@ALBUM: Trust By Elvis Costello and the Attractions Lyrics transcribed from "Everyday I Write the Song" 1983 Plangent Visions Music Ltd. 27 Noel Street, London W1V 3rd. @SONG: Big Sister's Clothes Sheep to the slaughter oh I thought this must be love All your sons and daughters in a strangle hold with a kid glove She's got eyes like saucers oh you think she's a dish She is the blue chip that belongs to the big fish Chorus: But it's easier to say "I love you," than "Yours sincerly" I suppose All little sisters like to try on big sister's clothes Big sister's clothes The sport of kings, the old queen's heart The prince in darkness stole some tart And it's in the papers, it's in the charts It's in the stop press before it all starts. With a hammer on the slap and tickle under grisly garments With all the style and finesse of the purchase of armaments Compassion went out of fashion That's all your concern meant Sweat it out for thirty seconds on home improvements Chorus @SONG: Fish 'n' Chip Paper When Sunday morning dandruff turns out to be confetti And the cost of living in sin would make a poor man out of Paul Getty The girl in your dreams would have you up on an underage charge And the man of the moment is the lifer at large Chorus: If you've got something to hide, if you've got something to sell If you've got somebody's pride she might kiss and tell Or wind up with a fight fan in the Hammersmith Hotel You better speak up now if you wnat your piece You better speak up now It won't mean a thing later Yesterday's news is tommorow's fish and chip paper Your girl says she's leaving and this time she really means it You can just look at the pictures, you don't actually have to read it Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh There's a man in the launderette and he's looking through your underwear for clues And the milkman is working through the News of the Screws He says... Chorus @SONG: Shot With His Own Gun How does it feel now you've been undressed by a man with a mind like the gutter press So disappointed to find it's no big sin Lying skin to skin Chorus: Shot with his own gun Now dad is keeping mum Shot with his own gun Now somebody has to pay for the one who got away What's on his mind now is anyone's guess Losing his touch with each caress Spending ev'ry evening looking so appealing He comes without warning Leaves without feeling Chorus On your marks, man, ready, set Let's get loaded and forget The little corporal got in the way And he got hit by an emotional ricochet It's a bit more now than dressing up dolly Playing house seems so melancholy Chorus Oh it's too sad to be true Your blue murder's killing you @SONG: Watch Your Step Don't say a word Don't say anything Don't say a word I'm not even listening I read in the paper about their escape They're just two bit of kids from a bunch of sour grapes You better watch your step Watch who's knocking on your front door Now you know that they're watching What are you waiting for? Think you're young and original Get out before... They get to watch your step Ev'ry day is full of fun And family spies They're making heros out of fall guys They say it's good for business From Singapore to Widnes You better watch your step Broken noses hung up on the wall Back slapping drinkers cheer the heavy weight brawl So punch drunk they don't understand at all You better watch your step Ev'ry night Go out full of carnal(carnival) desires End up in the closing time choirs When you're kicking in the car chrome And you're drinking down the Eau de Cologne And you're spitting out the Kodachrome You better watch your step Bye I send you all my regards You're so tough You're so hard Listen to the hammers falling in the breaker's yard You better watch your step You better watch your step Ooh, watch your step @SONG: Luxembourg Dressed up like a dog's dinner Butter wouldn't melt in your mouth If this is a dog's life Then you're the cat's clothes They hire out your sons And hire out your daughters The man from abroad says he's already bought her And now you look like a lover but you're only a tourist Chorus: You're either talking or yawning You didn't listen to a thing you heard Don't start your morning moaning or you might wake up in Luxembourg You get over You're worried by her body She's worryin' about her bodily odour You pull off The pull over You say that you love her when you really loathe her Serves you right now she wants you to feed her and clothe her Chorus They're smiling sweetly while they're looking daggers Kick you where it really matters Send all your friends to Coventry And look for your name in last night's obituaries If you've got the Deutschmarks If you've got the Yen, then You get the shirt off her back and the clock off Big Ben Somebody's soft touch Struck all these bargains In the drinking clubs with the council men making plans to put lead back in their pencils again Chorus @SONG: Strict Time There's a hand on a wire that leads to my mouth I can hear you knocking but I'm not coming out Don't want to be a puppet or a ventriloquist 'Cause there's no ventilation on a critical list Fingers creeping up my spine are not mine to resist Strict time Chorus: Toughen up, toughen up Keep your lip buttoned up Strict time Oh the muscles flex and the fingers curl And a cold sweat breaks out on the sweater girl Strict time Oh he's all hands, don't touch that dial The courting cold wars weekend witch trial Strict time All the boys are straight laced and the girls are frigid The talk is two-faced and the rules are rigid 'cause it's strict time Strict time Chorus You talk in hushed tones, I talk in lush tones Try to look Italian through the musical Valium Strict time Thinking of grand larceny Smoking the everlasting cigarette of chastity Cute assistants staying alive More like a hand job than the hand jive Strict time Chorus @SONG: New Lace Sleeves Bad lovers face to face in the morning Shy apologies and polite regrets Slow dances that left no warning of Outraged glances and indiscreet yawning Good manners and bad breath get you nowhere Even presidents have newspaper lovers Ministers go crawling under covers She's no angel He's no saint They're all coverd up with white washed news print And you say... Chorus: The teacher never told you anything but white lies But you never see the lies And you believe Oh you know you have been captured You feel so civilized And you look so pretty in your new lace sleeves The salty lips