National Ransom

Running pell-mell and harum-scarum Running as hot as they do or dare Stick out your tongue And drink down all the venom A cut-throat Cuthbert And Millicent St. Cyr From the real old Macau To the new false Americas In the liberated territories Unusual suspects shake down, shake down, shake down Various dubious characters Mother's in the kitchen picking bones for breakfast Boiling them down by the bushel and the score Pull out your thumb and count what's left on your fist There's a wolf at the window with ravening maw Did you find how to lie? Did you find out how to cheat? The elite bleat, their obsolete But are your prospects? Exact, perfect object Now, if you'd only genuflect They're running wild Just like some childish tantrum Meanwhile we're working every day Paying off the national ransom Woe betide all this hocus-pocus They're running us ragged at their first attempt Around the time the killing stopped on Wall St. You couldn't hold me, baby with anything but contempt Letters peel slowly from our speech The claxton attempts to preach Stretching for stars still out of reach Drowning Flailing Outside, someone's wailing They're running wild Just like some childish tantrum Meanwhile we're working every day Paying off the national ransom They're running wild Just like some childish tantrum Meanwhile we're working every day Paying off the national ransom --- National Ransom - Elvis Costello