Sweetest Punch (songs Of Costello)

All through the night you telephoned
I saw the light blinking red
Beside the cradle
But you don't know how far i've gone
Now i must live with the lie
That i made
But if i call, i know i won't have to say it
You'll hear my voice - something is bound to betray it

But do people living in toledo
Know that their name hasn't travelled very well?
And does anybody in ohio
Dream of that spanish citadel?
But it's no use saying that i love you
And how that girl really didn't mean a thing to me
For if anyone should look into your eyes
It's not forgiveness that they're gonna see

You hear her voice - "how could you do that?"
You hear her voice - "how could you do that?"

So i walked outside in the bright
Sunshine and lovers pass by
Smiling and joking
But they don't know the fool i was
Why should they care what was lost
What was broken?

But if i call, i know i won't have to say it
You'll hear my voice - something is bound to betray it

But do people living in toledo
Know that their name hasn't travelled very well?
And does anybody in ohio
Dream of that spanish citadel?
But it's no use saying that i love you
And how that girl really didn't mean a thing to me
For if anyone should look into your eyes
It's not forgiveness that they're gonna see

But do people living in toledo
Know that their name hasn't travelled very well?
And does anybody in ohio
Dream of that spanish citadel?
But we still have florence, alabama
We don't have paris, and we don't have rome

When i go to sleep, you become my thief
Why don't you steal what you can keep?
But you won't let me be
You break into my dreams
And every day seems different
Sometimes i pretend you'll come back again
And you'll console the heart you stole
Have pity on the man
Who knows that you have gone
And has begun to break down

I feel almost possessed
So long as i don't lose this glorious distress then
You can take all i have left
I know it's over
If you can't be my lover
Be my thief

I'm so drowsy now, i'll unlock the door
What fades in time will hurt much more
So here's that happy scene
Where you come back to me
It's only found in fiction

I feel almost possessed
So long as i don't lose this glorious distress then
You can take all i have left
I know it's over
If you can't be my lover
Be my thief

"i didn't lead you on,
But there will always be
A little larceny in everyone

So hush and don't you cry
I'm trying to be kind
Because i have a perfect alibi"

What's her name today?
What's her name today?
She could be anyone
I might have known you'd leave her crying
What's her name again?
You should be ashamed
How could you treat her so unspeakably?
Or did you think she was a different girl?

For as the radio played in the bedroom wall
What was that name you called her?
Was she the one who took away your pride
And your reason?
Oh, why did you decide that
You'd punish any girl you meet
To try and make that feeling go away?

What's her name today?
What's her name today?
Is her hair hanging down?
Or maybe it's fixed with a ribbon

Are her eyes still blue?
Should she trust in you?
Because it's a lonely world
She wants to believe for a while in all the things you say

But as the radio played in the bedroom wall
What was that name you called her?
Isn't her smile reminiscent of someone else?
Well, is it or isn't it?
Oh, why did you decide that
You'd punish any girl you meet
To try and make that feeling go away?

What's her name today?
Is she going to stay
So you can ruin her?
And soon she'll be twisted in chiffon

Dress her like a doll
String her like a pearl
She hears peals of bells, but it's hard to tell
Now that she's hung up like a chandelier

What's her name?
What's her name?
What's her name today?

In the darkest place
I know
That is where you'll find me
Even though you didn't have to remind me
I shut out the lights
Your eyes adjust
They'll never be the same
You know i love you so
Lets start again

Since you put me down
It seems
I've been very gloomy
You may laugh, but pretty girls look right through me
They don't sense the faintest glimmering
That is the torch i bear
There's light enough for me to find my way

But i only have to tell myself that by now
You could be with someone else
Is there light beneath your door and
Laughter from within?

