American Humbug
From ElvisCostello
LyricsBARNUM: Let me read this manifest What is worst and what is best? What is it that could be hidden in the belly of this groaning ship?
All broken biscuits and china cups Perfumes and parchments Canvases and tweeds A length of hemp and a sack of hops A quantity of fine oak beams A box of bulbs and seeds Eleven of the rarest orchids still living under glass A quantity of Belgian lace Twenty phials of dragon's blood Pictures and periodicals Tin tubes and rubber plants Pamphlets and iron jackets Cherries and immigrants Stamped and sealed documents Red velvet drapes A range of leather harnesses
Two barrels of mercury One barrel of the cold black earth Who will take this string of pearls and tell what they are worth?
A roll of printed Chinese silks Fourteen pairs of soft kid gloves The finest cork is Portuguese Tins of mussels and Spanish anchovies
Vermouth and opium Bottles of German hock Finest French cognac
Fine purple twine The chimes from six grandfather clocks A mynah bird that sometimes talks Two barrels of mercury and one barrel of the cold black earth? Who will take this string of pearls and tell me what it is worth?
There must be one precious cargo She will be my triumph with the first rank of society I bring you, singer of great renown, of purest piety
Their glance is dimmed as if trimmed by some sleeping drug or draft Accolades and faint applause are no match for catch sprung by the King of American Humbug
Curiosities that seem to speak Now from the man who brought you:
Made from a monkey's torso and a desiccated fishtail
Who was really a blind and penniless slave I buried the bill of sale
Who rode in a coach and Shetland Four through each and every court
They are not taken in by hoaxers and fakers Or bootleggers who end their days as kingmakers
Victoria and her German cousins by the gross and by the dozens wept into their ermine robes as sainted Jenny sailed around the globe
The multitude called loud and long Almost seven thousand strong To hear her first American song
20,000 butterlies will beat their wings until they die to send Italian melodies way up into the galleries 30,000 silk worms spin a web of gauze as her voice soars high above the wild applause 50,000 glow worms or more will illuminate the curtain that will rise upon each encore
Pay once more and pay no less "This way to the egress" Find yourself where you began In what seems a tiny span The study of this lizard-like man...
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Credits
DiscographyThis unreleased song is intended for Elvis' chamber opera The Secret Songs Of Hans Christian Andersen. Covers
Bootlegs
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