Elvis Costello Album

See how the elements obey?
Eyes are blue
Skies are grey
Nothing I do can make you stay
I'm glad it will rain today

You left me standing alone
Although I thought that we could not be parted
But if I'd only known
That this would be the last loving remark
You left me in the dark

Then I awoke to my dismay
I thought we'd make it all the way
Allowing myself one more cliché
The last hurrah, the first bouquet

You left me standing alone although
I thought that we could not be parted
But if I'd only known
That this would be the last loving remark
You left me in the dark

Poor head
Can hardly move my lips for speaking
I said
So, what is this thing I cannot explain?
I'd blame all the things I feel but can't quite place
Perhaps they're written on my face
Someone took the words away

Why don't you speak up and say what you mean?
Summon my powers of conversation
I talk to myself,
I'm fine
When you're around,
Then I decline the invitation

It's strange to finally find myself so tongue-tied
A change has come over me
I'm powerless to express
Every thing I know but cannot speak
And if I try my voice will break
Someone took the words away (x2)

You appeared when I was lost in reverie
If this is not a dream, it's my mistake
And now I lie in wait for dawn to break
I'm fairly sure I'm wide awake

Pardon me, if I seem distant and strange
Just tell me when did I stop dreaming?
Let me get this straight
Did I hallucinate?
This fine and helpless feeling
Tell me when did I stop dreaming?

Let me know if you can help me explain
I didn't recognise the danger
But people will talk
Was I just sleepwalking?
Footprints left on the ceiling
Tell me when did I stop dreaming?

Then why should you care?
This is my nightmare
Was this one dream too deep?
Now if I could only sleep

Answer me, if you see the end in sight
I'm just a soul who's lost in limbo
Neither bad or good
I'd spare you now if I could
One more teardrop
Then I'll wake up
Tell me when did I stop dreaming?

You turned to me
And all at once
I knew I was betrayed
My eyes met yours just down the darkened path
Where both of us had strayed
Nothing good can come out of this
I know it may not be
But just then you turned to me

And I thought for a moment
Like the fool that I've become
I might be the one
To turn these lights back on
Just as I began to say
It's never worth the price you pay
I was going there anyway

You turned to me
And all at once
I knew that you had seen
How I was lost in something quite like love
When all I did was dream
Now as evening becomes the dawn
I wonder where you'll be
And just why you turned to me

All the leaves are turning yellow, red and brown
Soon they'll be scattered as they tumble down
Although they may be swept up so invitingly

I never did what I was told
I trampled though the amber and the burnished gold
But now I clearly see how cruel the young can be

You can convince yourself of anything
If you wish both hard and long
And I believed that life was wonderful
Right up to the moment when love went wrong
I gaze up at the tree-tops and laugh
I need somebody to shake me loose
I want to know what happens next
'Til I don't care at all
There I go
Beginning to fall

All the words you say to me
Have music in them
All the sorrows and the joys like magnetism
And a selfish boy looks through a prism
And says what is
But never asks what isn't

But a voice contains many precious things
It laughs
And then it sings
And all the lies that we can tell
To our foolish selves

Maybe this is the love song that I refused to
Write her when I loved her like I used to
And I fear my heart may spin and fracture
Like tears of stone falling from a statue

But a voice contains all that's true and false
Then cries for someone else
And for some honest tenderness
So I must confess

All the words you say to me
Have music in them
All the sorrows and the joys like magnetism
And a selfish boy looks through a prism
And says what is
But never asks what isn't

Still
These few lines I'll devote
To a marvelous girl covered up with my coat
Pull it up to your chin
I'll hold you until the day will begin

Still
Lying in the shadows this new flame will cast

Upon everything we carry from the past
You were made of every love and each regret
Up until the day we met

There are no words that I'm afraid to hear
Unless they are "Goodbye, my dear"

Still
I was moving very fast
But in one place
Now you speak my name and set my pulse to race
Sometimes words may tumble out but can't eclipse
The feeling when you press your fingers to my lips

I want to kiss you in a rush
And whisper things to make you blush
And you say, "Darling, hush
Hush
Still, still"

I wasn't very indiscreet and yet
That is a notion that I might as well forget
Friends look at me these days with fond surprise
But when I start to speak they roll their eyes

Let me tell you about her
Hush now, I've said too much
There's something indescribable I can't quite catch
Let me tell you about her
The way that she makes me feel
Then draw a curtain on this scene I shan't reveal

Some things are too personal
Too intimate to spill
And gentlemen don't speak of them
And this one never will

I wasn't very conversational
Accept to say that, "You're sensational"
Friends now regard me with indulgent smiles
But when I start to sing they run for miles

Let me tell you about her
Hush now, I've said too much
There's something indescribable I can't quite catch
Let me tell you about her
The way that she makes me feel
Then draw a curtain on this scene I shan't reveal

Can you be true?
Can this possibly be real?
I knew quite suddenly
Do you sense how I feel?
I long to hear you whisper my name
'Til you tell me
"My Darling, you may be my man."

