Elvis Costello - The Very Best Of

ELVIS COSTELLO

THE VERY BEST OF (1999)

  1. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding
  2. Oliver's Army
  3. Watching The Detectives
  4. Alison
  5. (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea
  6. Accidents Will Happen
  7. Pump It Up
  8. I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down
  9. Radio Radio
10. Clubland
11. Good Year For The Roses
12. Man Out Of Time
13. I Wanna Be Loved
14. Everyday I Write The Book
15. Indoor Fireworks
16. Shipbuilding
17. This House Is Empty Now
18. I Want You
19. God Give Me Strength
20. She

ELVIS COSTELLO

THE VERY BEST OF

1. (WHAT'S SO FUNNY 'BOUT) PEACE, LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING

As I walk through
This wicked world
Searchin' for light in the darkness of insanity

I ask myself
Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?
And each time I feel like this inside,
There's one thing I wanna know
What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding? Ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?

And as I walked on
Through troubled times
My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes
So where are the strong
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony
'Cause each time I feel it slippin' away, just makes me wanna cry
What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding? Ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?

So where, where are the strong?
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony
'Cause each time I feel it slippin' away, just makes me wanna cry
What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding? Ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding? Ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?

2. OLIVER'S ARMY

Don't start me talking
I could talk all night
My mind goes sleepwalking
While I'm putting the world to right
Called careers information
Have you got yourself an occupation?
Oliver's army is here to stay
Oliver's army are on their way
And I would rather be anywhere else
But here today

There was a checkpoint Charlie
He didn't crack a smile
But it's no laughing party
When you've been on the murder mile
Only takes one itchy trigger
One more widow, one less white nigger
Oliver's army is here to stay
Oliver's army are on their way
And I would rather be anywhere else
But here today

Hong Kong is up for grabs
London is full of Arabs
We could be in Palestine
Overrun by a Chinese line
With the boys from the Mersey and the Thames and the Tyne

But there's no danger
It's a professional career
Though it could be arranged
With just a word in Mr. Churchill's ear
If you're out of luck or out of work
We could send you to Johannesburg

Oliver's army is here to stay
Oliver's army are on their way
And I would rather be anywhere else
But here today
And I would rather be anywhere else
But here today
And I would rather be anywhere else
But here today.

3. WATCHING THE DETECTIVES

Nice girls not one with a defect
Cellophane shrink-wrapped, so correct
Red dogs under illegal legs

She looks so good that he gets down and begs
She is watching the detectives
"Ooh, he's so cute!"
She is watching the detectives
When they shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot
They beat him up until the teardrops start
But he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart

Long shot of that jumping sign
Visible shivers running down my spine
Cut the baby taking off her clothes
Close-up of the sign that says, "We never close"
You snatch a tune, you a match a cigarette
She pulls the eyes out with a face like a magnet
I don't know how much more of this I can take
She's filing her nails while they're dragging the lake

She is watching the detectives
"Ooh, he's so cute!"
She is watching the detectives
when they shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot
They beat him up until the teardrops start
But he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart

You think you're alone until you realize you're in it
Now fear is here to stay
Love is here for a visit
They call it instant justice when it's past the legal limit
Someone's scratching at the window
I wonder who is it?
The detectives come to check if you belong to the parents
Who are ready to hear the worst about their daughter's
Disappearance
Though it nearly took a miracle to get you to stay
It only took my little fingers to blow you away

Just like watching the detectives
"Don't get cute!"
It's just like watching the detectives
I get so angry when the teardrops start
But he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart
Watching the detectives
It's just like watching the detectives
Watching the detectives (7 x).

4. ALISON

Oh it's so funny to be seeing you after so long, girl
And with the way you look I understand
That you are not impressed
But I heard you let that little friend of mine
Take off your party dress
I'm not going to get too sentimental,
Like those other sticky valentines
'Cause I don't know if you've been loving somebody
I only know it isn't mine

Alison, I know this world is killing you
Oh, Alison, my aim is true

Well I see you've got a husband now
Did he leave your pretty fingers lying in the wedding cake?
You used to hold him right in your hand
I'll bet he took all he could take
Sometimes I wish that I could stop you from talking
When I hear the silly things that you say
I think somebody better put out the big light,
'Cause I can't stand to see you this way

Alison, I know this world is killing you
Oh, Alison, my aim is true
My aim is true (10 x).

5. (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

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.

