Elvis Costello & The Attractions, The Roots - Wake Me Up Lyrics

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

Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
With a slap or a kiss
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
There must be something better than this


I've got this imaginary radio, and I'm punching up the dial

I've got the A.C. trained on the T.V. so it won't blow up in my eye

And everything that I thought fanciful or 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

And 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

Stepping on the fingers that were stretching through the bars

Wailing echoes down the corridors


Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
With a slap or a kiss
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
There must be something better than this


They've got this scared and decorated girl strapped to the steel trunk of a Mustang

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

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

My thoughts returned to vengeance but I put up no resistance

Though I seemed a long way from my home

It really was no distance


Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
With a slap or a kiss
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
There must be something better than this


And the player piano picks out "Life Goes On"

The Ringtone rang out "Jerusalem"

Into the pit of sadness

Where the wretched plunge

We've buried all the Innocents

We must bury revenge


Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up
There must be something better than this
There must be something better than this
There must be something better than this


In the name of the Father and the Son
In the name of Gasoline and a Gun
Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up