Elvis Costello

fox69 · 28.11.2015

"Lipstick Vogue"

"Lipstick Vogue"

Don't say you love me when it's just a rumour
Don't say a word if there is any doubt.
Sometimes I think that love is just a tumour;
you've got to cut it out.

You say you're sorry for the things that you've done.
You say you're sorry but you know you don't mean it.
I wouldn't worry. I had so much fun.
Sometimes I almost feel just like a human being

It's you
not just another mouth in the lipstick vogue
It's you
not just another mouth in the lipstick vogue
oh yeah.

Get to the slot machine almost dead on arrival
Just hit me one more time with that live wire
Maybe they told you you were only a girl in a million
You say I've got not feelings;
this is a good way to kill them.

Select the control and then insert the token
You wanna throw me away but I'm not broken.
You've got a lot to say. Well I'm not joking.
There are some words they don't allow to be spoken.
Sometimes I almost feel just like a human being

It's you
not just another mouth in the lipstick vogue

fox69 · 28.11.2015

"Little Atoms"

"Little Atoms"

I arose and Marigold lay down with Curious Iris
Cherry gave to Victor her prudence and her virus
For the sake of purity I can recall the time and place
Between Wisdom and Murder she gave up her immaculate face

[Chorus:]
My poor belated chastity fell foul of grown up games,
With false and lovely modesty
I can recall the names I'll miss
In the particle of me that cares for this
I betrayed those little atoms with a kiss

Patience has her virtue still
but every grace must have its price
I through some felicity may spin a tale of constant vice
I took my better nature out, drowned it in the babbling stream
Took the blossom of my youth and blew it all to smithereens

[Chorus]

And if you still don't like my song then you can just go to hell
I don't care if I'm right or wrong or if my typewriter can spell
But I cannot promise you I've said "Goodbye" to childish things
There's still some pretty insults left and such sport in threatening

[Chorus]

And for the sake of clarity
They are "Faith", "Hope", and "Charity"
In the particle of me that cares for this
I betrayed those little atoms with a kiss

fox69 · 28.11.2015

"Little Palaces"

"Little Palaces"

In Chocolate Town all the trains are painted brown
On the silver paper of the wrapper
There's a dapper little man
And he wears a wax moustache
That he twists with nicotine fingers
As he drops his cigarette ash
And someone comes and sweeps it up
And then he doffs his cap
And there's a rat in someone's bedroom
And they're shutting someone's trap
And they'll soon be pulling down the little palaces
And the doors swing back and forward, from the past into the present
And the bedside crucifixion turns from wood to phosphorescent.
And they're moving problem families from the South up to the North,
Mother's crying over some soft soap opera divorce,
And you say you didn't do it, but you know you did of course,
And they'll soon be pulling down the little palaces.

It's like shouting in a matchbox, filled with plasterboard and hope,
Like a picture of Prince William in the arms of John the Pope.
There's a world of good intentions, and pity in their eyes,
The sedated homes of England, are theirs to vandalize.

So you knock the kids about a bit, because they've got your name,
And you knock the kids about a bit, until they feel the same.
And they feel like knocking down the little palaces.

You're the twinkle in your daddy's eye, a name you spray and scribble,
You made the girls all turn their heads, and in turn they made you miserable.
To be the heir apparent, to the kingdom of the invisible.

So you knock the kids about a bit, because they've got your name,
And you knock the kids about a bit, until they feel the same.
And they feel like knocking down the little palaces.

fox69 · 28.11.2015

"Little Savage"

"Little Savage"

I would have waited all my life
Just to make love out of something other than spite
But the beauty is the beast you're baiting
Should really be worth the waiting

[Chorus:]
You do something very special to
Mr. Average
Now the lamb lies with the lion
He's just a little savage

And so you turn your back on me
And all the hot air that only echoes stale tobacco

Actions speak louder now than words
By just a fraction
What's the use of saying I love you whe I'm drinking to distraction
We save our sanity
By saying such and such
After all its been discussed
You say you must be touched

[Chorus]

fox69 · 28.11.2015

"Little Triggers"

"Little Triggers"

Little triggers that you pull with your tongue.
Little triggers. I don't wanna be hung up, strung up,
when you don't call up.
Little sniggers on your lips.
Little triggers in your grip.
Little triggers. My hand on your hip.

Thinkin' all about those censored sequences,
worryin' about the consequences,
waiting until I come to my senses.
Better put it all in present tenses.

Worryin' about the common decency
when it is only a question of frequency
when you say O.K. But I gotta cheek to be
sayin' you're tired of me when you don't even weaken these

fox69 · 28.11.2015

"Living In Paradise"

"Living In Paradise"

I don't like those other guys looking at your curves
I don't like you walking round with physical jerks
Everything they say and do is getting on my nerves
Soon they will be lucky to be picking up the perks

'Cause when they pull the shutters down
and throw up in the dark,
they'll find that all the dogs outside
bite much worse than they bark.

