On a dark night in a lost hour
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In a town built from neon and chrome
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Where Las Vegas seeks the desert
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In an old broken down casino
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There the gambler slapped his money down
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Dirty dollars one hundred or more
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Placed his last bet on a poker game
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Crossed his heart for the winning score
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But the players at the table
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Two men of the phantom creed
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Seemed to play with sombre purpose
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Than a reason and pure greed
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And the gambler felt his back freeze
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And fear brushed his ageing brow
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For he'd seen those men before in his dreams
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Here they sat before him now
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And the one smoothed back his black hair
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With a comb slicked by brylcream and grease
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Flipped the cards with a flippancy
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Of a wily and slippery ease
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With his sharp suit shade of lilac
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On a shuffle he made the cards sing
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Gold studs and menthol cigarettes
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Rubies set in a skull ring
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And the other of the clergy
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With a colour and robe of pale ivory
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Silver grey at the temples
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And a smile that was stern and was kindly
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Jack of hearts lead, wait for aces
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Became faces of family and friends
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Until the deck showed him a picture
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Of his life from beginning to end
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Reverend Life he flipped an ace
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And the gambler felt blood in his heart
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For he knew this was the game of games
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He would need all the Reverend's heart
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Anger, lust and gluttony
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The gambler seems hit hard
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Each failure and each feature
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Mapped out in the slippery cards
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Greasy Mr.D. flashed a winning grin
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And stood facing Reverend Life
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The Reverend paled as he saw the score
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The gambler felt pain as a knife
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His troubles, tribulations
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Revelations and regrets
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A wife, a child, a fight to trial
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Turned by the hand of death
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And the gambler saw his hand stained
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with the blood of his family ties
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And with the yellow smile of Mr.D.
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In his mind he crumples and dies
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And these two great men from different worlds
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Faced each other and shook of hands
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The reverend shrugged "ah well next time"
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And departed for heaven's land
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And the flames leapt and the soul screamed
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And the cards scattered round the room
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And life is always a gamble
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A game from the cradle to tomb
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And the flames leapt and the soul screamed
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And the cards scattered round the room
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And life is always a gamble
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A game from the cradle to tomb
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And the flames leapt and the soul screamed
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And the cards scattered round the room
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And life is always a gamble
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A game from the cradle to tomb
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-----------------
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The Gambler
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Marc Almond |