Wise Up Ghost lyrics

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Walk Us Uptown

Will you walk us uptown
And wherever you go you know we will follow
Will you walk us uptown
And we'll stand in the light of your new killing ground
And we won't make a sound
Except to sing our sorrow

Will you walk us uptown
While our tears run in torrents
To suffer in silence or pray for some solace
Will you wash away our sins
In the cross-fire and cross-currents
As you uncross your fingers
And take out some insurance
No matter what the price
It's your own paradise

Will you walk us uptown
Will you walk us uptown
Some hearts are sinking and some hearts are a-flutter
Some scoop gold from the dirt in the gutter
Or swallow the earth pouring into your mouth
As they bury us upright saying "everything's alright"

Will you walk us uptown
Like some said that you could
We will feast on your flesh and drink down your blood
Will you haul down that flag and dishonour that vow
'Cos we must not change its colour now
Will you walk us uptown
No matter what the price
Each crushed in the corner of their own paradise
Will you walk us uptown

Will you walk us uptown
That's always assuming that you're partly divine and partly human
You're the king of our hearts
You're the clown with the drum
Will you walk us uptown
If we promise not to run

Will you walk us uptown
Will you gather us near
As cowards flee and traitors sneer
Keep a red flag flying
Keep a blue flag as well
And a white flag in case it all goes to hell


Sugar Won't Work

Lightning Up!
And shake the ground

Is that a horn that's blowing?
Or a bell that's tolling?
Walls are falling
Ships pulled out from their mooring
Is that a river or just a road the storm has stolen?

And this will predict the times these signs will bring
Me and my stupid heart
We were never apart
But now sugar won't work

Lightning Up!
And fly the coop
Far from this tin-pan alley oop
Did you think I was your dupe?
I hear such lies and howlers
Words to pull out your molars

And this will predict the times these signs will bring
Me and my stupid heart
We were never apart
But now sugar won't work

Lightning Up!
Sugar the pill
A wall of ocean ten miles high
Metal darts torn from the sky
Like wanton boys make noise pull wings from flies

And this will predict the times these signs will bring
Me and my stupid heart
We were never apart
But now sugar won't work


Refuse To Be Saved

Now that you set everybody free
What you going to do about me?
Don't want to be treated like some poor grateful clown
I'd rather go back in the sweet underground
Where I can tell the time by the colour of my skin
And I know my neighbour 'cos he's the one, yes he's the one
Who always turns me in

A woman works the tunnel in the middle of the night
Picking up every lost object in sight
Handbags, toupees, lost legs and fingernails
The black market eats up all your failures
Her transistor offers no salvation or regrets
No pool, no pets, no cigarettes
Just non-stop Disco Tex and the Sex-o-lettes

There's no name, there's no name
There's no name, there's no name
There's no name, there's no name
For the pain we'll cause you again and again
For the pain we'll cause you again and again

The Liberation Forces make movies of their own
Playing their Doors records and pretending to be stoned
Drowning out a broadcast that wasn't authorised
Incidentally the revolution will be televised
With one head for business and another for good looks
Until they started arriving with their rubber aprons and their butcher's hooks

There's no name, there's no name
There's no name, there's no name
There's no name, there's no name
For the pain we'll cause you again and again
For the pain we'll cause you again and again

They're hunting us down here with Liberty's light
A handshaking double talking procession of the mighty
Pursued by a T.V. crew and coming after them
A limousine of singing stars and their brotherhood anthem
The former dictator was impeccably behaved
They're mopping up all the stubborn ones who just refuse to be saved

I refuse to be saved


Wake Me Up

I've got this phosphorescent portrait of gentle Jesus meek and mild

I've got this harlot that I'm stuck with carrying another man's child

The solitary star announcing vacancy burnt out as we arrived

They'd throw us back across the border if they knew that we survived

 And they were surprised to see us

 So they greeted us with palms

They asked for ammunition, acts of contrition and small alms

Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
With a slap or a kiss
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
There must be something better than this


I've got this imaginary radio, and I'm punching up the dial

I've got the A.C. trained on the T.V. so it won't blow up in my eye

 And everything that I thought fanciful or mocked as too extreme

 Must be family entertainment here in the strange land of my dreams

And I'm practising my likeness of St. Francis of Assisi

And if I hold my hand outstretched

 A little bird comes to me


And I might recite a small prayer

If I ever said them

 I lay down on an iron frame

 And found myself in Bedlam

 Stepping on the fingers that were stretching through the bars

 Wailing echoes down the corridors


 Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
With a slap or a kiss
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
There must be something better than this


 They've got this scared and decorated girl strapped to the steel trunk of a Mustang