of the socialite sisters With their continental fingers that have never seen working blisters Oh I know they've got their problems I wish I was one of them They say daddy's coming home soon With his sergeant stripes and his Empire mug and spoon No more fast buck And when are they gonna learn their lesson When are they gonna stop all of these victory processions And you say... Chorus @SONG: Different Finger Please put your rings on a diff'rent finger if you meet me tonight 'Cause I can't stand those suspicious glances 'Cause I know the things they're saying are right They're saying why don't you straighten up And see what you've got to lose Put it all down to fate but you still got the chance to choose I don't want to hear your whole life story Or about my strange resemblance to some old flame All I want is one night of glory I don't even know your second name Please put your rings on a diff'rent finger 'cause we've got so much at stake I can't stand those suspicious glances 'Cause they seem to cover ev'ry move I make But if I can be alone with you completely tonight Put your rings on a diff'rent finger Before I turn out the light @SONG: From A Whisper to A Scream Oh it's not easy to resist temptation Walking around looking like a figment of somebody else's imagination Taking ev'ry word she says just like an open invitation But the power of persuasion is no match for anticipation Chorus: Like a finger running down a seam From a whisper to a scream So I whisper and I scream But don't get me wrong Please don't leave me waitin' too long Waitin' too long Waitin' too long Waitin' too long Hey Oh oh oh oh oh Oh if the customers like it then they'll keep on paying If they keep on drinking then they'll end up staying I heard someone say where have we met before But the one over the eight seem less like one or more like four Chorus @SONG: White Knuckles White knuckles came down to put the frighteners on I believe she's the one that he's got his heart set on It doesn't matter if your face doesn't fit There's no charge for changing it Oooh ooh What are you doing You see right through him You don't have to take it when he gets cruel Chorus: White knuckles on black and blue skin (1,4) You don't have to take it so you just give in (2,3) He didn't mean to hit her but she kept laughing White knuckles sweatin' on the headboard He never found out what the kisser was for Losing face with the boys while she's whispering in his ear They never found out why they called it laughing gear Maybe they weren't loved when they were young Maybe they should be hung by their tounges Oooh ooh Under the blankets with the body jerk He needs her like the axe needs the turkey Making a mockery of his fancy footwork Chorus There's always someone new to toy with when the penny drops in the slot Now it's all petty crime on the news at nine But it's all she's got Love on the never never dreams don't come cheap I don't close my eyes when I go to sleep Oooh ooh It gets right under your skin It makes you as miserable as sin but you don't have to take it so you just give in Chorus Why don't you come round anymore Mama said He's using you Sister said I told you so too When he goes through your head You took him to be true @SONG: Lover's Walk I won't walk with my head bowed (Be on) Beyond caution where lovers walk My love walks where three's a crowd Beyond caution where lovers walk Lovers walk, lovers scramble Beyond caution where the lovers walk Lovers step, shuffle and gamble Beyond caution wher lovers walk Lovers trip, lovers stumble Lovers dip, lovers fumble Lovers lip where love has crumbled Beyond caution where lovers walk Lovers strut, lovers stroll, lovers leap Lovers late, lovers wait Making promises that they can't keep Lovers link up arm and arm Lovers slink up, lovers charm Lovers drink up and come to harm Beyond caution where lovers walk Love is gone and it's no one's fault Love has stopped here, lovers halt Lovers don't walk, lovers run Will you look what love has done Will you look what love has done Will you look what love has done Beyond caution where lovers walk Now love's limping on a lover's crutch Looking for a hand with a personal touch Beyond caution where lovers walk @SONG: You'll Never Be A Man You need protection from the physical art of conversation Though the fist is mightier than the lip, it adds the aggravation Bridge and Chorus: I got the password I got persuasion A proposition for invasion of your privacy Give yourself away and find the fake in me You'll never be a man No matter how many foreign bodies you can take You'll never be a man When you're half a woman and you're half awake (1) With a face full of tears and a chemical shake (2) Under the table with a chemical shake Given half a chance, that I can take Are you so superior, are you in such pain Are you made out of porcelain? When they made you they broke the cast Don't wanna be first, I just want to last You strike a profile on the low side of my imagination My eyes climbed down to find the point of possible saturation Bridge and Chorus @SONG: 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 Chorus: The boys next door The mums and dads New weds and nearly-deads Have you ever been had 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 Chorus 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 (when) 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 Chorus @SONG: Pretty Words I ask you nicely Get my face slapped under wraps What's going on precisely Is there something wrong perhaps? Surprise, surprise (surprise, surprise) It's more like a booby trap than a booby prize Civil disobedience from a soldier with a dirty rifle You're loosining all the screws that hold the hinges of my life Fat cats and army brats Hep cats and dog tag pawing over girly mags Chorus: Pretty words don't mean much anymore I don't mean to be mean much anymore All I see are snapshots, bigshots, tender spots (1) mug shots, machine slots (2) machine slots, mug shots 'Till you don't know what's what You don't know what you got Curious women running after curious men Curiosity didn't kill the cat It was a poisioned pen But there's not much choice (it's Hobson's choice) Between a cruel mouth and a jealous voice Got back to London Picked a paper from the man No words of consolation Just cartoons and titter tatter Well well, fancy that Millions murdered for a kiss me quick hat No backbone, blood and guts Better keep your big mouth shut Chorus