Elvis Costello

[fox69]

"Almost Ideal Eyes"

"Almost Ideal Eyes"



Here she comes with her almost ideal eyes
And her flawless skin and her petulant pout
The memory of such a long blonde alibi
Still makes me want to shout out loud and clear
When you clear your head my dear
You can't come round here in those stolen clothes
Telling me all about some mystery
I hope she isn't one, I hope she isn't one of those

Almost ideal eyes
Viewed through a rosy hue
So beautiful, trusting
You'll find liberal is an insult now and care is what you pay for
Be sure of what you wish upon, be careful what you pray for
When you look into those almost ideal

Love is smiles, he will hypnotize you while
He tries to analyze your dream
Fill you up with all his big ideas while he really wants to make you
Scream out loud at the phony innocence
And the pained pretence and the dismal rage
The vacant lot that thankfully time forgot
Where you never have to act, you never have to act your age

Almost ideal eyes
Viewed through a rosy hue
So beautiful, trusting
You'll find stupid is a compliment and thrill is what you play for
Be sure of what you wish upon, be careful what you pray for
When you look into those almost ideal

In despair all your friends get uglier
And you find you're wearing an evening gown
Weeping over some tiny broken bird
While the sky is decorated
Shocking pink and a dirty shade of brown
And you think you need to be tranquil
Lies the fear that befits your new career
Whatever you invent you'll never be content in

Almost ideal eyes
Viewed through a rosy hue
So beautiful, trusting
Rebellion is just currency, the moon is what you bay for
Be sure of what you wish upon, be careful what you pray for
When you look into those almost ideal
When you look into those almost ideal
When you look into those almost ideal

Here she comes, here she comes now
Here she comes, here she comes now

 

[fox69]

"American Gangster Time"

"American Gangster Time"



One, two, three, four

Somewhere downtown a pretty girl kneels
Offers her soft lips and a handful of pills
Peels off her dress and then the rest of her skills
It buys what she wants and the rest she just steals

He speaks between deep swallows of rum
While her head is beating like a big bass drum
And she wishes he were mute and not just dumb
When the trick asked her quick, "Did you come?"

It's a drag
Saluting that starry rag
I'd rather go blind
For speaking my mind
Or use it just like a gag
So raise it in anger
Just let it hang
American Gangster Time

He sits back and starts to invent
All about some Saigon correspondent
"'Til the carbine fell silent and spent
I never knew it could be so eloquent"

Next week there'll be some fashionable new sin
For each harlot and each Puritan
Pull off their wings stick them on a pin
And just watch the money roll in

It's a drag
Saluting that starry rag
I'd rather go blind
For speaking my mind
Or use it just like a gag
So raise it in anger
Just let it hang
American Gangster Time

What you got hidden up your sleeve?
The tracks of the train that were bidding you to leave
When they say that you should flatter to deceive
Don't count on any reprieve

The hands of the helpless are raised
Your dead little secrets are praised
The people stand dumbstruck and dazed
By the inches that you have erased

It's a drag
Saluting that starry rag
I'd rather go blind
For speaking my mind
Or use it just like a gag
So raise it in anger
Just let it hang
American gangster time
Committing the perfect crime
In American Gangster Time

Here we go
Bye bye
American Gangster Time

 

[fox69]

"American Without Tears"

"American Without Tears"


Outside in New Orleans the heat was almost frightening
But my hotel room as usual was freezing and unkind
On TV they prosecute anyone who's exciting
So I put on my overcoat and went down to find
In Revlon and Crimpelene they captured my heart
To the strain of a piano and a cocktail murderess
She was singing that "It's Too Late", I agreed with that part
For two English girls who had changed their address

[Chorus:]
Now it seems we've been crying for years and for years
Now I don't speak any English, just American without tears
Just American without tears

One had been a beauty queen and the other was her friend
They had known rogues and rascals and showbiz impresarios
While the boys were licking Hitler they had something to defend
>From men armed with chewing gum and fine nylon hose
By a bicycle factory as they sounded the siren
And returned into the dancehall she knew he was the one
Though he wasn't tall or handsome she laughed when he told her
"I'm the Sheriff of Nottingham and this is Little John"