6. ACCIDENTS WILL HAPPEN

Oh I just don't know where to begin
Though he says he'll wait forever
It's now or never
But she keeps him hanging on
The silly champion
She says she can't go home
Without a chaperone

Accidents will happen
We only hit and run
He used to be your victim
Now you're not the only one

Accidents will happen
We only hit and run
I don't want to hear it
'Cause I know what I've done

There's so many fish in the sea
That only rise up in the sweat and smoke like mercury
But they keep you hanging on
They say you're so young
Your mind is made up but your mouth is undone

Accidents will happen
We only hit and run
He used to be your victim
Now you're not the only one

Accidents will happen
We only hit and run
I don't want to hear it
'Cause I know what I've done

And it's the damage that we do
And never know
It's the words that we don't say
That scare me so
There's so many people to see
So many people you can check up on
And add to your collection
But they keep you hanging on
Until you're well hung
Your mouth is made up but your mind is undone

Accidents will happen
We only hit and run
He used to be your victim
Now you're not the only one

Accidents will happen
We only hit and run
I don't want to hear it
'Cause I know what
I know what
I know what I've done

I know (22 x).

7. PUMP IT UP

I've been on tenterhooks
Ending in dirty looks
List'ning to the Muzak
Thinking 'bout this 'n' that
She said that's that
I don't wanna chitter-chat
Turn it down a little bit
Or turn it down flat
Pump it up when you don't really need it
Pump it up until you can feel it

Down in the pleasure centre
Hell bent or heaven sent
Listen to the propaganda
Listen to the latest slander
There's nothing underhand
That she wouldn't understand
Pump it up until you can feel it
Pump it up when you don't really need it

He

She's been a bad girl
She's like a chemical
Though you try to stop it
She's like a narcotic
You wanna torture her
You wanna talk to her
All the things you bought for her
Putting up your temp'rature
Pump it up until you can feel it
Pump it up when you don't really need it

Out in the fashion show
Down in the bargain bin
You put your passion out
Under the pressure pin
Fall into submission
Hit-and-run transmission
No use wishing now for any other sin
Pump it up until you can feel it
Pump it up when you don't really need it

Pump it up until you can feel it
Pump it up when you don't really need it

Pump it up until you can feel it
Pump it up when you don't really need it

Don't really need it
Don't really need it
Don't really need it.

8. I CAN'T STAND UP FOR FALLING DOWN

I'm the living result
I'm a man who's been hurt a little too much
And I've tasted the bitterness of my own tears
Sadness is all my lonely heart can feel
I can't stand up for falling down
I can't stand up for falling down

Simple though love is
Still it confused me
Why I'm not loved the way I should be
Now I've lived with heartaches
And I've roomed with fear
I've dealt with despair
And I've wrestled with tears
I can't stand up for falling down
I can't stand up for falling down

The vow that we made
You broke it in two
But that don't stop me from loving you
I can't stand up for falling down
I can't stand up for falling down.

9. RADIO RADIO

I was tuning in the shine on the light night dial doing anything my radio advised
With every one of those late night stations playing songs bringing tears to me eyes
I was seriously thinking about hiding the receiver when the switch broke 'cause it's old
They're saying things that I can hardly believe they really think we're getting out of control
Radio is a sound salvation
Radio is cleaning up the nation
They say you better listen to the voice of reason
But they don't give you any choice
'Cause they think that it's treason
So you had better do as you are told
You better listen to the radio

I wanna bite the hand that feeds me
I wanna bite that hand so badly
I want to make them wish they'd never seen me

Some of my friends sit around every evening and they worry about the times ahead
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference and the promise of an early bed
You either shut up or get cut up; they don't wanna hear about it
It's only inches on the reel-to-reel
And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools tryin' to anaesthetise the way that you feel
Radio is a sound salvation
Radio is cleaning up the nation
They say you better listen to the voice of reason
But they don't give you any choice
'Cause they think that it's treason
So you had better do as you are told
You better listen to the radio

Wonderful radio
Marvelous radio
Wonderful radio
Radio, radio... (8 x).

10. CLUBLAND

With a handful of backhanders and a bevy of beauty
You're going off limits
Going off duty
Going off the rails
Going off with booty
They tell tales of fiction found on all the criminal types
Lead to a higher ranking man or a face with thin red stripes

The boys next door
The mums and dads
New weds and nearly-deads
Have you ever been had in Clubland?
In Clubland?

There's a piece in someone's pocket to do the dirty work
You've come to shoot the pony
They've come to do the jerk
They leave him half way to paradise
They leave you half way to bliss
The ladies' invitation never seemed like this

The boys next door
The mums and dads
New weds and nearly-deads
Have you ever been had in Clubland?
In Clubland?

The long arm of the law slides up the outskirts of town
Meanwhile in Clubland they are ready to pull them down
Hey

The right to work is traded in for the right to refuse admission
Don't pass out now, there's no refund
Did you find out what you were missing
The crowd is taking forty winks minus ten percent
You barely get required sleep to go lingering with contemptment
Thursday to Saturday
Money's gone already
Some things come in common these days
Your hands and work aren't steady

The boys next door
The mums and dads
New weds and nearly-deads
Have you ever been had in Clubland?
In Clubland?
In Clubland?
In Clubland?

