoke
In the night
Came the heat
Came the fire

Ember glow lagered ash
I was pissed as a fart
Stricken some dumb plum numb
We was broken at heart

Say we drank
And we prayed
Some just sat like a choir
Came the smoke
In the night
Came the light
Came the fire

 

[fox69]

"Fire Suite 3"

"Fire Suite 3"



That all could gather
That we could marry
Still
Faces absent
That she could see this
As if time hovered
That he'd caress him
That jars and lads and Carol Ann were

Shouts from brilliant corners
Word 'n tears confused
Sparks long sky bound
Long sky bound

Had I been wiser
And not so bleedin'
Still geezer poet
Wine cross the lips flow
Love through eyes goes
That he'd embrace him
That jars and lads and Carol Ann were

That all could gather
That we could marry
Still
Faces absent
That she could see this
As if time hovered
That he'd caress him
That jars and lads and Carol Ann were
Set by the bar so tender