Do your friends come around
Saying, "try to find another lover"?
He won't love you like i do

In the darkest place
I'm lost
I have abandoned every hope
Maybe you'll understand i must
Shut out the light

Your eyes adjust
They'll never be the same
You know i love you so
Lets start again

Do your friends come around
Saying, "try to find another lover"?
He won't love you like i do

In the darkest place
That is where you'll find me
In the darkest place
That is where you'll find me

Did somebody try to catch your eye
And almost change your sad expression?
Did somebody's hand linger too long?
Must i now make my confession?
But you'll never know
What suspicion is
Until you lie awake

And every night you ask yourself
"what am i to do?"
Can it be so hard to calculate?
When three goes into two
There's nothing left over

How's it gonna feel? this time it's real
It's not a temporary fracture
This is what you get, the stage is set
For you and your attempted rapture

Is he gonna smile
That indulgent smile
When you come running home?

And every night you ask yourself,
"what am i to do?"
Can it be so hard to calculate?
When three goes into two
There's nothing left over

What am i gonna say? you turn away
And you leave me here despairing
What am i going to do? i look at you
You seem to be so long past caring

Did somebody say,
"can we still be friends?"
Only to find out now that it's a joke

So ask yourself,
"what am i to do?"
Can it be so hard to calculate?
When three goes into two
There's nothing left over

Did somebody say,
"can we still be friends?"
Did somebody say,
"can we still be friends?"

Did somebody say,
"can we still be friends?"
Did somebody say,
"can we still be friends?"

Did somebody say,
"can we still be friends?"
Did somebody say,
"can we still be friends?"

(words sung by the character in the movie given in brackets)
Now i have nothing, so god give me strength
'cause i'm weak in her [his] wake
And if i'm strong i might still break
And i don't have anything to share
That i won't throw away into the air

That song is sung out
This bell is rung out [this belle is wrung out]
[he] she was the light that i'd bless
[he] she took my last chance at happiness
So god give me strength, god give me strength

I can't hold onto [him] her, god give me strength
When the phone doesn't ring
And i'm lost in imagining
Everything that kind of love is worth
As i tumble back down to the earth

That song is sung out
This bell is rung out
[he] she was the light that i'd bless
[he] she took my last chance at happiness
So god give me strength,

God if [he'd] she'd grant me [his] her indulgence and decline
I might as well wipe [him] her from my memory
Fracture the spell as [he] she becomes my enemy
Maybe i was washed out like a lip-print on his shirt
See, i'm only human, i want him to hurt
I want him
I want him to hurt

[instrumental]
Since i lost the power to pretend
That there could ever be a happy ending

That song is sung out
This bell is rung out
[he] she was the light that i'd bless
[he] she took my last chance at happiness
So god give me strength, god give me strength

Think back now when we were young
There were always tears at the birthday party
You know how children can be
So cruel
That's how it starts, but
What if we never learn how to behave?
I did something, and you never forgave me
I never thought that it could be like this

But now i see
I see you share your cake with him
Unwrapping presents that i should have sent
What can i do?
Must i watch you?

Close the door, dim the lights, blow out the candles
So happy birthday again

And it's the same every year
Seems that i remember it as something more, but
You know how children can grow
So strange
I still adore you

What if we never learn from our mistakes?
But then, you'll never know how my heart aches

I never thought that it would be like this
But now i see
I see you share your cake with him
Unwrapping presents that i should have sent
What can i do?
Must i watch you?

Close the door, dim the lights, blow out the candles
So happy birthday again
Close the door, dim the lights, blow out the candles
So happy birthday again

One day i know he'll forget
To pay you the compliments you're after
You'll hang your sad, aching head
Behind a brittle smile or a shrill of laughter

What if we only get what we deserve?
Somehow i couldn't quite summon the nerve

Upon each anniversary
Then do you ever think of me?
Unwrapping presents that i should have sent
What can i do?
Must i watch you?

Close the door, dim the lights, blow out the candles
So happy birthday again
Close the door, dim the lights, blow out the candles
So happy birthday again
Close the door, dim the lights, blow out the candles
So happy birthday again
Close the door, dim the lights, blow out the candles
So happy birthday again