They say that the dead live forever And round here well they probably do If you stand by the gates outside graceland You can watch all the dead coming through It's necropolis and welcome to it It's an archaeological find They'll be digging up this town forever They'll be digging up this empty mine The indians stand on the scaffold They've taken the egyptians place The pharaohs and the politicians Are planning their perfect escape So they build a memorial tower Like the ancient texts said that they would But stories aren't told by the victims And that's why this story's so good Have you seen the skyscrapers in memphis Do you see how they rise like the sun And the statues they look just like spacemen Looking down on everyone And there's art by the yard in the hallways And our houses are made out of slime But the skyscrapers almost touch heaven Did we escape from the mud this time?
So look at the bar-chart skyline And look at the graph on the wall But don't you ignore the byline When the headline says "empire falls" The buildings get stranger and taller Til we see that sphinx up on mars So prepare your most pertinent questions But please don't expect any answers One last look round the museum The one where the bullets still fly But don't blink if you wish to see them Puncture the mummy's good eye As the lift hits the five figure numbers The relics of ages long gone The tomb of the unknown protest singer The computer of king tutankhamun Have you seen the skyscrapers in memphis Do you see how they rise like the sun And the statues they look just like spacemen Looking down on everyone And there's art by the yard in the hallways And our houses are made out of slime But the skyscrapers they almost touch heaven Did we escape from the mud this time?