Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Photographs of fancy tricks to get your kicks at sixty-six
He thinks of all the lips that he licks
And all the girls that he's going to fix
She gave a little flirt, gave herself a little cuddle
But there's no place here for the mini-skirt waddle
Capital punishment, she's last year's model
They call her Natasha when she looks like Elsie
I don't want to go to Chelsea

Oh no it does not move me
Even though I've seen the movie
I don't want to check your pulse
I don't want nobody else
I don't want to go to Chelsea

Everybody's got new orders
Be a nice girl and kiss the warders
Now the teacher is away
All the kids begin to play

Men come screaming, dressed in white coats
Shake you very gently by the throat
One's named Gus, one's named Alfie
I don't want to go to Chelsea

Oh no it does not move me
Even though I've seen the movie
I don't want to check your pulse
I don't want nobody else
I don't want to go to Chelsea

Photographs of fancy tricks to get your kicks at sixty-six
He thinks of all the lips that he licks
And all the girls that he's going to fix
She gave a little flirt, gave herself a little cuddle
But there's no place here for the mini-skirt waddle
Capital punishment, she's last year's model
They call her Natasha when she looks like Elsie
I don't want to go to Chelsea

Oh no it does not move me
Even though I've seen the movie
I don't want to check your pulse
I don't want nobody else
I don't want to go to Chelsea

That Charlie Sedarka was a-playing the piano like he was pawing a dirty book
He bit a hole in his big bottom lip and gave his very best little boy look
It was a song with a topical verse which I'm afraid he then proceeded to sing
Something about the moody doomed love of the Fish-Finger King

(chorus)
You're nobody in this town
You're nobody in this crowd
You're nobody 'til everybody in this town thinks you're poison,
Got your number, knows it must be avoided
You're nobody 'til everybody in this town thinks you're a bastard

Mr. Getgood moved up to Self-Made Man Row
Although he swears that he's the salt of the earth
He's so proud of the "kick-me-hard" sign that they hung on his back at birth
He said "I appreciate beauty, if I have one, then it's my fault"
"Beauty is on my pillow, beauty is there in my vault"

(chorus)

The girl with the eternity rock went down on her bookie to buy some stock
Now all her signs in the shopping arcades say "The corporation thief is The New
Jesse James"
Her clothes and her attention were scant, her eyes were everywhere,
Her eyes were like absinthe
The little green figures that dance on his screen say everything you want to
hear and nothing they mean
They made love while she was changing her dress
She wiped him off, she wiped him out and then she made him confess
A little amused by the belief in her power
You must remember this it was the fetish of the hour

(chorus

Well, it's so funny to be seein ya after so long girl
by the way look, I understand
that you are not impressed
I heard you let that little friend of mine
take off your party dress

I'm not gonna get too sentimental
like those other sticky valentines
cuz I don't know if you were lovin somebody
I only hope it wasn't mine

<
>
Alison
I know this world is killin you
oh, Alison
my aim is true

well i see ya got a husband now
but did you leave your pretty fingers
lying in the wedding cake

you used to hold him right in your hand
but it took all he could take

sometimes I wish that I could stop you from talkin
when I hear the silly things you say
I think somebody better put out the big light
cuz I can't stand to see you this way

<
>

You're a fine one, oh yes you are
You're a fine one just like me
And we're friends now, oh wouldn't you say?
We've been friends now, oh haven't we?
Stay at home tonight if you know what's good for you
I can't say more it would be telling
For if you don't what will become of you
Just isn't worth any king's shilling

I will answer when they make that call, pull upon this ragged uniform
Up 'til now I know it's been your trade
Spit and polish the potato parade
Stay at home tonight if you know what's good for you
I can't say more it would be telling
For if you don't what will become of you
Just isn't worth any king's shilling

Please don't put your silly head in that pretty soldier's hat
You've done your duty, that's enough of that

I don't know if what I'm doing is right
I don't know if you should be forgiving
But for me it seems it means my life
While for you it could just be a living
Stay at home tonight if you know what's good for you
I can't say more it would be telling
For if you don't what will become of you
Just isn't worth any king's shilling

Please don't put your silly head in that British soldier's hat
You've done your duty that's enough of that

