Adam's Elvis Costello Page - Blood & Chocolate: Lyrics Uncomplicated

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

Chorus: 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

Chorus

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

Chorus

I Hope You're Happy Now

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

Tokyo Storm Warning

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

Chorus: 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

Chorus

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

Chorus

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

Chorus

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"

Chorus

Home is Anywhere You Hang Your Head

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

Chorus: 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

Chorus

I Want You

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 it's knowing that he knows you now after only guessing
I want you It's the thought of him undressing you or you undressing
I want you He tossed some tattered 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 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 Every night when I go off to bed and when I wake up
I want you
I want you
I'm going to say it again 'til I instill it I know I'm going to feel this way until you kill it
I want you
I want you

Honey, Are You Straight Or Are You Blind?

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

Chorus: 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

Chorus

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

Chorus

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

Blue Chair

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

Chorus: 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

Chorus

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

Chorus

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

Battered Old Bird

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

Chorus: 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"

Chorus

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

Chorus

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"

Chorus

"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

Crimes Of Paris

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

Chorus: 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

Chorus

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

Chorus

Poor Napoleon

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

Next Time 'Round

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

Chorus: 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

Chorus

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

Chorus

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

The Next Time 'Round

Seven Day Weekend

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. (x2)

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 (x2) I can't wait until I maybe Get off work and see my baby One, two, three, four, five, six, seven day weekend (Repeat)

Forgive Her Anything

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

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, she the....

American Without Tears #2 (Twilight Version)

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 dangled 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 Just American without tears

A Town Called Big Nothing (Really Big Nothing)

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)