Lyrics Coal-Train Robberies - Elvis Costello

Coal-Train Robberies

Yesterdays coal train came to rest in the bitter cutting
And as the signals took an age to change it was easy pickings
So you go to the movies where they smash it up You want to feel your heart pumping it makes you feel good
All through the karaoke girls were squealing the hits
As another mercedes-benz gets blown to bits
While all the time in the camptown theatres of piccadilly
Theyre going to throw a black-face minstrel show for the barefoot children
That theyre always selling
Theyll say «its quaint"as the guilty ones faint and claim they aint underneath
this paint
We interrupt these liberal saints with their whips and watermelon
Reports are coming in of a coal-train robbery
Its like another world, or it had better be So we return to whitewashed pout of his committed lips
Since he was declared the long lost fountain
Of youth that drips and drips and drips
Theyll be sending him round from door to door,
To sell you back whats already yours
«so many good deeds, so little time»
Say the advertising agency swine
When man has destroyed what he thinks he owns
I hope no living thing cries over his bones
If you dont believe that Im going for good
You can count the days Im gone and chop up The chairs for firewood
Reports are coming in of a coal-train robbery
Its like another world, or it had better be