Elvis Costello

[GKZ]

15 Petals

15 Petals

15 Petals
One for every year I spent with you
Jewels and precious metals will never do

I love you twisted
And I love you straight
I'd write it down but I can't concentrate
Words won't me obey they do as they please
And all I am left with is these...

15 Petals
One for every year I spent with you
Jewels and precious metals will never do

The thorn is blunted
And The perfume will fade
I stand where sun is set
I crave the shade
Down in the tavern with Mary and Joe
Palms reached for alms as they throw

15 Petals...
One for every hour that we're apart
Tears and useless battles
I'll never start

Mussolini highway
There's a frankincense tree
I picked some up there to carry with me
You take me to places where I never go
I love you more than you know

15 Petals
Scattered in the path where you will tread
15 Petals
Of vivid red

One wine-bar vamp with the polythene face
Ein Panzer Kommander with no hair in place
The crooked battallions drilled holes in the square​

 

[GKZ]

45

45

Bells are chiming for victory
There's a page back in history
45
They came back to the world that they fought for
Didn't turn out just like they thought
45

Here is a song to sing to do the measuring
What you lose, what you gain, what you win?

Nine years later a child is born
There's a record, so you put it on
45
Nine years more, if we're lucky now
Nine-year-old puts his money down
45
Every scratch, every click, every heartbeat
Every breath that I held for you
45
There's a stack of shellac and vinyl
Which is yours now and which is mine?
45

Here is a song to sing to do the measuring
What you lose, what you gain, what you win?

Bass and treble heal every hurt
There's a rebel in a nylon shirt
But the words are a mystery, I've heard
'Til you turn it down to 33 and 1/3
'Cos it helps with the elocution
Corporations turn revolutions
45

So don't you weep and shed
Just change your name instead
What you lose when it all goes to your head?

I heard something peculiar said:
"Perhaps he's got a shot and now he's dead"
45

Bells are chiming and tears are falling
It creeps up on you without a warning
45
Every scratch, every click, every heartbeat
Every breath that I bless
I'd be lost, I confess
45​

 

[GKZ]

A Town Called Big Nothing

A Town Called Big Nothing

Big nothing.

He stood in the road outside of town with a broken clockwork toy in
his hand: A graveyard for childish dreams in his palm; a broken lifeline.

Big nothing.

The mechanical amusement sputtered to life in his fist. As he clenched, it
whirred and died again. It was a cowboy who drew his gun, but the
pistol was welded to the holster by age and careless children, so it
struggled and strained and it unwound his own spring.

Big nothing.

He didn't need tattoos to show where he had been and who he had loved. It
was the same thing that men had cried for; that women had dyed their hair
for. The cellophane illusion of a starry sky stretched over an open sore.

Big nothing.

He thought about his lost daughter: the way her eyes would alight at the
greedy circus barker's blackmail song; how he wanted to smash her skull
when she parroted back, 'tell mommy; tell poppy; you need this little
dolly.'

Big nothing. (x2)

The smoky voice of the petaled girl woke him long enough. There was too
much light in the room, so he unscrewed the bulb. She took him to bed like
an adopted dog.

Big nothing.

She lit sickly incense, as he tried to tell if the resemblance was pure
and coincidental. He unleashed his grip on the toy, all it meant to him,
and it wound down forever.

Big nothing.

He woke up in a sweat. The next day, with her smile still painted on his
mouth, he walked out of a town called Big Nothing.

Big nothing. (repeat until fade)​

 

[GKZ]

Baby Plays Around

Baby Plays Around

It's not open to discussion anymore
She's out again tonight and I'm alone once more
She's all I have worth waiting for
But baby plays around

And so it seems I've always been the last to know
To hold on to that girl, I had to let her go
I wish to God I didn't love her so
'Cos baby plays around

I try to be strong hold on to my pride
She doesn't even know it's wrong, how much I hurt Inside
And heaven knows I've tried
But baby plays around. just a plaything
It's hard to reconcile the facts I'm facing

It's not open to discussion anymore
She walks those shiny streets
I walk the worn out floor
She's all I have worth living for
Baby plays, baby plays around​

 

[fox69]

"(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea"

"(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea"



Photographs of fancy tricks to get your kicks at sixty-six
He thinks of all the lips that he licks
And all the girls that he's going to fix
She gave a little flirt, gave herself a little cuddle
But there's no place here for the mini-skirt waddle
Capital punishment, she's last year's model
They call her Natasha when she looks like Elsie
I don't want to go to Chelsea
Oh no it does not move me
Even though I've seen the movie
I don't want to check your pulse
I don't want nobody else
I don't want to go to Chelsea

Everybody's got new orders
Be a nice girl and kiss the warders
Now the teacher is away
All the kids begin to play

