Álbum Spike de Elvis Costello - Canciones

Spike

1989 |

Sello | Warner Bros. Records

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Listado de canciones del álbum Spike

...This Town... 4:31
Let Him DangleVer letra 4:45

[X]
letra de Let Him Dangle
Bentley said to Craig "Let him have it Chris"
They still don't know today just what he meant by this
Craig fired the pistol, but was too young to swing
So the police took Bentley and the very next thing
Let him dangle
Let him dangle

Bentley had surrendered, he was under arrest,
when he gave Chris Craig that fatal request
Craig shot Sidney Miles, he took Bentley's word
The prosecution claimed as they charged them with murder
Let him dangle
Let him dangle

They say Derek Bentley was easily led
Well what's that to the woman that Sidney Miles wed
Though guilty was the verdict, and Craig had shot him dead
The gallows were for Bentley and still she never said
Let him dangle
Let him dangle

Well it's hard to imagine it's the times that have changed
When there's a murder in the kitchen that is brutal and strange
If killing anybody is a terrible crime
Why does this bloodthirsty Chorus come round from time to time
Let him dangle

Not many people thought that Bentley would hang
But the word never came, the phone never rang
Outside Wandsworth Prison there was horror and hate
As the hangman shook Bentley's hand to calculate his weight
Let him dangle

From a welfare state to society murder
Bring "back the noose" is always heard
Whenever those swine are under attack
But it won't make you even
It won't bring him back

Let him dangle
Let him dangle (String him up)
Deep Dark Truthful MirrorVer letra 4:06

[X]
letra de Deep Dark Truthful Mirror
One day you're going to have to face
A deep dark truthful mirror
And it's going to tell you things that I still love you too much to say
The sky was just a purple bruise, the ground was iron
And you fell all around the town until you looked the same

Refrão:

The same eyes, the same lips, the same lie from
your tongue trips
Deep dark, deep dark truthful mirror
Deep dark, deep dark truthful mirror

Now the flagstone streets where the newspaper shouts ring to the boots of roustabouts
But you're never in any doubt, there's something happening somewhere

You chase down the road 'til your fingers bleed
On a fiberglass tumbleweed

You can blow around the town, but it all shuts down the same

Refrão

So you bay for the boy in the tiger-skin trunks
They set him up, set him up on the stool
He falls down, falls down like a drunk
And you drink 'til you drool
And it's his story you'll flatter
You'll stretch him out like a saint
But the canvas that he splattered will be the
picture that you never paint

Refrão

A stripping puppet on a liquid stick gets into it pretty thick
A butterfly drinks a turtle's tears, but how do you know he really needs it?

'Cos a butterfly feeds on a dead monkey's hand,
Jesus wept he felt abandoned
You're spellbound baby there's no doubting that
Did you ever see a stare like a Persian cat?

Refrão
VeronicaVer letra 3:09

[X]
letra de Veronica
Is it all in that pretty little head of yours?
What goes on in that place in the dark?
Well I used to know a girl
And I could have sworn that
Her name was Veronica
Well she used to have
A carefree mind of her own and
A delicate look in her eye
These days I'm afraid
She's not even sure
If her name is Veronica

Do you suppose
That waiting hands on eyes
Veronica has gone to hide?
And all the time she laughs
At those who shout
Her name and steal her clothes
Veronica
Veronica

Did the days drag by?
Did the favours wane?
Did he roam down the town
All the time?
Will you wake from your dream
With a wolf at the door
Reaching out for Veronica
Well it was all of sixty-five years ago
When the world was the street
Where she lived
And a young man sailed on
A ship in the sea
With a picture of Veronica

On the "Empress of India"
And as she closed her eyes
Upon the world and
Picked upon the bones
Of last week's news
She spoke his name out loud again

Do you suppose
That waiting hands on eyes
Veronica has gone to hide?
And all the time she laughs
At those who shout
Her name and steal her clothes
Veronica
Veronica

