Elvis Costello

[fox69]

"Basement Kiss"

"Basement Kiss"



Lucy Grace can't show her face
Down in the North End Road, for in Belgravia
Rumors have been whispered and suggestions have been made

Did you sell your friends out when the heat got too intense?
You say you need the danger, but it's only a pretense
You say you need the money, but everybody knows
You can always fall back on your inheritance.

Did you bruise your arms on his false alarms?
Did you bruise your pride on his smile so wide?
Only fingertips from forbidden bliss
Did you bruise your lips on that basement kiss?

Who's that peeking 'round the door?
You can't come here no more, will you go home again?
She used to sit alone for hours,
Spends her evening watering dried flowers

When your Mother came to stay and finally went to bed
Lucy Grace was in the front room shooting through your head
She tried to take your breath away
But gave you something else instead

Did you bruise your arms on his false alarms?
Did you bruise your pride on his smile so wide?
Only fingertips from forbidden bliss
Did you bruise your lips on that basement kiss?

That Tuesday at the function
In her Audrey Hepburn hat
It doesn't suit her much, but she'll get over that
She'll be pale and feign indifference as they're handing out the prizes
Spilling Daddy's words of wisdom
And her ugly sister's tranquilizers

Why were you so tardy putting up your guard?
When you bruise so easy and you try so hard

Did you bruise your arms on his false alarms?
Did you bruise your pride on his smile so snide?
Only fingertips from forbidden bliss
Did you bruise your lips on that basement kiss?

 

[fox69]

"Battered Old Bird"

"Battered Old Bird"


The landlady's husband came up to town today
Since he left them both ten years ago to serve the ministry
The dark down road of his approach in constant rain was drenched
The tenant's boy said "How d'ya do" then swore in French
Did you teach this little child these curses on my soul
You should both be shut down in the coal-hole
That's the way to treat a child who cries out in the night
And a woman who teaches wrong from right

[Chorus:]
He's a Battered Old Bird
And he's living up there
There's a place where time stands still
If you keep taking those little pink pills

"Hush your mouth you hypocrite"
His humour cut her deep
The tight lipped leer of judgement
That had seen her love desert her just like sleep
"Filthy words on children's lips are better, my dear spouse
Then if I were to speak my mind about this house"

[Chorus]

On the first floor there are two old maids
Each one wishing that the other was afraid
And next door to them is a man so mild
'Til he chopped off the head of a visitor's child
He danced upon the bonfire
Swallowed sleeping pills like dreams
With a bottle of sweet sherry that everything redeems

[Chorus]

And on the second floor is the Macintosh Man
He's in his overcoats more than out of them
And the typewriter's rattling all through the night
He's burgundy for breakfast tight
He says "One day I'll throw away all of my cares
And it is always Christmas in a cupboard at the top of the stairs"

[Chorus]

"Well here's a boy if ever there was
Who's going to do big things
That's what they all say and that's how the trouble begins
I've seen them rise and fall
Been through their big deals and smalls
He'd better have a dream that goes beyond four walls"
You think he should be sent outside playing with the traffic
When pieces of him are already scattered in the attic

 

[fox69]

"Beaten To The Punch"

"Beaten To The Punch"



You say that you can and then you run to get your mummy
And you're almost beaten to the punch
Looking for the man who sold you the dummy
And you're almost beaten to the punch
Laughing at the older guys who say it's just as well
Saved by the wedding bell
Almost beaten to the punch
You're looking for somebody new that you can knock around
You are almost beaten to the punch
If you've got a head for figures then you'd better count me out
You were almost beaten to the punch
You pulled the piece but you soon called it love
You go hand in glove
Almost beaten to the punch

Your body speaks much louder than your voice
You let it do the talking so I don't have any choice

Now you find the younger guys are putting up resistance
And you're almost beaten to the punch
You better get out now because you'll never go the distance
And you're almost beaten to the punch
You'll find a girl and you'll promise her anything
Even a wedding ring
Almost beaten to the punch

