Elvis Costello - Viceroy's Row lyrics

(with The Roots) Now there's a crank in every crowd Sprinkling gunpowder Seems that everything is about to blow They lit the burning paper With a waxen taper Sitting up here on Viceroy's Row And they're gathering flowers In the crack of hours where all of the nightmares go Watching the pipeline as it overflowed Sitting pretty here on Viceroy's Row He made a fortune out of barbed wire In the last days of the Empire Built a cast-iron curtain Just to keep control He was a tycoon, then a cheapskate Went out looking for a keepsake To tuck into his suitcase on Viceroy's Row And they're gathering flowers In the crack of hours where all of the nightmares go Watching the pipeline as it overflowed Sitting pretty here on Viceroy's Row He had a satchel full of cash And dishes full of ashes He went from boom to bust In the blinking of a lash Heard the rat-a-tat of the late patrol Shooting out the lights up on Viceroy's Row And they're gathering flowers In the crack of hours where all of the nightmares go They're coming for him slowly Now the war is over Sitting up here on Viceroy's Row The woman in a blindfold She doesn't want her hand held Walking through a minefield Saying "How does this feel?" Stepping on the quicksand Going down slow Hiding up here on Viceroy's Row Nothing satisfies The ruins of his blue eyes Like blood stains on a diamond mine And deep within you felt Not one measure of his guilt Staring in the dark up on Viceroy's Row Yet her penitent lover Took a ribbon of rubber Tied her to the bed made of silken thread But without an ounce of mercy They denounced him with a curse Hammering on the door upon Viceroy's Row Now his little concubine in her cemetery drag Her face all smeared with charcoal Is leaving all her cares, so Take 500 acres and see what you can sow We came to overthrow those on Viceroy's Row They're gathering flowers In the crack of hours where all of the nightmares go Watching the pipeline as it overflowed Sitting up here on Viceroy's Row