 They drove her down a cypress grove where traitors hang and stars still spangle

They dangled flags and other rags along a coloured thread of twine

 They dragged that bruised and purple heart along the road to Palestine


Someone went off muttering, he mentioned thirty pieces

 Easter saw a slaughtering, each wrapped in bloodstained fleeces

My thoughts returned to vengeance but I put up no resistance

Though I seemed a long way from my home

It really was no distance


Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
With a slap or a kiss
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
There must be something better than this


 And the player piano picks out "Life Goes On"

 The Ringtone rang out "Jerusalem"

 Into the pit of sadness

Where the wretched plunge

 We've buried all the Innocents

We must bury revenge


Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
There must be something better than this
There must be something better than this
There must be something better than this


In the name of the Father and the Son
In the name of Gasoline and a Gun
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up


Tripwire

Just because you don’t speak the language
Doesn’t mean that you can’t understand
Just because you don’t speak the language
Doesn’t mean that you can’t understand
The twist in the script of the insult
Scrawled on the back of your hand

Torn from the pages of scripture
Sprayed on the wall in the frays of a flag
Kisses forbidden on lips
And all of your fine clothes worn into rags

Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
There’s a tripwire
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire

Don’t open the door ‘cos they’re coming
Don’t open the door ‘cos they’re here
Above there’s an ominous humming
Below there’s a murmur of prayer

Torn from the pages of scandal
Sprayed on a wall in the frays of the flag
Kisses forbidden on lips
and all of your fine clothes blown into rags

Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
There’s a tripwire
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire

There’s a cross in the line there’s a circus
There’s a voice that you might overhear
There’s a lens making the picture perfect
They say you have nothing to fear

Torn from the pages of pamphlets
Thrown in the air like confetti in church
Far, far away there’s a target
and the sound of an army just starting to march

Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
There’s a tripwire
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire

Just because I don’t read the language
Doesn’t mean that I'm blind to the threat
Though I thought there was more to forgiveness
Than all we conveniently forget

Torn from the pages of history
Repeated again and again and again
You’re either for or against us
and that is how the hatred begins

Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
There’s a tripwire
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire


Stick Out Your Tongue

They talked to the sister, the father and the mother
With a microphone in one hand and a chequebook in the other
And the camera noses in to the tears on her face
The tears on her face
The tears on her face
You can put them back together with your paper and paste

Stick out your tongue
Drink down the venom

She sleeps with the shirt of a late, great country singer
Stretched out upon her poor jealous husband's pillow
In time you can turn these obsessions into careers
While the parents of those kidnapped children start the bidding for their tears

What would you say?
What would you do?
Children and animals two by two
Give me the needle
Give me the rope
We're going to melt them down for pills and soap

Four and twenty crowbars, jemmy your desire
Out of the frying pan into the fire
The king is in the counting house
Some folk have all the might
And majesty will run on Bombay Gin and German spite
They come from lovely people
(They come from lovely people)
With a hard line in hypocrisy
There are tears of mediocrity
For the fag ends of the aristocracy

What would you say?
What would you do?
Children and animals two by two
Give me the needle
Give me the rope
We're going to melt them down for pills and soap

Stick out your tongue
Stick out your tongue
Drink down the venom

The sugar-coated pill is getting bitterer still
You think your country needs you but you know it never will
So pack up your troubles in a stolen handbag
Don't dilly dally boys rally 'round the flag
Give us our daily bread in individual slices
And something in the daily rag to cancel any crisis

What would you say?
What would you do?
(Did you find out how to lie?)
Children and animals two by two
(Did you find out how to cheat?)
Give me the needle
(The elite bleat, they're obsolete)
We're going to melt them down
Stick out your tongue
(We're going to melt them down for pills and soap)
Now if you'd only genuflect
Stick out your tongue
Now if you'd only genuflect
Stick out your tongue


Come The Meantimes

What are you going to say to me?
Will you be betraying me?
Come The Meantimes

Will you be deceiving me?
And beyond believing in me?
Come The Meantimes

He came back, (right back)
And nobody blinked
He came back, (right back)
At least I think that he did
He came back, (right back)
And he ran and he hid
And he muttered and moaned
And said "Let's go get stoned"

Will you be denying me?
Will you still come crying to me
Come The Meantimes

Are you still obeying me?
Will you still be praying to me?
Come The Meantimes

Will you sit in judgment then?
Be the first one to condemn
Come The Meantimes

Now you've got nobody else to blame
And trouble remembering my name
Will you still be cursing me
Come my anniversary
Come The Meantimes