11. GOOD YEAR FOR THE ROSES

I can hardly bear the sight of lipstick
On the cigarettes there in the ashtray
Lyin' cold the way you left 'em,
But at least your lips caressed them
While you packed
Or the lip-print on a half-filled cup of coffee
That you poured and didn't drink
But at least you thought you wanted it
That's so much more than I can say for me

What a good year for the roses
Many blooms still linger there
The lawn could stand another mowin'
Funny I don't even care
As you turn to walk away
As the door behind you closes
The only thing I have to say
It's been a good year for the roses

After three full years of marriage
It's the first time that you haven't made the bed
I guess the reason we're not talkin'
There's so little left to say we haven't said
While a million thoughts go racin' through my mind
I find I haven't said a word
From the bedroom the familiar sound
Of a baby's cryin' goes unheard

What a good year for the roses
Many blooms still linger there
The lawn could stand another mowin'
Funny I don't even care
As you turn to walk away
As the door behind you closes
The only thing I have to say
It's been a good year for the roses.

12. MAN OUT OF TIME

So this is where he came to hide
When he ran from you
In a private detective's overcoat
And dirty dead man's shoes

The pretty things of Knightsbridge
Lying for a minister of state
Are a far cry from the nod and wink
Here at Traitor's Gate

'Cause the high heel he used to be has been ground down
And he listens for the footsteps that would follow him around

To murder my love is crime
But will you still love
A man out of time

There's a tuppeny hapenny millionaire
Looking for a fourpenny one
With a tight grip on the short hairs
Of the public imagination

But for his private wife and kids somehow
Real life becomes a rumour
Days of dutch courage
Just three French letters and a German sense of humour

He's got a mind like a sewer and a heart like a fridge
He stands to be insulted and he pays for the privilege

To murder my love is crime
But will you still love
A man out of time

The biggest wheels of industry
Retire sharp and short
And the after dinner overtures
Are nothing but an after thought
Somebody's creeping in the kitchen
There's a reputation to be made
Whose nerves are always on a knife's edge
Who's up late polishing the blade

Love is always scarpering or cowering or fawning
You drink yourself insensitive and hate yourself in the morning

To murder my love is crime
But will you still love
A man out of time
Will you still love
A man out of time
Will you still love
A man out of time.

13. 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

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 wanna be loved
I wanna be loved
I just wanna be loved

I wanna be loved
I just wanna be loved

I wanna be loved
I just wanna be loved.

14. EVERYDAY I WRITE THE BOOK

Don't tell me you don't know what love is
When you're old enough to know better
When you find strange hands in your sweater
When your dreamboat turns out to be a footnote
I'm a man with a mission in two or three editions
And I'm giving you a longing look
Everyday, everyday, everyday, everyday I write the book

Chapter one we didn't really get along
Chapter two I think I fell in love with you
You said you'd stand by me in the middle of chapter three
But you were up to your old tricks in chapters four, five and six
And I'm giving you a longing look
Everyday, everyday, everyday, everyday I write the book

The way you walk
The way you talk and try to kiss me and laugh
In four or five paragraphs
All your compliments and your cutting remarks
Are captured here in my quotation marks
And I'm giving you a longing look
Everyday, everyday, everyday, everyday I write the book
Everyday I write the book

Don't tell me you don't know the difference
Between a lover and a fighter
With my pen and my electric typewriter
Even in a perfect world where everyone was equal
I'd still own the film rights and be working on the sequel
And I'm giving you a longing look
Everyday, everyday, everyday, everyday I write the book
Everyday, everyday, everyday I write the book
Everyday, everyday, everyday I write the book

Yeah

And I'm giving you a longing look
Everyday I write the book

And I'm giving you a longing look
Everyday I write the book

And I'm giving you a longing look
Everyday I write the book.

15. INDOOR FIREWORKS

We play these parlour games
We play at make believe
When we get to the part where I say that I'm going to leave
Everybody loves a happy ending but we don't even try
We go straight past pretending
To the part where everybody loves to cry

Indoor fireworks
Can still burn your fingers
Indoor fireworks
We swore we were safe as houses
They're not so spectacular
They don't burn up in the sky
But they can dazzle or delight
Or bring a tear
When the smoke gets in your eyes

You were the spice of life
The gin in my vermouth
And though the sparks would fly
I thought our love was fireproof
Sometimes we'd fight in public darling
With very little cause
But different kinds of sparks would fly
When we got on our own behind closed doors

Indoor fireworks
Can still burn your fingers
Indoor fireworks
We swore we were safe as houses
They're not so spectacular
They don't burn up in the sky
But they can dazzle or delight
Or bring a tear
When the smoke gets in your eyes

It's time to tell the truth
These things have to be faced
My fuse is burning out
And all that powder's gone to waste
Don't think for a moment dear that we'll ever be through
I'll build a bonfire of my dreams
And burn a broken effigy of me and you

Indoor fireworks
Can still burn your fingers
Indoor fireworks
We swore we were safe as houses
They're not so spectacular
They don't burn up in the sky
But they can dazzle or delight
Or bring a tear
When the smoke gets in your eyes
When the smoke gets in your eyes

When the smoke gets in your eyes.

