A Slow Drag With Josephine

The snitch, the snoop, the tattletale Lead a threadbare up stairs Adieu, my little ballyhoo You broke my heart in two And now I haunt the bars and scent those trite affairs She went home to gather her comb And caught him unawares And there was her man enjoying the lay of the land He took a walk in the dark with a dish from the stand Girls and their creations Tight in the brightest grenadine But I'd take all that I've seen For a slow drag with Josephine Josephine, Josephine But I'd trade all that I've seen for a slow drag with Josephine Gavotte, garrotes, Cotillions and slow Arabesques Drum-rolls and Farandoles were all made in jest But when you make that move I can't resist When will you declare your armistice? Josephine, Josephine But I'd trade all that I've seen for a slow drag with Josephine In another time and place a different fate was cast He tried to skeddle-daddle-do She might have slapped him Just for saying "Grant one more chance before you pass" "Then curse the nurse that named me the first or bury me at last" And in three-quarter time The true and the false Dancing the "Hesitation Waltz" Then comes the "flirtation" And temptation Hip, hip hooray Listen to what I say Then you can take it away --- A Slow Drag with Josephine - Elvis Costello