Veronica sits in her favourite chair and
She sits very quiet and still
And they call her a name
That they never get right and
If they don't then nobody else will
But she used to have
A carefree mind of her own
With devilish look in her eye
Saying: You can call me
Anything you like
But my name is Veronica

Do you suppose
That waiting hands on eyes
Veronica has gone to hide?
And all the time she laughs
At those who shout
Her name and steal her clothes
Veronica
Veronica
God's Comic 5:31
Chewing GumVer letra 3:46

[X]
letra de Chewing Gum
With their cardboard hands by their sides,
Here's a naked man and lady
And they're yours to cut out and keep
So you can dress them up maybe
They don't know just who they are, or who they're supposed to be
You can make them happy or sad
Or assume their identity

So here they are in the departure lounge
It's the "gateway to the east"
She is just another mail-order bride
She doesn't know he's a kinky beast
So he gives her a picture of maradona and child
She wants to "roll and rock"
As he spills his beer over her, bumps and he
Grinds, as he repeats "bang-cock"

Chorus:
There must be something that is better than this
It starts with a slap and ends up with a kiss
Begins with you bawling and it ends up in tears
Oh my little one, take that chewing gum out of your ears

She might as well be in the jungle
She might as well be on the moon
He's away on a business trip, in dusseldorf, but she's becoming immune
To the lack of glamour and danger in a west-german city today
The nearest she comes to the "dynasty" he promised her
Is a chinese takeaway

Chorus

Though he only taught her three little words, it
Doesn't matter if they're dirty or clean
He can only control what they look like
He can never possess what they mean
Now he wants to whisper in her ear
All the shrinking nothingness
But something always comes between them,
I wonder if you can guess

Chorus
Tramp The Dirt DownVer letra 5:41

[X]
letra de Tramp The Dirt Down
I saw a newspaper picture from the political campaign
A woman was kissing a child, who was obviously in pain
She spills with compassion, as that young child's
face in her hands she grips
Can you imagine all that greed and avarice
coming down on that child's lips

Well I hope I don't die too soon
I pray the Lord my soul to save
Oh I'll be a good boy, I'm trying so hard to behave
Because there's one thing I know, I'd like to live
long enough to savour
That's when they finally put you in the ground
I'll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down

When England was the whore of the world
Margeret was her madam
And the future looked as bright and as clear as
the black tarmacadam
Well I hope that she sleeps well at night, isn't
haunted by every tiny detail
'Cos when she held that lovely face in her hands
all she thought of was betrayal

And now the cynical ones say that it all ends the same in the long run
Try telling that to the desperate father who just squeezed the life from his only son
And how it's only voices in your head and dreams you never dreamt
Try telling him the subtle difference between justice and contempt
Try telling me she isn't angry with this pitiful discontent
When they flaunt it in your face as you line up for punishment
And then expect you to say "Thank you" straighten up, look proud and pleased
Because you've only got the symptoms, you haven't got the whole disease
Just like a schoolboy, whose head's like a tin-can
filled up with dreams then poured down the drain
Try telling that to the boys on both sides, being blown to bits or beaten and maimed
Who takes all the glory and none of the shame

Well I hope you live long now, I pray the Lord your soul to keep
I think I'll be going before we fold our arms and start to weep
I never thought for a moment that human life could be so cheap
'Cos when they finally put you in the ground
They'll stand there laughing and tramp the dirt down
Stalin Malone 4:08
SatelliteVer letra 5:44

[X]
letra de Satellite
She looked like she learned to dance from a series of still pictures
She's madly excited now, she throws her hands up like a tulip

She looks like an illustration of a cocktail party
Where cartoon bubbles burst in the air,
champagne rolls off her tongue Like a second language
And it should have been her biggest night
The satellite looks down on her as she begins to cry

All over the world at the very same time people sharing the same sorrow
As the satellite looks down her darkest hour is somebody's bright tomorrow

He pulled on a cigarette, in the crook of his first finger
Felt the static electric charge of her perfect hour-glass figure
As he undressed her with his eyes her weakness was his talent
How could she know as she stepped through the lights, that her dress would become transparent
And with his face pressed to the screen,
he muttered words he'd never dare to say if she could see him

All over the world at the very same time
People sharing the same cheap sensation the
thrill of watching somebody watching those
forbidden things we never mention

Chorus:
The satellite looks down right now and forever
What it has pulled apart let no man tether his own body to his dream,
His dream to someone else
Oh no, oh no.

