Elvis Costello [보컬,기타,피아노,작곡,프로듀서]

you won't take my love for tender
you can put your money where your mouth is
but you're so unsure
I could be a miser or a big spender
but you might get much more than you bargained for

check not or checkmate
class not or classmate
so beautiful and fortunate
you're the one who hates to love
but he's the one who loves to hate

and he can fix you awful good
because he is the neighborhood
you can get money for blood
blood money for doing no good
better tell me now you made your selection
are your ready for correction
'cause the wages of sin are an expensive infection
they'll make you bankrupt
better pay off now don't interrupt

I'm so in love and I'm so sincere
just like a well-known financier
you know I've never been corrupt
I'll pay you a compliment
you'll think I am innocent
you can total up the balance sheet
and never know if I am a common thief

you won't take my love for tender

born in the middle of the second big baby boom
those noisy boys just might have spoken up too soon
now I'm looking for a little girl I wonder where she's gone
big money for families having more than one

*opportunity, opportunity
this is your big opportunity
to shop around, follow you without a sound
what ever you do now, don't turn around
don't turn around

what ever happened to the pride of the nation
they say they're waiting till they break formation
she was sittin' pretty on a velvet cushion
but her bedroom eyes were like a button she was pushing
she said when they get to dover they'll be taking over
said I'll come to her defense then she'll pull me over

*Repeat

I'm in the foxhole I'm down in the trench
I'd be a hero but I can't stand the stench
the fitness institute is for the general motor man
the holo house of beauty wouldn't stand a chance with them
the chairman of this board'll use a compliment collector
I'd like to be his funeral director

*Repeat

please don't turn around
please don't turn around
don't turn around
don't turn around
don't turn around

trying to be too bad
trying to talk too tough
trying to jack the lad
you think you've had enough

*but he's not the man you think that he can be
I just don't know why you can't see
that he is only the imposter
that he is only the imposter

never been this far
always been too smart
and you know how all boys are
they're really girls at heart

*Repeat

when I said that I was lying
I might have been lying
never let me hear you say you're not trying

this is your big decision
hope you're not disappointed
he's got double-vision
when you want him double-jointed

and he's not the man you think that he can be
I just don't know why you can't see
he'll only bring you souvenirs
it's only going to end in tears
and he is only the imposter
and he is only the imposter

this must be the place
second place in the human race
down in the basement
now I know what he meant
secondary modern
where there won't be a problem
'til the girls go home

this is the hand
that you never shook
you never gave me
the chance that I took
secondary modern
where there won't be a problem
'til the girls go home

is it out of the question
between you and me
is it pleasure or business
or a bag of the three

nobody makes me sad like you
now my whole world goes from blue to blue
secondary modern
where there won't be a problem
'til the girls go home
secondary modern
where there won't be a problem
'til the girls go home
'til the girls go home
'til the girls go home

cheap cut satin and bad perfume
showtime is almost here
tears stop by your strength
caught you laughing up your sleeve
sniggering in your beer
seen the bottom of a lot of glasses
but he's never seen love so near
he'd seen love get so expensive
but he'd never seen love so dear

*now I know that you're all king horse
between tenderness and brute force
now I know that you're all king horse
between tenderness and brute force

she can turn a pot of sixpence
in the mouth and trouser set
hit the till ring the bill
never spill a sip
and still she knows the kind of tip
she is going to get
a lot of loose exchanges precious little respect
but if someone else is weakened
that's the best that you can expect

*Repeat

so fine knit a fabric
so fine a fabrication
from comic books to tragic
to the art of conversation

meanwhile back in some secluded spot
he says will you please and she says stop
if I ever loose this good thing that I got
I never want to hear the song you dedicated tonight
you see I knew that song so long before we met
that it means much more than it might