There will be days when you must go from my sight
There may be nights when clouds deny us starlight
Only time will tell us
I hope that it speaks gently if it isn't meant to be
Then again
By then we might not be listening so attentively

I will be there
If the days bring torments and trials
To close the distances only measured in miles
I long to hold you all through the night
And to tell you
"My Darling, you make everything seem right"
And then I'll hear you calling in my name
And I'll answer
"My Darling, I may be your man"

Every single time
It becomes too much
There's nothing I can say
Or I can touch
But the glory is, as it comes passing through,
I know I will be there
When green eyes turn blue

It's the same for me
Time appears to teach
There is nothing quite beyond our reach
Wits may sharpen up
Their cuts and clever flays
Let them squander all of them
You brighten up my darkest gaze

And as a consequence I can see out of the gloom
That I gathered about myself
That I thought would flatter me
What the hell was the matter with me

Every single time I approached despair
I thought of your name and you were there
I won't burden you
As promises will do
But I know I will be there
When green eyes turn blue.

Hail to the taxis
They go where I go
Farewell the newspapers that know more than I know
Flung under a street-lamp still burning at dawn
I'm in the mood again

I walk the damp streets rather than slumber
Along the fine windows of shameless and plunder
But none of their riches could ever compare
I'm in the mood again

I don't know what's come over me
But it's nothing that I'm doing wrong
You took the breath right out of me
Now you'll find it in the early hours
In a lover's song

I lay my head down on fine linens and satin
Away from the mad-hatters who live in Manhattan
The Empire State Building illuminating the sky
I'm in the mood, I'm in the mood, I'm in the mood again.

So you're trying to make connection, you heard whispers in the hall
She'll be out again this evening, when you come around to call
So, you dodge the lady-killer, who came creepin' 'cross the floor
Then you caught up in a whirlwind, you got blown right out the door
Oh, yes it was a whirlwind, sweet romance was on your side
If you wanna dance on my face, you must tell me why you lied

Imagination is a powerful deceiver
When you try to believe her just a little too much
Imagination is a powerful deceiver
I'll go out of my mind, if I'm losing your touch

I see a look of recognition, so well hidden in your eye
And your peepshow regulations, they just don't seem to apply,
Well, did I see you in the circus, in the ring without a hand
Now you think that you can curse us, steal the show and stop the band

Oh, you can follow your dreams, oh but please don't lead me on,
If you wanna bleed in my face, you were here and now you're gone

Imagination is a powerful deceiver
When you try to believe her just a little too much
Imagination is a powerful deceiver
I'll go out of my mind, if I'm losing your touch
I'll go out of my mind, if I'm losing your touch
I'll go out of my mind, if I'm losing your touch

There may be a break in the road
The future looks drab and dreary
But if you were here with me, dear
I'd spin you a line that's far from cheer
There's always some scribe
Who's taken the bribe
Describing some Gentleman Jim
Who says he's in love with a beautiful girl
But she don't care about him

Say what you do
That sky is much to blue
You'll know sorrow
That's deeper than the ocean
It's a pitiful chain of events
You'd think that I might have more sense
He says
"The birds in the braches may whistle and croon
"But they're singing out of tune"

There may be bend in the track
But if you come back to see me
I'll be waiting patiently here
And if you believe that then I fear
There's always some clown
Who's bringing me down
By humming a tragic refrain
He says he's in love with a beautiful girl
But he doesn't know her name

The East has that Englishmen
And the rising sun
The West has the open plains
And how they were won
On Independence Day
For all it's worth
You can ring those southern belles
I'm going
North

Up were the rushing rivers run and salmon leap
I could even get there in my sleep
Give me the ice and snow
Time to go...
North

So run up a banner and we'll stand underneath
You gave me a starry flag
For one with a leaf
I'm on the borderline
I jump back and forth
There's nothing to stop me now
I'm heading...
North

Up where the polar bears and moose and geese will play
And some of them address you en français
Give me the ice and snow
Time to go...
North

And so I must leave you all
Alas and alack
And though we are parting now
I'll always come back
So as the compass points
That's where I'll be
But if you could only see
The perfection of...

North
It's something I will always carry in my heart
A place when dreams begin and life can start
Who cares what people know?
Let me go...
North