[Chorus:]
Here we are living in paradise,
living in luxury.
Oh, the thrill is here but it won't last long
You better have your fun before it moves along
And you're already looking for another,
fool like me.

I call you Betty Felon 'cause you are a pretty villain
And I think that I should tell them that you'd
make a pretty killing
'Cause meanwhile up in heaven they are waiting at the gate
saying 'We'd always knew you'd make it,
didn't think you'd come this late'.

And now it's much too dangerous to stop what you've begun
When everyone in paradise carries a gun

[Chorus]

Later in the evening when arrangements are made,
I'll be at the keyhole outside your bedroom door.
'Cause I'm the first to know whenever the plans are laid
that never go further than floor to floor.

You think that I don't know the boy that you're touching,
but I'll be at the video and I will be watching

[Chorus]

fox69 · 28.11.2015

"London's Brilliant Parade"

"London's Brilliant Parade"

Outside my window
Not long before sleep arrives
They come with their sirens
And they sweep away all the boys
Busy draining the joy from their lives
They never said their prayers out loud
And while I'm dreaming
There's a passing motor car
That broadcasts a popular song
And a girl appears to be saying
"Do you think that I'm going to go far?"

[Chorus 1:]
Just look at me
I'm having the time of my life
Or something quite like it
When I'm walking out and about
In London's brilliant parade

She's one of those girls that you just can't place
You feel guilty desiring such an innocent face
But of course they knew that when they cast her
Along with the red Routemaster
And the film takes place in an MGB
And a perfect re-creation of "The Speakeasy"
Everybody looks happy and twisted
Though she probably never existed
For old times' sake
Don't let me awake

I wouldn't want you to walk across Hungerford Bridge
Especially at twilight
Looking through the bolts and the girders
Into the water below
You'll never find your answer there

They sounded the "all-clear" in the occidental bazaar
They used to call Oxford Street
Now the bankrupt souls in the city
Are finally tasting defeat

[Chorus 2:]
Don't look at me
I'm having the time of my life
Or something quite like it
When I'm walking out and about
In London's brilliant parade
When I'm walking out and about
In London's brilliant parade

From the gates of St. Mary's, there were horses in Olympia
And a trolley bus in Fulham Broadway
The lions and the tigers in Regents Park
Couldn't pay their way
And now they're not the only ones

At the Hammersmith Palais
In Kensington and Camden Town
There's a part that I used to play;
The lovely Diorama is really part of the drama, I'd say

[Chorus 1 2x]

fox69 · 28.11.2015

"Long Journey Home"

"Long Journey Home"

If on every ocean the ship is a throne
And for each mast cut down another sapling is grown
Then I could believe that I'm bound to find
A better life than I left behind

But as you ascend the ladder
Look out below where you tread
For the colors bled as they overflowed
Red, white and blue
Green, white and gold

So I had to leave from my country of birth
As for each child grown tall
Another lies in the earth
And for every rail we laid in the loam
There's a thousand miles of the long journey home

But as you ascend the ladder
Look out below where you tread
For the colors bled as they overflowed
Red, white and blue
Green, white and gold

fox69 · 28.11.2015

"Lost In The Stars"

"Lost In The Stars"

Before Lord God made the sea and the land
He held all the stars in the palm of his hand
And they ran through his fingers like grains of sand
And one little star fall alone

Then the Lord God hunted through the wild night air
For the little dark star in the wind down there
And he stated and promised he'd take special care
So it wouldn't get lost again

Now, man don't mind if the stars grow dim
And the clouds blow over and darken him
So long as the Lord God's watching over him
Keeping track how it all goes on

But I've been walking through the night and the day
Till my eyes get weary and my hair turns grey
And sometimes it seems maybe God's gone away
Forgetting the promise that we heard him say

And we're lost out here in the stars
Little stars, big stars
Blowing through the night

And we're lost out here in the stars
Little stars, big stars
Blowing through the night

And we're lost out here in the stars

fox69 · 28.11.2015

"Love Field"

"Love Field"

You lie so unfolded
In a love field
With your contempt for any modesty
In a love field
In a love field
In a love field
You yield with your lips still sealed
In a love field
Lost in a sea of imaginary women
Everything you'd want
from the dawn to the dimming

Breath comes sharp and heart beats faster
In a love field
Cold ground for a pillow
Under a blanket of stars
In a love field

In a love field
In a love field
Headlights that startled
This embrace of hours
In a love field

In a crooked house
Where things can be arranged
You think you're different from the rest
But you don't see how you've changed

Under an archway
On a road of white linen
In a love field
Feel the anxious rhythm of a functional stranger
In a love field

In a love field
In a love field
She's so tense but it's never mentioned
In a love field