Wake Me Up Lyrics - Wise Up Ghost - Elvis Costello & The Roots

I've got this phosphorescent portrait of gentle Jesus meek and mild 

I've got this harlot that I'm stuck with carrying another man's child 

The solitary star announcing vacancy burnt out as we arrived 

They'd throw us back across the border if they knew that we survived 

And they were surprised to see us 

So they greeted us with palms 

They asked for ammunition, acts of contrition and small alms 

Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up 

With a slap or a kiss 

Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up 

There must be something better than this 

I've got this imaginary radio, and I'm punching up the dial 

I've got the A.C. trained on the T.V. so it won't blow up in my eye 

And everything that I thought fanciful or mocked as too extreme 

Must be family entertainment here in the strange land of my dreams 

And I'm practicing my likeness of St. Francis of Assisi 

And if I hold my hand outstretched 

A little bird comes to me 

And I might recite a small prayer 

If I ever said them 

I lay down on an iron frame 

And found myself in Bedlam 

Stepping on the fingers that were stretching through the bars 

Wailing echoes down the corridors 

Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up 

With a slap or a kiss 

Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up 

There must be something better than this 

They've got this scared and decorated girl strapped to the steel trunk of a Mustang 

They drove her down a cypress grove where traitors hang and stars still spangle 

They dangled flags and other rags along a colored thread of twine 

They dragged that bruised and purple heart along the road to Palestine 

Someone went off muttering, he mentioned thirty pieces 

Easter saw a slaughtering, each wrapped in bloodstained fleeces 

My thoughts returned to vengeance but I put up no resistance 

Though I seemed a long way from my home 

It really was no distance 

Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up 

With a slap or a kiss 

Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up 

There must be something better than this 

And the player piano picks out "Life Goes On" 

The Ringtone rang out "Jerusalem" 

Into the pit of sadness 

Where the wretched plunge 

We've buried all the Innocents 

We must bury revenge 

Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up 

There must be something better than this 

There must be something better than this 

There must be something better than this 

In the name of the Father and the Son 

In the name of Gasoline and a Gun 

Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up