Elvis Costello Album

Blood and Chocolate
I hope you're satisfied what you have done
You think it's over now
But we've only just begun
I asked for water
And they gave me rose' wine
A horse that knows arithmetic
And a dog that tells your fortune

It's in your eyes
Uncomplicated

I want to buy you
A big blue Diamel
Cheap white plastic shoes
That don't walk out and don't let in

I want to show you
How I love you
When you're over me
There's no-one above you

It's in your eyes
Uncomplicated

You think it's over now
But this is only the beginning

It's in your eyes
Uncomplicated

He's a fine figure of a man and handsome too
With his eyes upon the secret places he'd like to undo
Still he knows who knows who and where and how
And I hope you're happy now
He's got all the things you need and some that you will never
But you make him sound like frozen food, his love will last forever
Still he know what you want and what you don't allow
And I hope you're happy now

I hope that you're happy now like you're supposed to be
And I know that this will hurt you more than it hurts me

He's acting innocent and proud still you know what he's after
Like a matador with his pork sword, while we all die of laughter
In his turquoise pajamas and motorcycle hat
I hope you're happy now because you'll soon put pay to that
I knew then what I know now I never loved you anyhow
And I hope you're happy now

The sky fell over cheap Korean monster-movie scenery
And spilled into the reservoir of the crushed capsule hotel
Between the Disney abattoir and the chemical refinery
And I knew I was in trouble but I thought I was in hell
So you look around the tiny room and you wonder where the hell you are
While the K.K.K. convention are all stranded in the bar
They wear hoods and carry shotguns in the main streets of Montgomery
But they're helpless here as babies 'cause they're only here on holiday

What do we care if the world is a joke
(Tokyo Storm Warning)
We'll give it a big kiss
We'll give it a poke
(Tokyo Storm Warning)
Death wears a big hat 'cause he's a big bloke
(Tokyo Storm Warning)
We're only living this instant

The black sand stuck beneath her feet in a warm Sorrento sunrise
A barefoot girl from Naples or was it a Barcelona hi-rise
Whistles out the tuneless theme song on a hundred cheap suggestions
And a million false seductions and all those eternal questions

What do we care if the world is a joke
(Tokyo Storm Warning)
We'll give it a big kiss
We'll give it a poke
(Tokyo Storm Warning)
Death wears a big hat 'cause he's a big bloke
(Tokyo Storm Warning)
We're only living this instant

So they flew the Super-Constellation all the way from Rimini
And feasted them on fish and chips from a newspaper facsimile
Now dead Italian tourists bodies litter up the Broadway
Some people can't be told you know they have to learn the hard way

Holidays are dirt-cheap in the Costa del Malvinas
In the Hotel Argentina they can hardly tell between us
For Teresa is a waitress though she's now known as Juanita
In a tango bar in Stanley or in Puerto Margarita
She's the sweetest and the sauciest
The loveliest and the naughtiest
She's Miss Buenos Aires in a world of lacy lingerie

What do we care if the world is a joke
(Tokyo Storm Warning)
We'll give it a big kiss
We'll give it a poke
(Tokyo Storm Warning)
Death wears a big hat 'cause he's a big bloke
(Tokyo Storm Warning)
We're only living this instant

Japanese God-Jesus robots telling teenage fortunes
For all we know and all we care they might as well be Martians
They say gold paint on the palace gates comes from the teeth of pensioners
They're so tired of shooting protest singers
That they hardly mention us
While fountains fill with second-hand perfume
And sodden trading stamps
They'll hang the bullies and the louts that dampen down the day

What do we care if the world is a joke
(Tokyo Storm Warning)
We'll give it a big kiss
We'll give it a poke
(Tokyo Storm Warning)
Death wears a big hat 'cause he's a big bloke
(Tokyo Storm Warning)
We're only living this instant

We braved the cold November air and the undertaker's curses
Saying "Take me to the Folies Bergere and please don't spare the hearses"
For he always had a dream of that revolver in your purse
How you loved him 'til you hated him and made him cry for mercy
He said "Don't ever mention my name there or talk of all the nights you cried
We've always been like worlds apart now you're seeing two nightmares collide"

What do we care if the world is a joke
(Tokyo Storm Warning)
We'll give it a big kiss
We'll give it a poke
(Tokyo Storm Warning)
Death wears a big hat 'cause he's a big bloke
(Tokyo Storm Warning)
We're only living this instant

Here comes Mr. Misery
He's tearing out his hair again
He's crying over her again
He's standing in the super-market shouting at the customers
Here comes Mr. Misery
He'll never be any good with a mouth full of gold and blood
He's contemplating murder again
He must be in love

But you know she doesn't want you
But you can't seem to get it in your head
Oh and you can't sleep at night
And she haunts you when you go to bed
When you're tired of talking and you can't drink it down
So you hang around and drown instead
Home isn't where it used to be
Home is anywhere you hang your head

You hang your head
Home is anywhere
You hang your head
Home is anywhere
You hang your head
Home is anywhere you hang your head

