Elvis Costello Album

Shall we agree that that just this once
I'm gonna change my life
Until it's just as tiny or
Important as you like

And in time we won't even recall that we spoke
Words that turned out to be as big as smoke
A smoke that disappears in the air
There's always something that smoldering somewhere

I know it don't make a difference to you
But oh it so made a difference to me
You'll see me off in the distance I hope
At the other end
At the other end of the telescope

You're half naked ambition and
You're half out of your wits
And several tiny fractions that
This portrait still omits

And it's so hard to pick the receiver up when I call
I never knew that you could be so small
The answer was under your nose
But the question never arose

I know it don't make a difference to you
But oh it so made a difference to me
You'll see me off in the distance I hope
At the other end
At the other end of the telescope

Lie down baby now don't say a word
There there baby your vision is blurred your
Head is so sore from all of that thinking
I don't want to hurt you now
But I think you're shrinking

The promise of indulgence in my confidential voice
Approached immortal danger but you'll never know how close
Then down the hall I overheard such a heavenly choir
It interrupted my evil designs
One day your head is up in the clouds
The next day you're down with the sweet Adelines

I know it don't make a difference to you
But oh it so made a difference to me
'Cause late in the evening as I sit here moping
With a bamboo needle and a shellac of Chopin
And that cast-iron heart that you failed to
Tear open

At the other end
At the other end of the telescope

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's at times such as this she'd be tempted to spit
If she wasn't so ladylike
She imagines how she might have lived
back when legends and history collide
So she looks to her prince finding he's so charmingly
slumped at her side
Those days are recalled on the gallery wall
And she's waiting for passion or humour to strike
What shall we do, what shall we do with all this useless beauty?
All this useless beauty

Good Friday arrived, the sky darkened on time
'Til he almost began to negotiate
She held his head like a baby and said "It's okay if you cry"
Now he wants her to dress as if you couldn't guess
He desires to impress his associates
But he's part ugly beast and Hellenic deceased
So she finds that the mixture is hard to deny

Chorus

She won't practice the looks from the great tragic books
That were later disgraced to face celluloid
It won't even make sense but you can bet
If she isn't a sweetheart or plaything or pet
The film turns her into an unveiled threat

Nonsense prevails, modesty fails
Grace and virtue turn into stupidity
While the calendar fades almost all barricades to a pale compromise
And our leaders have feasts on the backsides of beasts
They still think they're the gods of antiquity
If something you missed didn't even exist
It was just an ideal -- is it such a surprise?

Chorus (x2)

Well you know your time has come and you're sorry for what you've done
You should've never have been playing with a gun
In those Complicated Shadows
Well there's a line that you must toe
and it'll soon be time to go
but it's darker than you know in those Complicated Shadows
All you gangsters and rude clowns
Who were shooting up the town
When you should have found someone to put the blame on
Though the fury's hot and hard
I still see that cold graveyard
There's a solitary stone that's got your name on

You don't have to take it from me
But I know what I spake
You think you're like iron and steel
But iron and steel will bend and break
In those Complicated Shadows

Go!

Sometimes justice you will find
Is just dumb not colour-blind
And your poor shattered mind can't take it all in
All those phantoms and those shades
Should Jump up on Judgement Day
And say to the Almighty "I'm still stinking of sin"

But the jury was dismissed
Took his neck and they give it a twist
So you see you won't be missed in those Complicated Shadows

You can say just what you like in a voice like a John Ford film
Take the law into your hands
You will soon get tired of killing
In those Complicated Shadows
Complicated Shadows (x3)

Go!

Why can't a man stand alone?
Must he be burdened by all that he's taught to consider his own?
His skin and his station, his kin and his crown, his flag and his nation
They just weigh him down
You know pride is a sin that we tend to forgive
But it gets hard to live
When you don't have the love in her heart to begin with
Why can't a man stand alone?
Why can't a woman be just what she seems?
Must she be tarnished by men who can only be men in their dreams?
When beauty meets ignorance they shout in the street
Repeating their offer to each girl they meet
The respect that she needs, it isn't a gift
But it gets hard to lift yourself up
When you don't have the strength to begin with
Why can't a woman stand alone?

