Elvis Costello - Wake Me Up lyrics

[Verse 1] 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 [Chorus] Wake me up, [x5] With a slap or a kiss Wake me up, [x5] There must be something better than this [Verse 2] 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 [Chorus] [Verse 3] 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 [Chorus] [Verse 4] 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[x3] [Outro] In the name of the Father and the Son In the name of Gasoline and a Gun Wake me up[x5]