[Chorus]

At a dock in Southampton full of tearful goodbyes
Newsreel commentators said "Cheerio, G.I. brides"
Soon they'll be finding the cold facts and lies
New words for suspenders and young girls backsides

Now I'm in America and running from you
Like my grandfather before me walked the streets of New York
And I think of all the women I pretend mean more than you
When I open my mouth and I can't seem to talk

Now it seems we've been crying for years and for years
Now I don't speak any English just American without tears
Just American without tears

 

[fox69]

"American Without Tears #2 (Twilight Version)"

"American Without Tears #2 (Twilight Version)"



December 1965 in Caracas
When Arnie LaFlamme(?) took his piece of the pie
When he packed up the casino chips, the IOU and the abacus
And switched off the jukebox in a "A Fool Such as I"
He was a leg man who was open to offers
But he couldn't get her off his mind as he passed the tourist office
and as he entertained himself singing just like Sammy Davis Junior
He toyed with a trip to Miami

For money like that
he could have sweet talk in her ear
Now they don't speak any English
Just American without tears

It was an idea that he dandled on his knee
and nursed it like his coffee cup
when he couldn't find any other way
It always seemed to come to him
while the day was dipping down
and sun was like a light bulb
being swallowed by a clown

He took her for everything
He took her for his only one
He took her out of Coventry and over to Idaho
But the war wound that he carried home
wasn't really visible
When the bullets were forgotton
she lived dowdy, down, and miserable

And she seemed to be crying for year after year
and says, "You don't speak any English
Just American between tears."

"Arnie" she said to me, "Will you turn down the radio.
You haven't slept a wink since we came to Havana
When're you gonna get the strength to go over to Florida?
All you ever listen to is 'The Voice of America'."

It was the story of a young English poppet
Who took up with a soldier boy
And thought she would profit
Just like me she found out what true love is about
Anyway she's in New Orleans It would never work out

Oh she seemed to be crying for year after year
Now you don't speak any English
Just American between tears
Just American without tears

For you seem to be crying for year after year
Now you don't speak any English
Just American without tears
Just American without tears

 

[fox69]

"Any King's Shilling"

"Any King's Shilling"



You're a fine one, oh yes you are
You're a fine one just like me
And we're friends now, oh wouldn't you say?
We've been friends now, oh haven't we?
Stay at home tonight if you know what's good
for you
I can't say more it would be telling
For if you don't what will become of you
Just isn't worth any king's shilling
I will answer when they make that call, pull
upon this ragged uniform
Up till now I know it's been your trade
Spit and polish the potato parade
Stay at home tonight if you know what's good
for you
I can't say more it would be telling
For if you don't what will become of you
Just isn't worth any king's shilling

Please don't put your silly head in that pretty
soldier's hat
You've done your duty, that's enough of that

I don't know if what I'm doing is right
I don't know if you should be forgiving
But for me it seems it means my life
While for you it could just be a living
Stay at home tonight if you know what's good
for you
I can't say more it would be telling
For if you don't what will become of you
Just isn't worth any king's shilling

Please don't put your silly head in that British
soldier's hat
You've done your duty that's enough of that

You're a fine one, oh yes you are
You're a fine one, just like me

 

[fox69]

"Ascension Day"

"Ascension Day"



Not a soul was stirring
Not a bird was singing, at least not within my hearing
I was five minutes past caring
Standing in the road just staring

Thought I heard somebody pleading
I thought I heard someone apologise
Some fell down weeping
Others shook their fists up at the skies
And those who were left
Seemed to be wearing disguises

Now there's a queen in waiting
Not enough loving and too much hating
For the prince hidden within her man
Always seems to be hesitating

He said, "Let her go, let her go, God bless her"
"She hasn't been gone long enough for me to miss her"
"Except every minute of every hour of every day when I wish I could possess her"

40 days passed by
40 alibis
So carry on... that way
And in time... you'll pay
But we'll all be together
Come Ascension Day

Not a hound was howling
Or whimpering or prowling
Now the wind had departed
Not a leaf was hanging on the tree like when it started