He came back, (right back)
And they followed and failed
He came back, (right back)
He got hammered and nailed
He came back, (right back)
And he wandered alone
They said let's gather some stones
And make them atone

Now I'm in a hall of mirrors
With my secret thoughts and terrors
Come The Meantimes
And I'm drinking to your health
Find I'm only talking to myself
Come The Meantimes

He came back, (right back)
And nobody blinked
He came back, (right back)
At least I think that he did
He came back, (right back)
Then he ran and he hid
And he muttered and moaned
And said "Let's go get stoned"

Blossoms fragrant opening
Poppies full of opium
Come The Meantimes
Phony prophets offer hope
That's a different kind of dope
Come The Meantimes

Right now!
Right now!
Right now!
Gather some stones and make them atone

Come The Meantimes
(Let's go get stoned)
Come The Meantimes


(She Might Be A) Grenade

She's pulling out the pin
That lets her hair fall down
She's pulling out the pin
She shakes her head
And it goes tumbling

Her smile was out of place
So she swept it off her face

Let me find the words and say them
Like some softly whispered "Amen"

But she starts to pull away
And the lights begin to dim
Is she thinking of me?
Or is she thinking of him?
She's pulling out the pin…

She's slipping off the hook
Unbuttoning her dress
She's slipping off the hook
There's just enough to make some man a mess
She tears away the veil
With her fingernails

She came out high and kicking
While the band played "Hey, Good Looking"
Do you hear something ticking?

Did somebody tell her she could really be redeemed?
And could she actually be as desperate as she seems?
She's tearing at the seams
She's going to extremes
Nobody told her it was a sin
So she's pulling out the pin

She's taping up her hands just like a boxer will
And they started laughing
But if looks could kill
She'd take them down right now
She's covering her mouth
With some unholy vow
There's nothing more to say
This is her wedding day

Full of shattered glass and mayhem
Not some softly whispered "Amen"

While the shock announcement dawns
And the smoke begins to thin
Where the world without ends
And the next one begins
She's pulling out the pin

She's pulling out the pin
She's pulling out the pin
She's pulling out the pin


Cinco Minutos Con Vos

I stood at the kerb trying not to disturb
The dark carnival crew and a glittering voice
Far off there said, "Rejoice"
"As the casualties are but few"

Going to tell you now
Before I forget myself
I could let you loose
But the key won't undo the lock
And the face of the clock
Seemed to merrily mock
These five minutes with you

Mi padre sabía
Y me lo susurro
Vete a Montevideo y espérame ahí
Por dónde empezar?
Escuchando siempre están
Por cinco minutos o mas
Si te atreves

La sirenas lamentan
La plaga que encuentran
Las balas caen
Y te harán desaparecer
El faro oscurece hay poca esperanza
Cinco minutos con vos

English Version:
My father would know
So he whispered it low
"Go to Montevideo and wait for me there"
How can I begin?
They're always listening in
For five minutes or more if you dare

Now the sirens wail
There is a fever in the winding sheets
And the bullets hail
And they pull you right off the streets
Our chances are slim but the searchlights will dim in five minutes for you

The propeller was droning, I woke up alone
They opened the door and they threw me through
And down I went down, like the twist of a screw
Down into the silver, above me the blue
And you stood there waiting but you never knew
Five Minutes With You

They can scatter the earth and find nothing of worth
Wipe out those years of triangular tears
The colours will fly
And the wild wind will cry I'm strapped to that mast
Knowing they wouldn't last for
Five Minutes With You


Viceroy's Row

Now there's a crank in every crowd
Sprinkling gunpowder
Seems that everything is about to blow
They lit the burning paper
With a waxen taper
Sitting up here on Viceroy's Row

And they're gathering flowers
In the crack of hours where all of the nightmares go
Watching the pipeline as it overflowed
Sitting pretty here on Viceroy's Row

He made a fortune out of barbed wire
In the last days of the Empire
Built a cast-iron curtain
Just to keep control

He was a tycoon, then a cheapskate
Went out looking for a keepsake
To tuck into his suitcase on Viceroy's Row

And they're gathering flowers
In the crack of hours where all of the nightmares go
Watching the pipeline as it overflowed
Sitting pretty here on Viceroy's Row

He had a satchel full of cash
And dishes full of ashes
He went from boom to bust
In the blinking of a lash

Heard the rat-a-tat of the late patrol
Shooting out the lights up on Viceroy's Row

And they're gathering flowers
In the crack of hours where all of the nightmares go
They're coming for him slowly
Now the war is over
Sitting up here on Viceroy's Row