*Repeat

if there's anything that you want
if there's anything that you need
there's no need to be miserable
it talks and it's persuasive

possession, possession, possession

now you're sending me your best wishes
signed with love and vicious kisses
you lack lust you're so lackluster
is that all the strength you can muster

possession, possession, possession

even when we are out of touch
now I know that I've seen too much
seen to much
so all I see is that I'm back to pack
may case is closed my case is packed
I'll get out before the violence
or the tears or the silence

possession, possession, possession

now those newsprints all over your face
well maybe that's why I can read you like a book
just when I thought I was getting my taste a bite
I go and lose my appetite

look at the man that you'd call uncle
they'd like to sink their teeth in to you
for the pride and the pleasure
and the privilege of having you

if I say you're the one do you think that I'm serious
you get that kind of talk from older men
if I say I love you then I must be delirious
so why are you trying to put my temperature up again

look at the man that you'd call uncle
having a heart-attack 'round your ankles

when you wake up with x-rated eyes
when you wake up still shaking
how could I apologize as your check you affects
and you check your reflection
I'm so affected in the face of your affection

look at the man that you'd call uncle
having a heart-attack 'round your ankles

I could swear I could promise
that I'll always be true to you
but we may not live to be so old
I could even say I'm going to do something new to you
now the girls I see just leave me cold

look at the man that you'd call uncle

tears on your blackmail
they turn to ransom
a point of the fingernail
says you're so handsome

*clowntime is over
time to take over
while others just talk and talk
somebody's watching where the others don't walk
clowntime is over

a voice in the shadows
says that his men know
he don't step back as expected
he's otherwise an unprotected

*Repeat

almost too good to be true
who do you?
What do you do?
Why do you do?
Everybody's hiding under covers
who's making lovers' lane
safe again for lovers

*Repeat

you're sending me tulips mistaken for lilies
you give me a look that the function is silly
you turn my head till it roll down the brain-drain
if I had any sense now I wouldn't want it back again

new amsterdam it's become much too much
'til I have the possession of everything she touches
'til I step on the brake to get out of her clutches
'til I speak double dutch to a real double duchess

down on the main spring listen to the tick-tock
collect all the faces that move in your lot
twice-shy and dog-tied because you've been bitten
everything you say now sounds like it was ghost-written

back in london they'll take you to heart after a little while
though I look right at home I still feel like an exile

somehow I found myself down at the dockside
thinking about the old days of liverpool and rotherhide
transparent people who live on the other side
living a life that is almost like suicide

Some things you never get used to even though you're
feeling like another man. There's nothing that he can
do for you to shut me away as you walk through. Lovers
laughing in the amateur hour, holding hands in the
corridors of power, even though I'm with somebody else
right now. High fidelity. Can you hear me, can you hear
me, can you hear me? High fidelity. Can you hear me,
can you hear me, can you hear me? There's a new kind of
dedication. Maybe you'll find it down in the tunnel.
Maybe I got above my station. Maybe you're only
changing channels. Even though you're nowhere near me
and I know you kiss him so sincerely now. Even though
the signal's indistinct and you worry about what silly
people think, who just can't wait to feel so frozen out?
I bet he thinks that he was chosen out of millions. I suppose
he'll never know about High fidelity. Can you hear me,
can you hear me, can you hear me? High fidelity. Can you
hear me, can you hear me, can you hear me?

I'm the living result
I'm a man who's been hurt a little too much
and I've tasted the bitterness of my own tears
sadness is all my lonely heart can feel

I can't stand up for falling down
I can't stand up for falling down

simple though love is
still it confused me
why I'm not loved the way I should be
now I've lived with heartaches
and I've roomed with fear
I've dealt with despair
and I've wrestled with tears

I can't stand up for falling down
I can't stand up for falling down

the vow that we made
you broke it in two
but that don't stop me from loving you

I can't stand up for falling down
I can't stand up for falling down

I was looking at the black and white world
it seemed so exciting
if you'd only put me back to back with that girl
when the night's inviting
with just a little lighting
there'll never be days like that again
when I was just a boy and men were men

you'd never go from moment to moment
you're the living double of a single fiction
you're the very colour poets compliment
cause you feel the fingers friction
it's a freeze frame, still it's real life
you don't want to look
cause you've seen the film and read the book

