Now there's a crank in every crowd
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Sprinkling gunpowder
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Seems that everything is about to blow
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They lit the burning paper
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With a waxen taper
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Sitting up here on Viceroy's Row
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And they're gathering flowers
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In the crack of hours where all of the nightmares go
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Watching the pipeline as it overflowed
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Sitting pretty here on Viceroy's Row
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He made a fortune out of barbed wire
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In the last days of the Empire
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Built a cast-iron curtain
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Just to keep control
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He was a tycoon, then a cheapskate
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Went out looking for a keepsake
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To tuck into his suitcase on Viceroy's Row
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And they're gathering flowers
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In the crack of hours where all of the nightmares go
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Watching the pipeline as it overflowed
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Sitting pretty here on Viceroy's Row
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He had a satchel full of cash
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And dishes full of ashes
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He went from boom to bust
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In the blinking of a lash
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Heard the rat-a-tat of the late patrol
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Shooting out the lights up on Viceroy's Row
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And they're gathering flowers
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In the crack of hours where all of the nightmares go
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They're coming for him slowly
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Now the war is over
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Sitting up here on Viceroy's Row
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The woman in a blindfold
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She doesn't want her hand held
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Walking through a minefield
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Saying "How does this feel?"
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Stepping on the quicksand
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Going down slow
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Hiding up here on Viceroy's Row
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Nothing satisfies
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The ruins of his blue eyes
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Like blood stains on a diamond mine
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And deep within you felt
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Not one measure of his guilt
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Staring in the dark up on Viceroy's Row
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Yet her penitent lover
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Took a ribbon of rubber
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Tied her to the bed made of silken thread
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But without an ounce of mercy
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They denounced him with a curse
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Hammering on the door upon Viceroy's Row
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Now his little concubine in her cemetery drag
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Her face all smeared with charcoal
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Is leaving all her cares, so
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Take 500 acres and see what you can sow
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We came to overthrow those on Viceroy's Row
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They're gathering flowers
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In the crack of hours where all of the nightmares go
|
Watching the pipeline as it overflowed
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Sitting up here on Viceroy's Row
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-----------------
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Viceroy's Row
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Elvis Costello |