Bedlam Songtext

von Elvis Costello & The Imposters

I've got this phosphorescent portrait
Of gentle Jesus meek and mild
I've got this harlot that I'm stuck with
Carrying another man's child

The solitary star announcing
Vacancy burnt out as we arrived
They'd throw us back across the border
If they knew that we survived

And they were surprised to see us
So they greeted us with palms
They asked for ammunition
Acts of contrition and small alms

And I might recite a small prayer
If I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame
And found myself in bedlam

I wish that I could take something
For drowning out the noise
Wailing echoes down the corridors

I've got this imaginary radio
And I'm punching up the dial
I've got the AC trained on the TV
So it won't blow up in my eye

There a thing that I thought fanciful
And mocked as too extreme
Must be family entertainment here
In the strange land of my dreams

And I'm practicing my likeness
Of St. Francis of Assisi
For if I hold my hand outstretched
A little bird comes to me

And I might recite a small prayer
If I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame
And found myself in bedlam

Escaping from the fingers
That were stretching through the bars
Wailing echoes down the corridors

The player piano picks out 'Life Goes On'
The ring tone rang out 'Jerusalem'
Into this pit of sadness
Where the rank of wretched plunge
We've buried all the innocents
Now we must bury revenge

They've got this scared and decorated girl
Strapped to the steel trunk of a Mustang
And then they drove her down a cypress grove
Where traitors hang and stars still spangle

They dangled flags and other rags
Along a colored thread of twine
And then they dragged that bruised and purple heart
Along the road to Palestine

Someone went off muttering
He mentioned thirty pieces
Easter saw a slaughtering
Each wrapped in bloodstained fleeces

Then my thoughts returned to vengeance
But I put up no resistance
Though I seemed a long way from our home
It really was no distance

And I might recite a small prayer
If I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame
And found myself in bedlam

Bowing like an actor
Acknowledging applause
Playing the crusader
Who was conquering the Moors

And he knew the consequences
But he won't accept the cause
Wailing echoes down the corridors