The woman in a blindfold
She doesn't want her hand held
Walking through a minefield
Saying "How does this feel?"
Stepping on the quicksand
Going down slow
Hiding up here on Viceroy's Row

Nothing satisfies
The ruins of his blue eyes
Like blood stains on a diamond mine
And deep within you felt
Not one measure of his guilt
Staring in the dark up on Viceroy's Row

Yet her penitent lover
Took a ribbon of rubber
Tied her to the bed made of silken thread

But without an ounce of mercy
They denounced him with a curse
Hammering on the door upon Viceroy's Row

Now his little concubine in her cemetery drag
Her face all smeared with charcoal
Is leaving all her cares, so
Take 500 acres and see what you can sow
We came to overthrow those on Viceroy's Row

They're gathering flowers
In the crack of hours where all of the nightmares go
Watching the pipeline as it overflowed
Sitting up here on Viceroy's Row


Wise Up Ghost

Last lions roar before they're tamed
I stood out in the glorious reign
Knowing full well I can't go home again
Wise Up Ghost

Wise Up
When are you going to rise up?
Wise Up Ghost
Yield some sighs up
Wise Up Ghost

Go on your merry way now if you must
Fool's Gold turns rivets into rust
'Til you don't know who to trust
Wise Up Ghost

Wise Up
When are you going to rise up?
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)
Yield some sighs up (Wise Up Ghost)
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)

Old woman living in a cardboard shoe
Lost so many souls, she don't know what to do
So, say your prayers 'cos down the stairs it's 1932
Wise Up Ghost

She revolves around a sparkling pole
Stares into the mirrored wall
Sees another woman walking through a market stall
(She's pulling out the pin)
Wise Up Ghost
(She's pulling out the pin)

Wise Up
When are you going to rise up?
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)
Yield some sighs up (Wise Up Ghost)
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)

Lost girl found on the radio
Down around Larado
Go direct to hell you murdering so-and-so
Wise Up Ghost

Trapped within a House of Feathers
Sitting in a Shirt of Wire
Howling at a Wall of Flowers
Saying "Wise Up Ghost"

Wise Up
When are you going to rise up?
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)
Yield some sighs up (Wise Up Ghost)
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)

I walked along an iron pier
Where Rose's kisses turned to tears
Saltwater rushing over the pebbles under there
Wise Up Ghost

Last sigh of passion
Slipped into the room like an assassin
Glad tidings we bring
For you and your King
Wise Up Ghost

Wise Up
When are you going to rise up?
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)
Yield some sighs up (Wise Up Ghost)
Wise Up Ghost (Wise Up Ghost)

Last lions roar before they're tamed
I stood out in the glorious reign
Knowing full well I can't go home again
Wise Up Ghost

Wise Up
When are you going to rise up?
Wise Up Ghost
Yield some sighs up
Wise Up Ghost


If I Could Believe

If I could believe two and two is five
Two wrongs make a right
Well then, man alive
Lost in my insolence and sneers
That might sound like prayers
If I could believe

If I could believe
You were from heaven sent
Then just losing you
Would be my punishment
But in the hour of disgrace
I might see his face
If I could believe

If I could believe
Then I know I might
Sleep all through the night
But how many times must I wake in fright
Nagging doubts still tugging on my sleeve

If I could believe two and two is five
Two wrongs make a right
Well then, man alive
Lost in my insolence and sneers
That might sound like prayers
If I could believe
If I could believe


My New Haunt

My New Haunt
Gives me everything I want
My New Haunt
Gives me everything I want
And I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind
If she turns out to be crazy in time

Bring me black strap molasses
Light me a burning witch
Bring me my bristle brushes
Bring me my tar and pitch
Bring me my feather pillow
And I'll unpick the stitch
We've lived too well
Too long
So long
So strong

My New Haunt
Brings me everything I want
And I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind
If she turns out to be faithless in time

My New Haunt
Sometimes disappears
Then comes back in the night
And whispers in my ears
Saying "Don't you know you little fool
You've nothing to fear
I'll tell you everything you want to know
Everything you want to hear"
And I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind

Raise up that flaming torch
Watch as the ships approach
An invitation on her lips
The homeless, tempest-tossed, she grips

Make her beautiful
Make her dutiful and rich
Sing me a love song
So long
So strong

My New Haunt
Has just been repossessed
And I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind
if I have to guess my next address

I'm out on the horizon
Just as the sun was rising
First rays bestow a kiss
So you would never guess
I'm sailing off a precipice
Dragons and gold down in the hold
Burning leaves and spices choking back the stench of piss

My New Haunt
Requires a coat of paint
And I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind
If the walls are peeling and the ceiling is revealing the stars out there reeling

