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Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello


Background information
Birth name Declan Patrick MacManus
Born August 25, 1954
Born place Paddington, London, England
Genre(s) Pub Rock
New Wave
Years active 1970—present
Label(s) Island Records
Columbia Records
Mercury Records
Lost Highway Records
Verve Records
Deutsche Grammophon
Hip-O Records
Stiff Records
Associated acts Diana Krall
Burt Bacharach
Brodsky Quartet
Website Website



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Elvis Costello Lyrics

"American Gangster Time" lyrics


Somewhere downtown a pretty girl kneels
Offers her soft of lips and a handful of pills
She 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 he 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 and stick them on 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 have you got hidden up your sleeve?
The tracks of the train that were bidding you to leave
When they say you should flatter to deceive
Just 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

American Gangster Time

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