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@ALBUM: goodbye.cruel.world
Author: Elvis Costello
Album title: Goodbye Cruel World
@SONG: The Only Flame In Town
 
I know a girl got my mind in a mess
I never heard her say goodnight and God bless
She's not the only flame in town

And when we're alone we never quarrel
I'm miles away now here's the moral
She's not the only flame in town

She's not the only flame in town
She's got to stop thinking that I'm
   carrying this torch around

He struck a match and it lit up her face
We should have struck a match girl
To burn down the whole place
Now you're not the only flame in town

But you blew hot and cold
Turned my heart to a cinder
And with each passing day
You're less tender and more tinder
Now you're not the only flame in town

She's not the only flame in town
She's got to stop thinking that I'm
   carrying this torch around

Thought I saw your face in the fire
But it's so hard to remember
Even an inferno can cool down to an ember
Now you're not the only flame
You're not the only flame
You're not the only flame in town

@SONG: Home Truth
 
I hung up the phone tonight
Just as you said I love you
Once this would have been co-incidence
Now these things start to bother me
You still close your eyes when I kiss you
And I close mine too
But we didn't open them again
Quite as wide as we should

This is where the home truth ends

Does your touch feel the same as it should do
Or is it someone quite similar
Who killed me with kindness last night
Now do I look at all familiar?
But none of these things seem to matter
Since we've grown apart
I'd put back the pieces of what's shattered
But I don't know where to start

This is where the home truth ends

This is where the home truth ends
And I feel like a clown
It's tearing me up
It's tearing me down

You say which are the lies that you tell me
Well where do I begin?
So I turn on the TV again
And the world comes crashing in
Is it my shirt or my toothpaste
That is whiter than white?
Is it the lies that I tell you
Or the lies that I might?

This is where the home truth ends

Chorus

@SONG: Room With No Number
 
Picture a hotel room
Clothes scattered across the floor
Covers pulled back from the pillow
A sign hung on the door
Two lovers locked up tight
Through the endless days and nights
Hiding something they can't show
Something no-one must know

Chorus
There's a room withut a number
While the sign outside says there's
   no vacancy as you take your key
They smile at you so understandingly

She cried out in the night
Woke the porter from his sleep
He grinned slyly to himself
As he went to fetch his keys
Look what llove has brought them to
This terrible nightmare
His or hers he could not tell

Chorus

And I wish he could be
The man he was before he was me

A girl arrived at first light
And enquired if they'd been seen
And why the numbers ran from twelve
Missing out thirteen
And they said oh my darling
Put it down to superstition
Try to avoid a scandal
And don't arouse suspicion
They re-arranged the furniture
They even papered over the door

There's a room without a number
While the sign outside says there's
   no vacancy as you take your key
They smile just so you know

Chorus

@SONG: Inch By Inch
 
You can take a powder
You can take a drink
You can keep the shrink
And the kitchen sink
Write my name in heaven
   in invisible ink
I just woke up
from dreaming I think

You can take me over
You can give me a lip
You can take me under
You can give me the slip
 Take off everything
   or tear me off a strip
Like a lady in the chamber
   and another in the clip

Chorus
Don't move a muscle baby
Don't even flinch
You can miss me by a mile
Or just inch by inch
Inch by inch
Inch by inch
Inch by Inch
You can pull me up again
Inch by Iinch
Inch by inch
As pulses race
I long to see that
   Look upon your face

You can take me outside
You can take me apart
You can take me upstairs
you can take me to heart
You made me love you when
   you thought you were so smart
Don't try to stop me when
   you told me to start
 Chorus

@SONG: Worthless Thing
 
HOw many times can you jump out of the cupboard
Before someone gets suspicious or someone gets discovered
You can live forever in a split second of fame
Comeon down the price is right what's your name
While a crocodile makes good shoes and a dog may change his coat
I can't change what's written on your face tonight and I quote

Chorus
Oh I wish you could see
Quite how much you could mean to me
You worthless thing
If you were ten feet taller and almost handsome
I might pay this king's ransom You worthless thing

They commit blue murder along Union Avenue
Then they sell you souvenir matches
Nightclubs full of grave robbers from Memphis, Tennessee
And Los Vegas body snatchers
And he's carrying a warning can't you see how his eyes glint
Keep your bloody hands off my life your affectionate fingerprint