But I know they will return
Like they've never gone away
Come Ascension Day

 

[fox69]

"B Movie"

"B Movie"



I found America hiding in the corner of my wallet
It's a well kept secret, thought that I had better swallow it
Before they make me spit out the truth
Before they find you're lying about your youth
B movie, that's all you are to me
Just a soft soap story
Don't want the woman to adore me
You can't stand it when it goes from real to reel
Too real too real
You can't stand it when I throw punch lines you can feel

All the time, there's a rule book in Brittania
That no one ever waives
And everybody's on the make
It's not your heart I want to break

Turn out the lights
I'm thinking that I want to go to sleep now
Just give me a promise that I'm supposed to keep now
I don't want some fool asking me why
When I find you're finally making me cry

 

[fox69]

"Baby's Got A Brand New Hairdo"

"Baby's Got A Brand New Hairdo"


Baby's got a brand new hairdo, but doesn't she look so nice?
She said everything that she cares to, she's saying it not once but twice
She said it doesn't matter unless I say it matters
Well, I don't care about all that modern jazz
The girl that used to have it, and the girl I still have
She's the girl that used to have it and the girl I still have
Baby's got a brand new hairdo, and doesn't she look so fine?
She said everything that she used to
Except she's picking your heart, not mine
She said "it doesn't matter unless I say it matters"
[?]
I don't care about all that modern jazz
The girl that used to have it, and girl I still have
She's the girl that used to have it, and the girl I still have

Baby's got a brand new hairdo, and doesn't she look so good?
She looks like Billy Boy Arnold, said I wish you would
I wish you would

Baby's got a brand new hairdo, I wonder what's left inside
She used to [?] at med school, before she learned how to be snide
She walks in the place and everybody scatters
I don't care about all the modern girls
She's the girl that I used to have and the girl I still have
She the, she the....

 

[fox69]

"Back On My Feet"

"Back On My Feet"



How many days does the wet weather lack?
I wanna go where the clouds when they roll back
Reveal a man in an old mack
Living on a park bench
Sitting on his own

Cut to the rain as it rolls down the glass
But then she leaves through the lightning and thunder
You see a man going under
This is how it happens
This is what he said

"I don't need love
Temptation is sweet
Give me your hand
Till I'm back on my feet
You're always telling me
About my misery
I'll see things you'll never see
Don't pity me"

Focus in on the breath of a man
Takes a brown paper bag from his knapsack
Between his whispers and wisecracks
He's looking for the wishing
Screaming at the sky

"I don't need love
Temptation is sweet
Give me your hand
Till I'm back on my feet
You're always telling me
About my misery
I'll see things you'll never see
Don't pity me"

"I'll be fine again,
Be all right without you
I'll stand up again
Kick off the puzzlement, too"

Cut back again to a girl walking by
To the beat of her old shoes and rolled socks
Climb on an invisible soapbox
Laughing at the traffic
Shouting at the word

"I don't need love
Temptation is sweet
Give me your hand
Till I'm back on my feet
You're always telling me
About my misery
I'll see things you'll never see
Don't pity me"

"I'll be fine again,
Be all right without you
I'll stand up again
Kick off the puzzlement, too"

Seeing life through the eyes of a man
As he lives and he dies by a simple titan
Well there you go, though you trying hard to know
When he's there on his legs
Sees the kinks where the people all go
Things start to fade as he pulls down the shade
And the picture made is in glorious cinemascope

 

[fox69]

"Bama Lama Bama Loo"

"Bama Lama Bama Loo"


Bama Lama Bama Loo
Gotta girl named Lucinda
They call her the great pretender
Gotta girl named Lucinda
They call her the great pretender
And when she talks
She says a Bama Lama Loo

[Chorus:]
Bama Lama Bama Loo
Bama Lama Bama Loo
Bama Lama Bama Loo
Bama Lama Bama Loo
Well I dig her style
She's bout to drive me wild
With Bama Lama Bama Loo

Well I asked my little baby for a kiss
She shook her head around like this
Well I asked my little girl for a kiss
She shook her head around like this
She said ....

[Chorus]