Texty: Elvis Costello. National Ransom. Church Underground.
She stood spot lit in a plain print dress
Came howling out of the wilderness
There beat a cunning and murderous heart
Beneath that calm exterior
You know my name, you don't know my mind
Don't doubt my eyes, they betray the past
And I've already forgotten
Much more than you will ever know
Every word that I have spoken is true
Except the ones that have been broken in two
Trying to make peace after the long night of pretend
Need a pawnbroker or a moneylender
Why do you do me down, Mister?
Sing "Hallelujah", sister
Turn up the volume just to turn it down
The trivial secrets buried with the profound
It's enough to put a church underground
It's enough to put a church underground
Deflowered young and then ever since
She's tried to wash off his fingerprints
So every charlatan and prince
Was made to feel inferior
She worked for tips in a 10-cent dance
Said moving pictures might pay perchance
10,000 one-way tickets to the sparkling coast
From the blank interior
Everybody's either talking in code
Or getting ready to explode
And she was singing in a five-piece band
Seems that no one really wants this sound
Why do you do me down, Mister?
Sing "Hallelujah", sister
Turn up the volume just to turn it down
The trivial secrets buried with the profound
It's enough to put a church underground
It's enough to put a church underground
The shaft of fanlight streaked with rain
Poured through the glass, punched through the pain
A holy picture hidden in the midden of that poisoned stitch
Her lonely voice was just a ruin in these riches
She must have been dreaming this all along
Could she be redeeming herself in song?
I'm no one's martyred, plaster saint
Below the grease, beneath the paint
I'm rolling like barrel, swinging like a gallows
I'm rising up fast like all hell and all hallows
Why do you do me down, Mister?
Sing "Hallelujah," sister
I'll be damned or purgatory bound
Before those jokers ever understand
It's enough to put a church underground
It's enough to put a church underground
It's enough to put a church underground
Came howling out of the wilderness
There beat a cunning and murderous heart
Beneath that calm exterior
You know my name, you don't know my mind
Don't doubt my eyes, they betray the past
And I've already forgotten
Much more than you will ever know
Every word that I have spoken is true
Except the ones that have been broken in two
Trying to make peace after the long night of pretend
Need a pawnbroker or a moneylender
Why do you do me down, Mister?
Sing "Hallelujah", sister
Turn up the volume just to turn it down
The trivial secrets buried with the profound
It's enough to put a church underground
It's enough to put a church underground
Deflowered young and then ever since
She's tried to wash off his fingerprints
So every charlatan and prince
Was made to feel inferior
She worked for tips in a 10-cent dance
Said moving pictures might pay perchance
10,000 one-way tickets to the sparkling coast
From the blank interior
Everybody's either talking in code
Or getting ready to explode
And she was singing in a five-piece band
Seems that no one really wants this sound
Why do you do me down, Mister?
Sing "Hallelujah", sister
Turn up the volume just to turn it down
The trivial secrets buried with the profound
It's enough to put a church underground
It's enough to put a church underground
The shaft of fanlight streaked with rain
Poured through the glass, punched through the pain
A holy picture hidden in the midden of that poisoned stitch
Her lonely voice was just a ruin in these riches
She must have been dreaming this all along
Could she be redeeming herself in song?
I'm no one's martyred, plaster saint
Below the grease, beneath the paint
I'm rolling like barrel, swinging like a gallows
I'm rising up fast like all hell and all hallows
Why do you do me down, Mister?
Sing "Hallelujah," sister
I'll be damned or purgatory bound
Before those jokers ever understand
It's enough to put a church underground
It's enough to put a church underground
It's enough to put a church underground
Costello, Elvis
National Ransom
Costello, Elvis