She went back to a pitiful compromise, He'd go back to his family
But for the matter of a thousand miles that separated them entirely
In the hot unloving spotlight, with secrets it arouses
Now they both know what it's like inside a pornographer's trousers
And in a funny way it's anonymous, the satellite
it blesses us and makes these dreams come
true... All over the world

Chorus
Pads, Paws And Claws 2:56
Baby Plays AroundVer letra 2:46

[X]
letra de Baby Plays Around
It's not open to discussion anymore
She's out again tonight and I'm alone once more
She's all I have worth waiting for
But baby plays around

And so it seems I've always been the last to know
To hold on to that girl, I had to let her go
I wish to God I didn't love her so
'Cos baby plays around

I try to be strong hold on to my pride
She doesn't even know it's wrong, how much I hurt Inside
And heaven knows I've tried
But baby plays around. just a plaything
It's hard to reconcile the facts I'm facing

It's not open to discussion anymore
She walks those shiny streets
I walk the worn out floor
She's all I have worth living for
Baby plays, baby plays around
Miss MacbethVer letra 4:23

[X]
letra de Miss Macbeth
All the children testified that Miss Macbeth
Wore a fishbone slide in her cobweb tresses
Her eyes were black like first foot coal, clutched as white as chalk-dust
Her fingers sweated india-ink and poison-pen letters
There is a hungry hanging tree, just below your bedroom window
You can hear her take a broom to beat out a tattoo on the ceiling
Her bloodless face ran red inside but was she
really evil, was she only pantomime

Now the chalk on the wall says that somebody
saves, that somebody's face has just been washed off the pavement
Into a puzzle where petrol will be poisoned by rain
Miss Macbeth saw her reflection
As confetti bled it's colours down the drain

Chorus:
And everyday she lives out another love song
It's a tearful lament of somebody done wrong
Well how can you miss what you've never possessed?
Miss Macbeth

Well we all should have known when the children paraded
They portrayed her in their fairytales, sprinkling Deadly Nightshade
And as they tormented her she rose to the bait
Even a scapegoat must have someone to hate

And everyday she lives out another love song
"You're up there enjoying yourself, and I know it's wrong"

Well how can you miss what you've never possessed
Miss Macbeth

Sometimes people are just what they appear to be
With no redemption at all
We try to walk upright when we can't even crawl

Miss Macbeth has a gollywog she chucks under
the chin and she whispers to it tenderly Then sticks it on a pin
And It might be coincidence, but a boy down
the lane, that she said "went white as he could do," then doubled over in pain

Chorus
Any King's Shilling 6:06
Coal-Train Robberies 3:17
Last Boat LeavingVer letra 3:31

[X]
letra de Last Boat Leaving
Hush my little one don't cry so
You know your Daddy's bound to go
They took his pride
They took his voice
Don't upset him now, don't make a noise
They said "You're lucky son you've still got a choice"
Last boat leaving

Don't waste your tears
It's not as if I'm in chains
I don't want to go now, it would be better for
you, too, if I don't look back when we sail

Hush my dear, while I whisper it in your ear
We're not going to sail tonight
We're going to disappear
And it feels like a punishment, but I don't know what for
Take care of your mother, son, it's you that she adores
'Cos no matter how long we sail we'll never reach the shore
Last boat leaving

So dry your tears
It's not as if I'm in chains
When you go to school, son, you'll read my story in history books
Only they won't mention my name

So hush now, my darling, my sweet little one
I hope that you never have to do what I've done
Do you know what I've done?
Why I'm going away? On the last boat leaving this stinking town
It's the last boat leaving, it's the last boat leaving

You've had my innocence, you've had my heartbreak
You've taken the place where I once belonged
Now what more can you take?