You're a fine one, oh yes you are
You're a fine one, just like me

It's not open to discussion anymore
She's out again tonight and I'm alone once more
She's all I have worth waiting for
But baby plays around
And so it seems I've always been the last to know
To hold on to that girl, I had to let her go
I wish to God I didn't love her so
'Cos baby plays around

I try to be strong hold on to my pride
She doesn't even know it's wrong, how much
I hurt Inside
And heaven knows I've tried
But baby plays around. just a plaything
It's hard to reconcile the facts I'm facing

It's not open to discussion anymore
She walks those shiny streets
I walk the worn out floor
She's all I have worth living for
Baby plays, baby plays around

Every day is so wonderful
And suddenly, it's hard to breathe
Now and then, I get insecure
From all the pain, I'm so ashamed

I am beautiful no matter what they say
Words can't bring me down
I am beautiful in every single way
Yes, words can't bring me down
So don't you bring me down today

To all your friends, you're delirious
So consumed with all your doom
Trying hard to fill the emptiness
The piece is gone left the puzzle undone
Cuz that's the way it is

You are beautiful no matter what they say
Words can't bring you down
You are beautiful in every single way
Yes, words can't bring you down
So don't you bring me down today

No matter what we do
No matter what we say
We're the song inside the tune full of beautiful mistakes
And everywhere we go
The sun will always shine
Tomorrow we might wake upon the other side or the other time

We are beautiful in every single way
Words can't bring us down
We are beautiful in every single way
Yes words can't bring us down
So don't you bring me down today

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"

We were dancing together
To a dreamy melody
When they called out "change partners"
And you waltzed away from me
Now my arms feel so empty
As I gaze around the floor
And I'll keep on changing partners
Till I hold you once more

Though we danced for one moment
And too soon we had to part
In that wonderful moment
Something happened to my heart
So I'll keep changing partners
Till you're in my arms again
Oh my darling I may never
Change partners again

Though we danced for one moment
And too soon we had to part
In that wonderful moment
Something happened to my heart
So I'll keep changing partners
Till you're in my arms again
Oh my darling I will never
Change partners again

Oh my darling I will never
Change partners again

With their cardboard hands by their sides,
here's a naked man and lady
And they're yours to cut out and keep
So you can dress them up maybe
They don't know just who they are, or who they're
supposed to be
You can make them happy or sad
Or assume their identity
So here they are in the departure lounge
It's the "Gateway to the East"
She is just another mail-order bride
She doesn't know he's a kinky beast
So he gives her a picture of Maradona and child
She wants to "roll and rock"
As he spills his beer over her, bumps and he
grinds, as he repeats "Bang-Cock"

Chorus:

There must be something that is better than this
It starts with a slap and ends up with a kiss
Begins with you bawling and it ends up in tears
Oh my little one, take that chewing gum out of
your ears

She might as well be in the jungle
She might as well be on the moon
He's away on a business trip, in Dusseldorf [sic], but
she's becoming immune
To the lack of glamour and danger in a West-
German city today
The nearest she comes to the "Dynasty" he
promised her
Is a Chinese takeaway

Chorus

Though he only taught her three little words, it
doesn't matter if they're dirty or clean
He can only control what they look like
He can never possess what they mean
Now he wants to whisper in her ear
All the shrinking nothingness
But something always comes between them,
I wonder if you can guess

Chorus

Yesterday's coal train came to rest in the bitter cutting
And as the signals took an age to change it was easy pickings
So you go to the movies where they smash it up
You want to feel your heart pumping it makes you feel good
All through the karaoke girls were squealing the hits
As another mercedes-benz gets blown to bits

While all the time in the camptown theatres of piccadilly
They're going to throw a black-face minstrel show for the barefoot children
That they're always selling
They'll say "it's quaint" as the guilty ones faint and claim they ain't underneath this paint
We interrupt these liberal saints with their whips and watermelon

Reports are coming in of a coal-train robbery



It's like another world, or it had better be

So we return to whitewashed pout of his committed lips
Since he was declared the long lost fountain
Of youth that drips and drips and drips
They'll be sending him round from door to door,
To sell you back what's already yours
"so many good deeds, so little time"
Say the advertising agency swine
When man has destroyed what he thinks he owns
I hope no living thing cries over his bones
If you don't believe that i'm going for good
You can count the days i'm gone and chop up
The chairs for firewood

Reports are coming in of a coal-train robbery
It's like another world, or it had better be

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
Complicated Shadows
Complicated Shadows

Go!