ELVIS COSTELLO BEDLAM LYRICS

Bedlam

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


I might recite a small prayer

If I ever said them

I lay down on an iron frame

Found myself in bedlam
I wish that I could take something for drowning out the noise

Wailing echoes down the corridors




I've got the A.C. trained on the T.V. so it won't blow up in my eye
I've got this imaginary radio, and I'm punching up the dial


And everything that I thought fanciful and mocked as too extreme

Must be family entertainment here in the strange land of my dreams

Now I'm practicing my likeness of St. Francis of Assisi


For if I hold my hand outstretched
A little bird comes to me



I might recite a small prayer

If I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame


Found myself in bedlam

Escaping from the fingers that were stretching through the bars

[ Bedlam lyrics from http://www.lyricsyoulove.com/ ]
Wailing echoes down the corridors



The player piano picks out "Life Goes On"

Ring tone rang out "Jerusalem"

And in 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 coloured 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 my 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

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


The words and lyrics to this song are the intellectual property of ELVIS COSTELLO and his / their respective music label. Download ELVIS COSTELLO music online or buy an album if you wish to support him / her. Also visit our sponsors to download BEDLAM ringtones or mp3s for your cell phone. If you want to help make this song by Elvis Costello popular, please share it below or blog about it.