 

[fox69]

"Bedlam"

"Bedlam"



I've got this phosphorescent portrait of gentle Jesus meek and mild
I've got this harlot that I'm stuck with carrying another man's child
The solitary star announcing vacancy burnt out as we arrived
They'd throw us back across the border if they knew that we survived
And they were surprised to see us
So they greeted us with palms
They asked for ammunition, acts of contrition and small alms

I might recite a small prayer
If I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame
Found myself in bedlam
I wish that I could take something for drowning out the noise
Wailing echoes down the corridors

I've got this imaginary radio, and I'm punching up the dial
I've got the A.C. trained on the T.V. so it won't blow up in my eye
And everything that I thought fanciful and mocked as too extreme
Must be family entertainment here in the strange land of my dreams
Now I'm practicing my likeness of St. Francis of Assisi
For if I hold my hand outstretched
A little bird comes to me

I might recite a small prayer
If I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame
Found myself in bedlam
Escaping from the fingers that were stretching through the bars
Wailing echoes down the corridors

The player piano picks out "Life Goes On"
Ring tone rang out "Jerusalem"
And in this pit of sadness
Where the rank of wretched plunge
We've buried all the innocents
Now we must bury revenge

They've got this scared and decorated girl strapped to the steel trunk of a mustang
And then they drove her down a cypress grove where traitors hang and stars still spangle
They dangled flags and other rags along a coloured thread of twine
And then they dragged that bruised and purple heart along the road to Palestine

Someone went off muttering, he mentioned thirty pieces
Easter saw a slaughtering, each wrapped in bloodstained fleeces

Then my thoughts returned to vengeance, but I put up no resistance
Though I seemed a long way from my home
It really was no distance

And I might recite a small prayer
If I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame
Found myself in bedlam
Bowing like an actor acknowledging applause
Playing the Crusader who was conquering the Moors
And he knew the consequences, but he won't accept the cause
Wailing echoes down the corridors

 

[fox69]

"Beyond Belief"

"Beyond Belief"


History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies the same defeats
Keep your finger on important issues
With crocodile tears and a pocketful of tissues
I'm just the oily slick
On the windup world of the nervous tick
In a very fashionable hovel

I hang around dying to be tortured
You'll never be alone in the bone orchard
This battle with the bottle is nothing so novel

So in this almost empty gin palace
Through a two-way looking glass
You see your Alice

You know she has no sense
For all your jealousy
In a sense she still smiles very sweetly

Charged with insults and flattery
Her body moves with malice
Do you have to be so cruel to be callous

And now you find you fit this identikit completely
You say you have no secrets
And then leave discreetly

[Chorus:]
I might make it California's fault
Be locked in Geneva's deepest vault
Just like the canals of Mars and the great barrier reef
I come to you beyond belief

My hands were clammy and cunning
She's been suitably stunning
But I know there's not a hope in Hades
All the laddies cat call and wolf whistle
So-called gentlemen and ladies
Dog fight like rose and thistle

I've got a feeling
I'm going to get a lot of grief
Once this seemed so appealing
Now I am beyond belief

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Big Boys"

"Big Boys"



I am starting to function
In the usual way
Everything is so provocative
Very very, temporary
I shall walk (I shall walk)
Out of this place (out of this place)
I shall walk
Out on you
'Cause you go silly
If she's willing
Trying so hard to be like the big boys

So you take her to the pictures
Trying to become a fixture
Inch by inch trying to reach her
All the way through the second feature
Worrying about your physical fitness
Tell me how you got this sickness, Oh ohhhh..

I was caught in the suction
By a face like a truncheon
I was down upon one knee
Stroking her vanity

I was stuck on a hammerhead
I came alive and left for dead
As my face returned to red
Choking on my pride and pity

We can talk (we can talk)
Until your face is blue (till your face is blue)
We can talk but she'll get to you
After you've been loved and hated
By the ones you've watched and waited
Found that they were overrated

She'll be the one - when the party's over
She'll be the one - when the girls have gone home
She'll be the one - that you'll wish you'd held onto
She'll be the one - but it's too late for you to
She'll be the one - who knows all your history
She'll be the one -

So you can cross her off your list
And you try so hard
And you try so hard
And you try so hard
To be like the big boys, oh.

