Lyrics Radio Silence - Elvis Costello

Radio Silence

Signal fading, listen to what I’m saying.
Testing, testing,
this better be worth all of the breath I’m wasting.
Maintaining radio silence from now on.
Barricaded in the talk radio station
Hostage taken
The red 'On Air' light shines on Something cheaper than passes for free speech
Will have to do Hear him coming through loud and clear
Trickling in your ear
He’ll tell you anything you want to hear
The tape starts running
He’s going to tell you something
Strings start strumming another humdrum conundrum.
Signing off now,
Maintaining radio silence from now on.
But there’s one thing I should have said,
The hostage will end up dead.
It’s just a comedy, the hostage is me.
So pay the ransom beyond the run-out groove and
Get my wife down here, a helicopter on the roof.
No police marksman
Maintaining radio silence from now on.
Mystery voices drowned out by too much choice
That’s not to mention
The sad waste of this wonderful invention
Maintaining radio silence from now on.
Libraries filled up with failed ideas,
there’s nothing more for me there.
I trust in tender ink and gentle airs.
Do those drug dealers still polish women made of wax?
Gangsters and world leaders require the same protection from attack.
From a distance it’s hard to tell the difference
Between a king and a jack
Between a poet and a hack
Maintaining radio silence from now on.