Jimmie Standing In The Rain

Third-class ticket in his pocket Punching out the shadows underneath the sockets Tweed coat turned up against the fog Slow coaches rolling o'er the moor Between the very memory And approaches of war Stale bread curling on a luncheon counter Loose change lonely, not the right amount Forgotten man of an indifferent nation Waiting on a platform at a Lancashire station Somebody's calling you again The sky is falling Jimmie's standing in the rain Nobody wants to buy a counterfeited prairie lullaby in a colliery town The hip flask and fumbled skein of some stage door Josephine is all he'll get now Eyes going in and out of focus Mild and bitter from tuberculosis Forgotten man Indifferent nation Waiting on a platform at a Lancashire station Somebody's calling you again The sky is falling Jimmie's standing in the rain Her soft breath was gentle on his neck If he could choose the time to die Then he would come and go like this Underneath a painted sky She woke up and called him "Charlie" by mistake And then in shame began to cry Tarnished silver band peels off a phrase And then warms their hands around the brazier Forgotten man Indifferent nation Waiting on a platform at a Lancashire station Somebody's calling you again It's finally dawning Jimmie's standing in the rain Brilliantine glistening Your soft plaintive whistling And your wan wandering smile Died down at The Hippodrome Now you're walking off to jeers, the lonely sound of jingling spurs, The "toodle-oos" and "Oh, my dears" down at "The Argyle" Vile vaudevillians applaud sobriety There's no place for a half-cut cowboy in polite society Forgotten man Indifferent nation Waiting on a platform at a Lancashire station Somebody's calling you again It's finally dawning Jimmie's standing in the rain Somebody's calling you again It's finally dawning Jimmie's standing in the rain --- Jimmie Standing in the Rain - Elvis Costello