Here comes Mr. Misery
Looking for a place for his mouth to shoot
Saying "You'd look cute in your birthday suit"
You tore him out and screwed him up
Like a bad page in a naughty picture book

They day ended as it began
As he was seconds older than the man he was this morning
And the world has wiped it's mouth since then
Or maybe it was yawning

But you know she doesn't want you
But you can't seem to get it in your head
Oh and you can't sleep at night
And she haunts you when you go to bed
When you're tired of talking and you can't drink it down
So you hang around and drown instead
Home isn't where it used to be
Home is anywhere you hang your head

Oh my baby baby I love you more than I can tell
I don't think I can live without you
And I know that I never will
Oh my baby baby I want you so it scares me to death
I can't say anymore than "I love you"
Everything else is a waste of breath

I want you
You've had your fun you don't get well no more
I want you
Your fingernails go dragging down the wall
Be careful darling you might fall

I want you
I woke up and one of us was crying
I want you
You said "Young man I do believe you're dying"
I want you
If you need a second opinion as you seem to do these days
I want you
You can look in my eyes and you can count the ways

I want you
Did you mean to tell me but seem to forget
I want you
Since when were you so generous and inarticulate
I want you
It's the stupid details that my heart is breaking for
It's the way your shoulders shake and what they're shaking for
I want you
It's knowing that he knows you now after only guessing
It's the thought of him undressing you or you undressing

I want you
He tossed some tatty compliment your way
I want you
And you were fool enough to love it when he said
"I want you"

I want you
The truth can't hurt you it's just like the dark
It scares you witless
But in time you see things clear and stark
I want you
Go on and hurt me then we'll let it drop
I want you
I'm afraid I won't know where to stop
I want you
I'm not ashamed to say I cried for you
I want you
I want to know the things you did that we do too
I want you
I want to hear he pleases you more than I do
I want you
I might as well be useless for all it means to you
I want you
Did you call his name out as he held you down
I want you
Oh no my darling not with that clown
I want you

I want you
You've had your fun you don't get well no more
I want you
No-one who wants you could want you more
I want you
I want you

I want you
Every night when I go off to bed and when I wake up
I want you

I'm going to say it once again 'til I instill it
I know I'm going to feel this way until you kill it
I want you
I want you
I want you

Who do you see when you turn your eyes down?
Who do you see when I'm not seeing you?
The news is out all over town and all these girls
Are taking turns at being you

Well, well, well
You'd better make up your mind
Honey, are you straight or are you blind?

She's coming in between us you know that she is
I'm not holding on to her but one of us is
My hands are in my pocket, my face is in a book
She could walk 'round naked and I wouldn't sneak a look

Well, well, well
You'd better make up your mind
Honey, are you straight or are you blind?

Honey are you straight or are you blind?

She walked in and your eyes flew out the door
You squeezed my hand 'til the circulation ceases
She's just a doll like so many more
She's the kind of doll that you'd like to pull to pieces

Well, well, well
You'd better make up your mind
Honey, are you straight or are you blind?

Well, well, well
You'd better make up your mind
Honey are you straight or are you blind?

Now it's just you and me, my blue friend
And you say that it's you that she's thinking of
And our affair must end
But if it's you that she's thinking of
I think my broken heart might mend

Now it's my turn to talk and your turn to think
Your turn to buy and my turn to drink
Your turn to cry and my turn to sink down in the Blue Chair
Down in the Blue Chair

Now I've made up my mind I've made my mistake
And I know that she cries for you
When she's barely awake
Well she's going to bend your mind
Well I hope it don't break

Now it's my turn to talk and your turn to think
Your turn to buy and my turn to drink
Your turn to cry and my turn to sink down in the Blue Chair
Down in the Blue Chair

Down in the Blue Chair
We can watch our troubles rise
Like smoke into the air
And drift up to the ceiling
Down in the Blue Chair
You can feel just like a boy or a man
And next minute you can find yourself kneeling
Down in the Blue Chair
They're boasting of loving the daylights right out of her in the small hours
Down in the Blue Chair
You say that your love lasts forever when you know the night is just hours

And still I want her right now
Not any minute, hour or day
And wherever she is tonight
I want her anyway
I suppose she never said to you,
You were just in the way

Now it's my turn to talk and your turn to think
Your turn to buy and my turn to drink
Your turn to cry and my turn to sink down in the Blue Chair
Down in the Blue Chair

Down in the Blue Chair
Down in the blue
Blue becomes you
Down in the Blue Chair

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

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"

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

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

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

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"

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

"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

I thought it was you and your optimist's view of the clock
And how it's always another day
Just after twelve o'clock's struck
You said "Now I only want you so I don't have to promise"
But tiny children in grown-up clothes whispered all the Crimes of Paris

You're not the girl next-door or a girl from France
Or the cigarette-girl in the sizzle hot-pants
All the words of love seem cruel and crass
When you're tough and transparent as armoured glass
You're everywhere girl in an everyday mess
Who'll pay for the Crimes of Paris

