Elvis Costello - National Ransom lyrics

Running pell-mell and harum-scarum Running as hot as they do or dare Stick out your tongue And drink down all the venom From Cut-Throat Cuthbert And Millicent St. Cyr From the real old Macau To the new False Americas In the liberated territories Unusual suspects shake down, shake down, shake down various dubious characters Mother's in the kitchen picking bones for breakfast Boiling them down by the bushel and the score Pull out your thumb and count what's left of your fist There's a wolf at the window with ravening maw Did you find how to lie? Did you find out just how to cheat? The elite bleat, their obsolete But are your prospects? Exact, perfect object Now, if you'd only genuflect They're running wild Just like some childish tantrum Meanwhile we're working every day Paying off the National Ransom Woe betide all this hocus-pocus They're running us ragged at their first attempt Around the time the k**ing stopped on Wall St. You couldn't hold me, baby with anything but contempt Letters peal slowly from our speech The claxton attempts to preach Stretching for stars still out of reach Drowning Flailing Outside someone's wailing They're running wild Just like some childish tantrum Meanwhile we're working every day Paying off the National Ransom