Church Underground

She stood spotlit in a plain print dress Came howling out of the wilderness There beat a cunning and murderous heart Beneath that calm exterior "You know my name You don't know my mind Don't doubt my eyes They betray the past And I've already forgotten Much more than you will ever know" And every word that I have spoken is true Except for those that were broken in two I'm trying to make peace after a long night of pretend I need a pawnbroker or moneylender Why do you do me down, Mister? Sing "Hallelujah," Sister Turn up the volume, just to turn it down The trivial secrets buried with profound It's enough to put a church underground It's enough to put a church underground Deflowered young and then ever since She's tried to wash off his fingerprints So every charlatan and prince Was made to feel inferior She worked for tips in a ten-cent dance Said moving pictures might pay perchance Ten thousand one-way tickets to the sparkling coast From the blank interior Everybody's either talking in code Or getting ready to explode Then she was singing with five-piece band But seems that no-one wants this sound Why do you do me down, Mister? Sing "Hallelujah," Sister Turn up the volume, just to turn it down The trivial secrets buried with profound It's enough to put a church underground It's enough to put a church underground The shaft of fanlight streaked with rain Poured through the glass, punched through the pain A holy picture hidden in the midden of that poisoned stitch Her lonely voice was just a ruin in these riches She must have been dreaming this all along Could she be redeeming herself in song? "I'm no-one's martyred, plaster saint Below the grease, beneath the paint" I'm rolling like barrel Swinging like a gallows I'm rising up fast like all hell and all hallows Why do you do me down, Mister? Sing "Hallelujah," Sister I'll be damned or purgatory bound Before those jokers ever understand It's enough to put a church underground It's enough to put a church underground It's enough to put a church underground --- Church Underground - Elvis Costello