Viceroy's Row Lyrics - Wise Up Ghost - Elvis Costello & The Roots

Now there's a crank in every crowd 

Sprinkling gunpowder 

Seems that everything is about to blow 

They lit the burning paper 

With a waxen taper 

Sitting up here on Viceroy's Row 

And they're gathering flowers 

In the crack of hours where all of the nightmares go 

Watching the pipeline as it overflowed 

Sitting pretty here on Viceroy's Row 

He made a fortune out of barbed wire 

In the last days of the Empire 

Built a cast-iron curtain 

Just to keep control 

He was a tycoon, then a cheapskate 

Went out looking for a keepsake 

To tuck into his suitcase on Viceroy's Row 

And they're gathering flowers 

In the crack of hours where all of the nightmares go 

Watching the pipeline as it overflowed 

Sitting pretty here on Viceroy's Row 

He had a satchel full of cash 

And dishes full of ashes 

He went from boom to bust 

In the blinking of a lash 

Heard the rat-a-tat of the late patrol 

Shooting out the lights up on Viceroy's Row 

And they're gathering flowers 

In the crack of hours where all of the nightmares go 

They're coming for him slowly 

Now the war is over 

Sitting up here on Viceroy's Row 

The woman in a blindfold 

She doesn't want her hand held 

Walking through a minefield 

Saying "How does this feel?" 

Stepping on the quicksand 

Going down slow 

Hiding up here on Viceroy's Row 

Nothing satisfies 

The ruins of his blue eyes 

Like blood stains on a diamond mine 

And deep within you felt 

Not one measure of his guilt 

Staring in the dark up on Viceroy's Row 

Yet her penitent lover 

Took a ribbon of rubber 

Tied her to the bed made of silken thread 

But without an ounce of mercy 

They denounced him with a curse 

Hammering on the door upon Viceroy's Row 

Now his little concubine in her cemetery drag 

Her face all smeared with charcoal 

Is leaving all her cares, so 

Take 500 acres and see what you can sow 

We came to overthrow those on Viceroy's Row 

They're gathering flowers 

In the crack of hours where all of the nightmares go 

Watching the pipeline as it overflowed 

Sitting up here on Viceroy's Row