Chorus

All the cars and pills and girls who tore his shirt to tatters
Do you know how tall he was 'cos that is all that really matters?
Do you know his mother's last name do you think that he's divine?
You've seen the film you've read the book you're drinking vintage Elvis Presley

Bored out of your tiny mind while life is twice as large
They'll cut her down to size on television
She's available and beautiful, but with more time to devote
They're going to take this cable now and stick it down your throat
So this is an obituary which should be right and fitting
For every clockwork cat and concievable kitten

Chorus

@SONG: Love Field
 
You lie so unfolded
In a love field
With your contempt for any modesty
In a love field

In a love field
In a love field
You yeild with your lips still sealed
In a love field
Lost in a sea of imaginary women
Everything you'd want
   from the dawn to the dimming
Breath comes sharp
   and heart beats faster
In a love field
Cold ground for a pillow
Under a blanket of stars
In a love field

In a love field
In a love field
Headlights that startled
This embrace of hours
In a love field

In a crooked house
Where things can be arranged
You think you're different from the rest
But you don't see how you've changed

Under an archway
On a road of white linen
In a love field
Feel the anxious rhythm
   of a functional stranger
In a love field

In a love field
In a love field
She's so tense
   but it's never mentioned
In a love field

@SONG: I Wanna Be Loved
 
Why must I be so lonely?
When so many people pass me by
I've been waiting for oh so long now
And yet I'm unable to answer why
I can't be made to give up now
Can you find room for me
   in your heart somehow?
I wanna be loved
I just wanna be loved

I guess I'm a victim of loneliness
But why should this be my destiny?
A foolish man for a lot of my life
Shouldn't there be someone
Someone for me?
I hope and I pray some happy day
That I'll be around to hear you say
I wanna be loved
I just wanna be loved

@SONG: The Comedians
 
I fell under such gentle persuasion
You can't refuse it's like a home from home
Meanwhile in the motor car kingdom
They're finding that all that glitters is not chrome
The social circle have these cardiac complaints
Their hearts are empty when their hands are full
All these new found fond acquaintances
Turn out to be the red rag to my bull

Chorus
And I'm up while the dawn is breaking
Even though my heart is aching
I should be drinking a toast to absent friends
Instead of these comedians

I've looked into these eyes upon reflection
They've seen the face of love, they've seen a few
What kind of love is this upon inspection
You'll be the last to know who's fooling who

Chorus

@SONG: Joe Porterhouse
 
The children sit upon the stairs
High above a valley of tears
Don't let them see you crying that way oh no

Oh no Joe Porterhouse
Is not gone forever
He'll be back another day
Don't let them see you crying that way

Chorus
Please don't wake him let him sleep
It's a moment she can keep
Like an old bus ticket or a photograph
Resting on the mantelpiece
While for the wicked there is no peace
She says it's not his time to go
Why we were nearly lovers years ago
Now what is left for me
Among the broken branches of the family tree

Heart like an anchor
Arms like cable
It's stood all alone on an iron turntable
Don't let them see you crying that way oh no

The sun beats down
It's cracking the flags
Boys who should know better
Are stamping out fags
Don't let them see you laughing that way

Chorus

Oh no Joe Porterhouse
Is not gone forever
He'll be back another day
Don't let them see you crying that way

@SONG: Sour Milk-Cow Blues
 
You like coffee and you like tea
Much more than you like me
And everybody says watch out yeah
For the sour milk-cow blues
You like your coffee just a little too sweet
Without your sugar life is incomplete
And everybody says watch out yeah
For the sour milk-cow blues
I think about you everyday
Something about you is not the same
Something about the things you say
Sounds like a different woman with a different name
Sour milk-cow blues

You wear a different size and style of shoe
I think that someone must be poisoning you
To replace you with a living double
Get out of my life right now and save them all of the trouble
They changed your complexion and your personality
Somebody's putting ideas in your head
They took the girl of my dreams and left you hear instead
Sour milk-cow blues

You take your place in this parade of pleas
You dial a number and they offer relief
All alone with just your own device
They give you something and it isn't advice
To break the hearts of a million listeners
Start out as lovers and you end up as prisoners
Somebody's suffering from the things that you do
Somebody's suffering but you're glad it isn't you
Put your fingertips up to the screen
Repeat after me, wake at the count of three
Now I don't know which is worse
What they're doing to you or what you're doing to me
Sour milk-cow blues

@SONG: The Great Unknown
 
They took old Danny Boy for a ride