Why can't a baby sleep at night and dream of the time to come
And never fear the world outside the touch of someone very near
Why can't a man stand up? (x2)
Why can't a man stand alone?

Strange things seem to occur, somewhere behind the nursery door
Though I was just a bit of a kid, it was the bit that she was looking for
Now I don't know where to begin confessing
The way she's making me feel it can't be a sin
I was taught to believe you were looking down on everyone
And your benevolent face is beautiful to gaze upon
Now I just don't know who to tell to go to hell
Who put the old devil in the distorted angel?

Distorted Angel
Pure illuminated sweetness
Frightening small children is just about your only weakness
I thought that you would tell me what I'm living for
But I can't see you anymore

I don't know what we did but I'm sorry if it made you cry
And if there's any justice at all I'd be punished for it I'd surmise
It will mark the spot very well where I fell
Under the shadow of the distorted angel
Beneath the shadow of the distorted angel
Below the shadow of the distorted angel
Angel
Beneath the shadow of the distorted angel
Below the shadow of the distorted angel
Angel

When I fall in endless sleep
I hope that I'll be buried deep
Let me be the one that fortune favours
Even good children got shallow graves
Throw another clown to the lions
Throw another Joan on the blaze
Cast me away on the cruel calm ocean
and leave me for days and days and days and days and days
I won't lie in this poor shallow grave
I won't lie, I won't lie in this poor shallow grave
Dig me down deep where the dead men sleep
I won't lie in this poor shallow grave

Bless the poor 'cos like the rich
They all end up in a ditch
In this world of fools and knaves
Even good children got shallow graves
The tinker, the tailor, the fabulous five
Nobody gets out of this alive

Dig me down deep where the dead men sleep
I won't lie in this poor shallow grave
Dig me down deep where the dead men sleep
I won't lie in this poor shallow grave
Dig me down, dig me down, dig me down deep
I won't lie in this poor shallow grave

He's out in the woods with his squirrel gun
To try to recapture his anger
He's screaming some words at the top of his lungs
Until he begins to feel younger
But back at his desk in the city we find
Our trembling punch-drunken fighter
Who can't find the strength now to punish the length
Of the ribbon in his little typewriter

Poor fractured Atlas
Threw himself across the mattress
Waving his withering pencil as if it were a pirate's cutlass
I'm almost certain he's trying to increase his burden
He said "That's how the child in me planned it
A woman wouldn't understand it"

I believe there was something that I wanted to say
Before I conclude this epistle
But you would forgive me for holding my tongue
'Cause man made the blade and the pistol
Yes man made the waterfall over the dam
To temper his tantrum with magic
Now you can't be sure of that tent of azure
Since he punched a hole in the fabric

Poor fractured Atlas
Threw himself across the mattress
Waving his withering pencil as if it were a pirate's cutlass
I'm almost certain he's trying to increase his burden
He said "That's how the child in me planned it
A woman wouldn't understand it"

It's started to come to me
Your new career would probably end like this
All that professional lipstick pressed into an amateur kiss
Farewell to the studied lines and carefully broken hearts
The overpowering perfume and the glimpse of her garter
Mingling with the sweet smoldering scent of the martyr
Well it's starting to come to me (come to me, come to me)
Starting to come to me
So you began to recognize the well-dressed man that everybody loves
It started when you chopped off all the fingers of those pony skin gloves
Then you cut a hole out where the lovelight used to shine
Your tears of pleasure equal measure crocodile and brine
You try to laugh it off saying "I knew all the time...
But it's starting to come to me" (come to me, come to me)
Starting to come to me

Sometimes you bring me down to play reluctant confidant
You say you may reward him if he gives you what you want
But these are days to treasure and to hold
They are much too precious to be sold
You'd probably play the pirate if you weren't so busy digging up the gold

Now you could tell he wanted you 'cause you almost taste it on his breath
But you always cheated life just like the bold dare-devil cheated death
Incidentally, late last night your understudy finally got what you deserve
In private she's seductive but in public she's prim, porcelain and nervous
Afraid someone will recognize the shame in her eyes
You've still got your dignity or the next best disguise
You never know when to say no and when to compromise
But it's starting to come to me (come to me, come to me)
Starting to come to me (come to me, come to me)
Starting to come to me