My New Haunt
Sometimes disappears
Comes back in the night
And whispers in my ears
Saying "Don't you know you little fool
You've nothing to fear
I'll tell you everything you want to know
Everything you want to hear"
And I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind

At the end of the working day
He's tired of kneeling, and praying
"As I lay down to die"
I can't remember why
Up on the silent screen
A cowboy ropes a trick
And in the second feature
Some lovely creature saved by a yankee dick

Make her beautiful
Make her dutiful and rich
Sing me a love song
So long
So strong

My New Haunt
The shiver of a chill
And I don't mind, I don't mind, I don't mind

Start making babies
Beat out those bayonets
Stop making bullets
Reverse the planets
Pick all my pockets
Cut off those bracelets
Have you no remorse?
Peel off your corsets
Of course


Can You Hear Me?

Signal fading
Listen to what I'm saying

Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?

Testing, testing

Can you hear me?

This better be worth all of the breath I'm wasting

Hear him coming through loud and clear
Hear him treacling in your ear

Well, you know your time has come
And you're sorry for what you've done

All you gangsters
You should have never have been playing with a gun

Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?

Hear him coming through loud and clear
Hear him treacling in your ear

Next week there'll be some fashionable new sin
For each harlot and each puritan
Pull off their wings, stick 'em on a pin

Can you hear me?

And just let the money roll in

Can you hear me?

Signal fading
Listen to what I'm saying

Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?

Testing, testing

Can you hear me?

This better be worth all of the breath I'm wasting

Hear him coming through loud and clear
Hear him treacling in your ear

There's a line that you must toe
And it's time for you to go
All you gangsters
It's darker than you know

Can you hear me?

Hear him coming through loud and clear
Hear him treacling in your ear

The hands of the helpless are raised
Your dead little secrets are praised
The people stand dumbstruck and dazed

Can you hear me?

By the inches that you have erased

Hear him treacling in your ear

Do those drug dealer still polish women made of wax

Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?

Gangsters and world leaders
Require the same protection from attack

Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?

Libraries filled up with failed ideas
There's nothing more for me there
I trust in tender ink and gentle airs

Tape starts running
He's going to tell you something

Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?

Strings start strumming
Another humdrum conundrum...

Hear him coming through loud and clear
Hear him treacling in your ear

Barricaded in the talk radio station
Hostage taken
Can you hear me
The red "On-Air" light shines on

Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?

All you gangsters

So pay the ransom
Before the run-out groove

Hear him coming through loud and clear
Hear him treacling in your ear

Get my wife down here
A helicopter on the roof

No police marksman
Maintaining radio silence from now on

Signal fading
Listen to what I'm saying
Mystery voices drowned out by too much choice

Testing, testing
Maintaining radio silence


The Puppet Has Cut His Strings

They pulled the stars down one by one
Hauled up the moon to shine upon
A velvet curtain rising
Now her puppet has cut his strings

The footlights glare
The trumpets blare
Why is your face drawn on so glum, old chum
Paintbrush dragging on a drum
The rimshot on the punchline that you fumbled
The crowd went home and left you
For dead
My old woodenhead
Took the thimble and the thread
Choked back tears like a cymbal

The breath is slow and shallow too
The sky is bright Venetian blue
The cardboard sun is all ablaze
The air is painted Clifford Brown
Caressing "Yesterdays"
The steady gaze of your glass eye
Head in a basket smiling still
Free of will, free of wisdom

Can't feel my fingers anymore
Can't raise my hand and ask for more
Dance my doll across the floor
Or fire a flag from a pistol
("Bang")

They pulled the stars down one by one
Hauled up the moon to wish upon
The puppet finally cut his strings
And free at last from earthly things
He's dancing on the ceiling
With a showgirl in a feather dress
Time is meaningless

We carried you on buckled limbs
Through mournful airs and martyrs hymns
Then one blue and one more yellow pill
One keeps you quiet
One keeps you still
You sang "The Way You Looked Tonight"
Your voice is ringing true and clear
Then you wore them down like candlelight

And in the darkness
You'd best beware
And in the darkness
You'd best beware
You'd best beware
You'd best beware
I used to love him
When I used to care
Canopy
Satin trim
Slowly closing
The puppet has cut his strings

<< National Ransom Lost On The River >>
Wise Up Ghost
Wise Up Ghost album cover.jpg
studio album by
Elvis Costello and The Roots
ReleasedSeptember 16, 2013 (UK)
September 17, 2013 (US)
Recorded2012-2013
ProducerSteven Mandel, Elvis Costello and Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson
LabelBlue Note
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