Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True Album Lyrics

All of your family had to kill to survive,
and they're still waitin' for their big day to arrive.
But if they knew how I felt they'd bury me alive.

Welcome to the workin' week.
Oh I know it don't thrill you, I hope it don't kill you.
Welcome to the workin' week.
You gotta do it till you're through it so you better get to it.

I hear you sayin', "Hey, the city's all right
when you only read about it in books.
Spend all your money gettin' so convinced
that you never even bother to look.
Sometimes I wonder if we're livin' in the same land,
Why d'you wanna be my friend when I feel like a juggler
running out of hands?

Welcome to the workin' week, oh, welcome to the working week.

[Chorus]:
Why do you have to say that there's always someone
who can do it better than I can?
But don't you think that I know that walking on the water
won't make me a miracle man?

Baby's gotta have the things she wants.
You know she's gotta have the things she loves.
She's got a ten-inch bamboo cigarette holder
and her black patent leather gloves.
And I'm doing everything just tryin' to please her,
even crawling around on all fours.
Oh, I thought by now that it was gonna be easy,
but she still seems to want for more.

[Chorus]

I hear they're givin' you a bad reputation
just because you've never been denied.
You try to say you've done it all before.
Baby, you know that you just get tired.
Yet everybody loves you so much, girl.
I just don't know how you stand the strain.
Oh, I, I'm the one who's here tonight,
and I don't wanna do it all in vain.

[Chorus]

Now he's telling her
Every little thing he's done
Once he glanced at the jackets of some paperbacks
Now he's read every one
He's such a drag
He's not insane
It's just that everybody
Has to feel his pain
There's gonna be no dancing when they get home

He's getting down on his knees
He finds that the girl is not so easy to please
Oh oh, after all, his nights were just a paper striptease
She's caught it like some disease

If he says no dancing
There's gonna be no dancing
There's gonna be no dancing on my own

She can't even speak to him
He can't face her now
He says "Even though I wanna shake your hand
All I ever do is bow.
So now you see
How can it be.
Why can't you give me anythin' but sympathy?"

There's gonna be no dancing
There's gonna be no dancing
There's gonna be no dancing
There's gonna be no dancing
There's gonna be no dancing on my own

Well I see you've got a husband now.
Did he leave your pretty fingers lying
in the wedding cake?
You used to hold him right in your hand.
I'll bet he took all he could take.
Sometimes I wish that I could stop you from talking
when I hear the silly things that you say.
I think somebody better put out the big light,
cause I can't stand to see you this way.

Alison, I know this world is killing you.
Oh, Alison, my aim is true.
My aim is true.

Oh, I know that she's disgusted (oh why's that)
Cause she's feeling so abused. (oh that's too bad)
She gets tired of the lust, (oh I'm so sad)
but it's so hard to refuse.
How can you say that I'm too old,
when the angels have stolen my red shoes.

Oh, I said "I'm so happy, I could die."
She said "Drop dead," then left with another guy.
That's what you get if you go chasing after vengeance.
Ever since you got me punctured this has been my sentence.
Oh I used to be disgusted
and now I try to be amused.
But since their wings have got rusted,
you know, the angels wanna wear my red shoes.
Red shoes, the angels wanna wear my red shoes.

[Chorus:]
Turn up the TV. No one listening will suspect,
even your mother won't detect it,
no your father won't know.
they think that I've got no respect
but everything means less than zero.
Hey, ooh hey, hey, ooh hey.

Calling Mister Oswald, calling anyone at the scene,
If you were taking home movies there's a chance you might have seen him.
They've got a thousand variations, every witness in a file.
Jenny puts on some coffee and she comes back with a smile.
She says, "I hear that South America is coming into style."

[Chorus]

A pistol was still smoking, a man lay on the floor.
Mister Oswald thought he had an understanding with the law.
She's got rubies on her fingers, Jenny turns and looks away.
Her mind upon a basement out of the USA.
She says, "Let's talk about the future now we've put the past away."

[Chorus:]
One of these days I'm gonna pay it back, pay it back,
one of these days.
One of these days I'm gonna pay it back, pay it back,
one of these days.

And then they told me I could be somebody
if I didn't let too much get in my way.
And I tried so hard just to be myself,
but I keep on fading away.
Until the lights went out, I didn't know what to do.
If I could fool myself, then maybe I'd fool you too.

[Chorus]

I wouldn't say that I was raised on romance.
Let's not get stuck in the past.
I love you more than everything in the world.
I don't expect that will last.
They told me everything was guaranteed.
Somebody somewhere must've lied to me.

[Chorus].

[Chorus:]
I'm not angry, I'm not angry anymore.
I'm not angry, I'm not angry anymore.
Ooh, I know what you're doin'.
I know where you've been.
I know where, but I don't care,
'cause there's no such thing as an original sin.

I've got this camera click, click, clickin' in my head.
I got you talking with your hands, got you smiling with your legs.
Spent all my time in a vanity factory,
wonderin' when they're gonna come and take it all back.

[Chorus]