I expect you're entitled to know why I'm making contact
With acquaintances scattered all over the land
I'd promise you now and again that I'd honour the contract
If it hadn't crumbled away in my hand
So we broke that vow independently now
But I don't know why you absolutely deny
You bowed down (you bowed down, you bowed down)
You bowed down (you bowed down, you bowed down)

When you first looked away I might say it was really a kindness
It must have hurt you to see how dreams sour
Now they say that justice and love are the next things to blindness
Well you're getting plenty of both of them now
And so you parade where appointments are made
And never meant to be kept
Unless you accept

You bowed down (you bowed down, you bowed down)
You bowed down (you bowed down, you bowed down)

You value the burnt amber of falling leaves
And you long to delay
As you feel their breath as they whisper
"It won't hurt you now to betray
If you just bow down"

And now every time that we meet on the edge of hysteria
You're helping them sell off some new party line
I remember a time when you would have seemed so superior
Now you say "Will you please meet this good friend of mine?"
So you're in demand as long as you kiss their hand
But all the applause is for their name not yours

You bowed down (x8)

I see you walk with him
I see you talk to him
It tears me up, oh, it tears me up
And I can't stop crying
Oh, baby, I can't stop crying

I see you kiss his lips
And squeeze his fingertips
It tears me up, oh, baby, it tears me up
And there's nothing I can do about it
Oh, baby, baby, can't you see I'm still in love with you

It's a faithless world we're livin' in
When I turn around and there you are with my best friend
Sometimes when you pass me on the street
You look at me as if to say I'm sorry my sweet
And being sorry might be enough
Then you look back at him and [ ? ] a smile
And that makes me feel kinda rough
Oh, darlin, it tears me up

I see you smile at him
You never tire of him
It tears me up
Oh, baby, it tears me up
There's nothing I can do about it
Baby, can't you see I'm still in love with you
Still hungry for something I can't have
Oh, it tears me up so bad
Still hungry for something I can't have
Tears me up so bad
Can't you see I'm still in love with you
Still hungry for something I can't have
Baby, please, please, please
I'm still hungry for something I can't have
It tears me up so bad
Oh, oh, it tears me up so bad
Tears me up so bad

I want to vanish
This is my fondest wish
To go where I cannot be captured
Laid on a decorated dish
Even in splendor this curious fate
Is more than I care to surrender
Now it's too late
Whether in wonder or indecent haste
You arrange the mirrors and the spools
To snare the rare and precious jewels
That were only made of paste

If you should stumble upon my last remark
I'm crying in the wilderness
I'm trying my best to make it dark
How can I tell you I'm rarer than most
I'm certain as a lost dog
Pondering a sign post

Chorus

I want to vanish
This is my last request
I've given you the awful truth
Now give me my rest

She says nobody wants to believe
You're the same as everyone.
What makes me unique?
My Dark Life
There was a kink in the world
Sent that statue tumbling
An invitation east
So we can watch it all crumbling

She came off like light and so softly she spoke:
"You don't know, no you don't know about my dark life"
And you think you're a guest, you're a tourist at best
Peering into the corners of your dark life
Now that you tear your dreams from consumptive ballerinas
She'd stand on tiptoes for you in a grey and tattered tutu
She stays where she is because of voyeurs like these
With an accusative look that says
My Dark Life

Robber men await you then in each beguiling alley
To shake you and to pierce you and remind you of
My Dark Life

Enter the pious elite, in their preening finery
And bang the tambourine
They're dining on rice paper scenery
See how the villain attracts envious glances from everyone
She's waitressing by day
It doesn't bring in much money now

And his strong concealed arms set off bells and alarms
In the strangest locations of
My Dark Life
But the fantasy slipped as he tipped her in cigarettes
She tries to smile very graciously when she wants to kill him
Now the victory is sweet, you'll get down on your knees
It's the perfect position for kissing western leather

So they came from Ugly Texas and from Nameless Tennessee
From Peculiar Missouri and from places closer to me.
All the cream of heartless England, cheered the carnival is over
There are remnants of red army bandsmen
Played "America The Beautiful"