 

[fox69]

"Big Sister"

"Big Sister"



Sheep to the slaughter
Oh, this must be love
All your sons and daughters in a strangle, all with a kid glove
Eyes like saucers; oh, you think she's a dish
She is the blue chip that belongs to the big fish
Big sister will be watching over you
Sister see, sister do
She's got to save me
She's got you playing Russian Roulette
Sport of kings, the old queen's heart
The prince of darkness stole some tart
It's in the papers, it's in the charts
It's in the stop press before it all starts

With a hammer and a slap 'n' tickle in inquisitive garments
With all the style and finesse of the purchase of armaments
Compassion went out of fashion, that's all your concernment
Sweat it out for thirty seconds on all the prudeness

Big sister will be watching over you
Sister see, sister do
She's got to save me
She's got you playing Russian Roulette
She's got to save me
She's got you playing Russian Roulette

 

[fox69]

"Big Sister's Clothes"

"Big Sister's Clothes"


Sheep to the slaughter oh I thought this must be love
All your sons and daughters in a strangle hold with a kid glove
She's got eyes like saucers oh you think she's a dish
She is the blue chip that belongs to the big fish

[Chorus:]
But it's easier to say "I love you,"
than "Yours sincerly" I suppose
All little sisters like to try on big sister's clothes
Big sister's clothes

The sport of kings, the old queen's heart
The prince in darkness stole some tart
And it's in the papers, it's in the charts
It's in the stop press before it all starts.

With a hammer on the slap and tickle under grisly garments
With all the style and finesse of the purchase of armaments
Compassion went out of fashion
That's all your concern meant
Sweat it out for thirty seconds on home improvements

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Big Tears"

"Big Tears"



Everyone is busy with the regular routine
The sniper just takes his aim
Everyone is window shopping, no one is amazed
Even if he hit you, you'd still think it's just a graze
You go to a movie, you go to a show
You think that you're living, you don't really know
Big tears mean nothing
You can count them as they fall
Big tears mean nothing
When you're lying in your coffin
Tell me who's been taken in

Oh, you talk about the new boss automatic clause
But of course they make it all up for you
Always fascinated by the weird edge of town
Come home disappointed every time they put you down
Laughing with the old boys, saying that it's all noise

I suppose big tears mean nothing
You can count them as they fall
Big tears mean nothing
When you're lying in your coffin
Tell me who's been taken in

All the buttons of my overcoat
They have fallen off one by one
You wouldn't even like me if you'd never had a drink
You wouldn't even like me if you never stopped to think
Standing in the shadow, turning wives to widows

Don't you know big tears mean nothing
You can count them as they fall
Big tears mean nothing
When you're lying in your coffin
Tell me who's been taken in
Tell me, me or yous been taken in
Tell me, tell me, tell me

 

[fox69]

"Black And White World"

"Black And White World"



I was looking at the black and white world
It seemed so exciting
If you'd only put me back to back with that girl
When the night's inviting
With just a little lighting
There'll never be days like that again
When I was just a boy and men were men
You never go from moment to moment
You're the living double of a single fiction
You're very colourful with your compliments
As you feel the finger's friction
It's a freeze-frame
Still it's real life
You don't want to look
Cause you've seen the film and you've read the book
I was looking at the black and white world
Trying to name some pin-up
Those days she was just a beautiful girl
Now she's framed and hung up
I thought she was young
Up until I saw her last night in close detail
Though they all fade away when you're so pale
It's more than just a physical attraction
It starts with a face and ends up a fixation
But you're never gonna feel a fraction
Of the way it used to work on your imagination
When you were looking at the black and white world...