I was looking at the black and white world
trying to name some pin-up
in those days she was just a beautiful girl
now she's framed and hung up
I thought she was younger until
I saw her last night in close detail
though they all fade away when you're so pale

it's more than just a physical attraction
starts with a face and ends up a fixation
but you're never going to feel a fraction
the way it used to work on your imagination
when you were looking at a black and white world

five gears in reverse
girls looking for the big lift
somebody send out for the night nurse
please don't stick me on the late shift

if you don't know by now
nobody's going to tell you
if you don't know by now
the shock will probably kill you

*and if your patience is exhausted
and you still cannot decide
you're sitting in a garage
contemplating suicide
and you have no motivation
you can't even catch your breath
all the business and celebrations
is driving you to debt

five gears in reverse
you think I don't know what I'm doing
and at a fashionable first
like walking down the road to ruin
but if you're safe and sound
don't let me interrupt you
And if you don't go down
How could I corrupt you

*Repeat

I found america had another corner of my wallet
it's a well kept secret, thought that I had better swallow it
thought they'd make me spit out the truth
before they find you're lying about your youth

*b movie that's all you're to me
just a soft-soap story
don't want no woman to act on me
you can't stand it when it goes to reel to reel to reel to reel
I can't stand it when I go on trying, you can't feel

all the time there's rule book in pretending
there's no one in the wings
and everybody's on the make
it's not your heart I want to break

turn out the lights I'm thinking that I want to go to sleep now
but just give me a promise that I'm supposed to keep now
I don't want some fool asking me why
when I find you're finally making me cry

*Repeat

somewhere in the distance
I can hear who shot sam
this is my conviction
that I am an innocent man
oh you say I'm unkind
I'm being as nice as I can

*boys everywhere fumbling with the catches
I struck lucky with motel matches
falling for you without a second look
falling out of your open pocket book
giving you away like motel matches

I wake with the siren of an emergency
though your mind is full of love
in your eyes there is a big conceit
and you know what I do
when the light outside changes from red to blue

*Repeat

I know I just got to get out of this place
I can't stand any more of that mechanical grace
though you say it's only an industrial squeeze
it looks like luxury and feels like a disease

*oh give it to me, give it to me
I don't want to know much about much
give it to me, give it to me
I need, I need, I need - your human touch

left with just a high-school hope on your way to dry dock
it's easy to break up with all your senses living in a state of shock
I just can't believe I'm responsible for this
like a make-up eyes can be made up with a kiss

*Repeat

oh when I'm talking in tongues
I go where you lead
I go make a bet
oh I need you

how I'd like to fix her in a picture of rage
how I'd like to catch her when she's acting her age
oh but when she's lying stretched out on the floor
it's no mystery to me any more

*Repeat

you say that you'll get him and you run and get your mummy
and you're almost beaten to the punch
looking for the man who sold you the dummy
and you're almost beaten to the punch
laughing at the older guys who say it's just as well
saved by the wedding bell
almost beaten to the punch

you're looking for somebody that you can knock-about
you were almost beaten to the punch
if you've got a head for figures then you better count me out
you were almost beaten to the punch
you pull the piece but you soon call it love
you go ahead and end up
almost beaten to the punch

your body speaks so much louder than your voice
you let it do the talking so I don't have any choice
and now you find that younger guys are putting up resistance
and you're almost beaten to the punch
you'd better get out now because you'll never go the distance
and you're almost beaten to the punch
and you'll find a girl and you'll promise her anything
even a wedding ring
almost beaten to the punch

who's this kid with this mumbo-jumbo
living in air-conditioned limbo
though they treat him just like a guest
living under threat of arrest
now that he's finally trying to make some sense
he drinks in self-defense
give me temptation

the son told contempt of authority
we'll take you anytime down to the station
you say that is all right by me
now you're living with the ghost of sophistication

now that you're shackled up to the rigmarole
with absolute control
I see you lying so wide awake
after I've given you all that you can take
so for heaven's sake
give me temptation

still you want to succeed so badly
finding your life will not be there
but you tell me you can take it or leave it
sometimes I think that you really believe it
you're just itching to break her secret laws
as you go from clause to clause
give me temptation