elvis costello-viceroy’s row Lyrics

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”