16. SHIPBUILDING

Is it worth it
A new winter coat and shoes for the wife
And a bicycle on the boy's birthday
It's just a rumour that was spread around town
By the women and children
Soon we'll be shipbuilding
Well I ask you
The boy said "dad they're going to take me to task
But I'll be back by Christmas"
It's just a rumour that was spread around town
Somebody said that someone got filled in
For saying that people get killed in
The result of this shipbuilding
With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls

It's just a rumour that was spread around town
A telegram or a picture postcard
Within weeks they'll be re-opening the shipyards
And notifying the next of kin
Once again
It's all we're skilled in
We will be shipbuilding
With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls

It's all we're skilled in
We will be shipbuilding
With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls

When we could be diving for pearls
When we could be diving for pearls.

17. THIS HOUSE IS EMPTY NOW

These rooms play tricks upon you
Remember when they were always filled with laughter
But now they're quite deserted
They seem to just echo voices raised in anger
Maybe you will see my face
Reflected there on the pane
In the window up above for long
In broken home

So this house is empty now
There's nothing I can do
To make you want to stay
So tell me how am I supposed to live without you

These walls were lined with pictures
Remember the glass we charged in celebration
But now I fill my life up
With all that I can to deaden this sensation
Do you recognize the face
Fixed in that fine silver frame
Were you really so unhappy there
You never said

So this house is empty now
There's nothing I can do
To make you want to stay
So tell me how am I supposed to live without you

Oh, if I could just become forgetful
When night seems endless
Does the extinguished candle care
About the darkness

It's funny how the memory
Will bring you so close then make you disappear
Meanwhile all our friends must choose
Who they will favour, who they will lose
Hang the garden or close the door
Or throw away the key

This house is empty now
There's no one living here
You have to care about

This house is empty now
There's nothing I can do
To make you want to stay
So tell me how am I supposed to live without you

This house is empty now
There's no one living here
You have to care about

This house is empty now
There's nothing I can do
To make you want to stay
So tell me how am I supposed to live without you.

18. 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
I want you
It's knowing that he knows you now after only guessing
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

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
I want you

I want you
Every night when I go off to bed and when I wake up
I want you

I'm going to say it once again 'til I instill it
I'm going, going to feel this way until you kill it
I want you

I want you

I want you.

19. GOD GIVE ME STRENGTH

Now I have nothing
So God give me strength
'Cos I'm weak in her wake
And if I'm strong I might still break
And I don't have anything to share
That I won't throw away into the air

That song is sung out
This bell is rung out
She was the light that I'd bless
She took my last chance of happiness
So God give me strength
God give me strength

I can't hold on to her
God give me strength
When the phone doesn't ring
And I'm lost in imagining
Everything that kind of love is worth
As I tumble back down to the earth

That song is sung out
This bell is rung out
She was the light that I'd bless
She took my last chance of happiness
So God give me strength

God if she'd grant me her indulgence and decline
I might as well
Wipe her from my memory
Fracture the spell
As she becomes my enemy

Maybe I was washed out
Like a lip-print on his shirt
See, I'm only human
I want him to hurt
I want him
I want him to hurt

Since I lost the power to pretend
That there could ever be a happy ending
That song is sung out
This bell is rung out
She was the light that I'd bless
She took my last chance of happiness
So God give me strength
God give me strength

Wipe her from my memory

So God give me strength
God give me strength.

20. SHE

She
May be the face I can't forget
A trace of pleasure or regret
May be my treasure or the price I have to pay
She may be the song that summer sings
May be the chill that autumn brings
May be a hundred different things
Within the measure of a day

She
May be the beauty or the beast
May be the famine or the feast
May turn each day into a heaven or a hell
She may be the mirror of my dreams
A smile reflected in a stream
She may not be what she may seem
Inside her shell

She
Who always seems so happy in a crowd
Whose eyes can be so private and so proud
No one's allowed to see them when they cry
She may be the love that cannot hope to last
May come to me from shadows of the past
That I'll remember till the day I die

She
May be the reason I survive
The why and wherefore I'm alive
The one I'll care for through the rough and ready years
Me I'll take her laughter and her tears
And make them all my souvenirs
For where she goes I've got to be
The meaning of my life is

She, she

She.

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