Men come screaming, dressed in white coats
Shake you very gently by the throat
One's named Gus, one's named Alfie
I don't want to go to Chelsea

Oh no it does not move me
Even though I've seen the movie
I don't want to check your pulse
I don't want nobody else
I don't want to go to Chelsea

Photographs of fancy tricks to get your kicks at sixty-six
He thinks of all the lips that he licks
And all the girls that he's going to fix
She gave a little flirt, gave herself a little cuddle
But there's no place here for the mini-skirt waddle
Capital punishment, she's last year's model
They call her Natasha when she looks like Elsie
I don't want to go to Chelsea

Oh no it does not move me
Even though I've seen the movie
I don't want to check your pulse
I don't want nobody else
I don't want to go to Chelsea

 

[fox69]

"(She Might Be A) Grenade"
(with The Roots)

"(She Might Be A) Grenade"
(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

 

[fox69]

"(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes"

"(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes"



Oh I used to be disgusted
and now I try to be amused.
But since their wings have got rusted,
you know, the angels wanna wear my red shoes.
But when they told me 'bout their side of the bargain,
that's when I knew that I could not refuse.
And I won't get any older, now the angels wanna wear my red shoes.
I was watching while you're dancing away.
Our love got fractured in the echo and sway.
How come everybody wants to be your friend?
You know that it still hurts me just to say it.

Oh, I know that she's disgusted (oh why's that)
Cause she's feeling so abused. (oh that's too bad)
She gets tired of the lust, (oh I'm so sad)
but it's so hard to refuse.
How can you say that I'm too old,
when the angels have stolen my red shoes.

Oh, I said "I'm so happy, I could die."
She said "Drop dead," then left with another guy.
That's what you get if you go chasing after vengeance.
Ever since you got me punctured this has been my sentence.
Oh I used to be disgusted
and now I try to be amused.
But since their wings have got rusted,
you know, the angels wanna wear my red shoes.
Red shoes, the angels wanna wear my red shoes.

 

[fox69]

"(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding"

"(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding"



As I walk through
This wicked world
Searchin' for light in the darkness of insanity.
I ask myself
Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?

And each time I feel like this inside,
There's one thing I wanna know:
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding? Ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?

And as I walked on
Through troubled times
My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes
So where are the strong
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony.

'Cause each time I feel it slippin' away, just makes me wanna cry.
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding? Ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?

So where are the strong?
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony.

'Cause each time I feel it slippin' away, just makes me wanna cry.
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding? Ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding? Ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?

 

[fox69]

"... This Town ..."

"... This Town ..."


That Charlie Sedarka was a-playing the piano
like he was pawing a dirty book
He bit a hole in his big bottom lip and gave his
very best little boy look
It was a song with a topical verse which I'm
afraid he then proceeded to sing
Something about the moody doomed love of
the Fish-Finger King

[Chorus:]
You're nobody in this town
You're nobody in this crowd
You're nobody till everybody in this town
thinks you're poison,
Got your number knows it must be avoided
You're nobody till everybody in this town
thinks you're a bastard

Mr. Getgood moved up to Self-Made Man Row
Although he swears that he's the salt of the earth
He's so proud of the "kick-me-hard" sign that
they hung on his back at birth
He said "I appreciate beauty, if I have one, then
it's my fault"
"Beauty is on my pillow, beauty is there in
my vault"

[Chorus]

The girl with the eternity rock went down on
her bookie to buy some stock
Now all her signs in the shopping arcades say
"The corporation thief is The New Jesse James"
Her clothes and her attention were scant, her
eyes were everywhere,
Her eyes were like abstinthe [sic]
The little green figures that dance on his screen
say everything you want to hear and nothing
they mean
They made love while she was changing her dress
She wiped him off she wiped him out and then
she made him confess
A little amused by the belief in her power
You must remember this it was the fetish of
the hour

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"...And In Every Home"

"...And In Every Home"


You turn to the sinister when you get the boot
Sliding down the banister in your Sunday suit
Lying on a slag heap of blankets and magazines
She's only thirty-five going on seventeen
You'd better roll over and go to sleep if you don't come clean

[Chorus:]
And in every home there will be lots of time
I will be all yours you might have been admired
(And in every home there will be lots of time)
They say they're very sorry but you are not desired
Oh heaven preserve us
Oh heaven preserve us
Oh heaven preserve us
Because they don't deserve us

Holding your life in your hand
With an artificial limp wrist
And so a young blade becomes a has-been
Looking for a new twist

A year after the wedding he broke all their china plates
He's in prison now she's running with his mates
Sees him every Sunday
And he asks her where she's been
She's only thirty-five going on seventeen
She's going to cop a packet if he ever finds her
In between the sheets

[Chorus]