I heard that you fell for the "Hell or to Hammersmith Blues"
In the tiny torn up pieces of his mind he's irresistible too
Now it's hard to say now if he's only stupid or smart
When he crawled through the door
And poured out more of his creeping-Jesus heart

You're not the girl next-door or a girl from France
Or the cigarette-girl in the sizzle hot-pants
All the words of love seem cruel and crass
When you're tough and transparent as armoured glass
You're everywhere girl in an everyday mess
Who'll pay for the Crimes of Paris

And it's all here and now
She hit him with that paper-weight Eiffel Tower
And I tried to hold on to you but I don't know how
And I find it hard to swallow good advice
Like going down three times to only come up twice

She's so convenient, he's always stiff as hair-lacquer
It's hard to discover now he's in love with her
It was her way of getting her own back
You never did anything she couldn't do on her own
You're as good as your word and that's no good to her
You'd better leave that kitten alone

You're not the girl next-door or a girl from France
Or the cigarette-girl in the sizzle hot-pants
All the words of love seem cruel and crass
When you're tough and transparent as armoured glass
You're everywhere girl in an everyday mess
Who'll pay for the Crimes of Paris

I can't lie on this bed anymore it burns my skin
You can take the truthful things you've said to me
And put them on the head of a pin
Poor Napoleon

You always look so disappointed when I take my stockings off
Don't you know the facts of life, boy
Don't you know what these things cost
She was selling stolen kisses to travelling salesmen and minstrel singers
You put a penny in the slot
She called you her Magic Fingers

Poor Napoleon

I bet she isn't all that's advertised
I bet that isn't all she fakes
Just like that place where they take your spine
And turn it into soapflakes

so good night little school boy, you'd better learn some self control
did you mess up your hairstyle, pour scorn in your begging bowl

Bare wires from the socket to the bed where you embraced that girl
Did you ever think there's far too many people in the world?
One day they'll probably make a movie out of all of this
There won't even have to be a murder just a slow dissolving kiss

As I stepped out upon the landing my heart was already down the stairs
She's in the bedroom with that boy of hers
Though her face is creased and her eyes seem strange
There's a second-hand emotion on battered forty-five
My tears were never enough to keep that girl alive
Now she seems contrite will she make the change

The next time 'round
The next time 'round
You'll be someone else's baby
But I'll be underground
The Next Time 'Round

Then you took two steps forward and then one step on your back
Now it's a future for me and you that I lack
You'll be the one who'll stands out in the dark
Even when you're all dressed in black

The next time 'round
The next time 'round
You'll be someone else's baby
But I'll be underground
The Next Time 'Round

You've got something I want now
And I've got something I can't hide
I've got too much love for you now
Have you got too much pride
Sometimes I name and number all the things you gave to me

Your elastic love, this velvet-line purgatory
You used to take the breath out of me
Now I think you'll be the death of me

The next time 'round
The next time 'round
You'll be someone else's baby
But I'll be underground
The Next Time 'Round

You'll be in some sputnik baby
But I'll be underground

The Next Time 'Round

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
Monday's calling you too early when you're sound asleep
Bells are ringing by your bedside and out in the streets
You say Monday's long enough, but this is just the start
Tuesday's just the same as Monday without the surprising part

Wednesday's point of no return
When you've squandered all you've earned
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven day weekend
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven day weekend

This is all I'm thinking about as the days go by
Spend your life on holiday and even when I die
There could be but one inscription: "This was not his day"
If it isn't Thursday anymore, it must be Friday

I can't wait until I maybe
Get off work and see my baby
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven day weekend
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven day weekend
I can't wait until I maybe
Get off work and see my baby
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven day weekend
(Repeat)

Oh, a TV went off like three day old milk
That shook this town down better than most
And it always was less of an idea and more of a boast
Oh, you're burning in the bloom of life
Till you're powder in the grave
Or you're pounding in the counter begging for more
Till you evaporate
You'd forgive her anything
If you look like you, my pretty miss
I wonder where you are tonight
And this place becomes pitiless?

Oh, I couldn't sleep, but I can't complain
Oh, this won't hurt a bit, oh, this won't hurt again
When the roof comes down and the walls move in
Oh, he didn't know it could feel like that
And your face turned away and the day turned black
And the rain fell like a curtain
Oh, it's my turn to begin
To forgive her anything

You'd forgive her anything
If you knew what I know
You'd forgive her anything
So where did all my pride go?

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh, oh, you'd forgive her anything
If you knew what I know
You'd forgive her anything
So where did all my pride go?

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 (x2)

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 (x2)

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 its own spring.

Big nothing.

He didn't need tattoos to show where he'd been
And who he'd 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 in when she parroted back,
'Tell mommy; tell poppy; you need this little dolly.'

Big nothing.

Big nothing.

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 himself
The resemblance were pure and coincidental.
He unleashed his grip on the toy and 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
Hhe walked out of a town called Big Nothing.

Big nothing. (repeat until fade)