Elvis Costello: Back On My Feet

(McCartney/MacManus)

How many days does the wet weather lack?
I wanna go where the clouds when they roll back
Reveal a man in an old mack
Living on a park bench
Sitting on his own

Cut to the rain as it rolls down the glass
But then she leaves through the lightning and thunder
You see a man going under
This is how it happens
This is what he said

"I don't need love
Temptation is sweet
Give me your hand
Till I'm back on my feet
You're always telling me
About my misery
I'll see things you'll never see
Don't pity me"

Focus in on the breath of a man
Takes a brown paper bag from his knapsack
Between his whispers and wisecracks
He's looking for the wishing
Screaming at the sky

"I don't need love
Temptation is sweet
Give me your hand
Till I'm back on my feet
You're always telling me
About my misery
I'll see things you'll never see
Don't pity me"

"I'll be fine again,
Be all right without you
I'll stand up again
Kick off the puzzlement, too"

Cut back again to a girl walking by
To the beat of her old shoes and rolled socks
Climb on an invisible soapbox
Laughing at the traffic
Shouting at the word

"I don't need love
Temptation is sweet
Give me your hand
Till I'm back on my feet
You're always telling me
About my misery
I'll see things you'll never see
Don't pity me"

"I'll be fine again,
Be all right without you
I'll stand up again
Kick off the puzzlement, too"

Seeing life through the eyes of a man
As he lives and he dies by a simple titan
Well there you go, though you trying hard to know
When he's there on his legs
Sees the kinks where the people all go
Things start to fade as he pulls down the shade
And the picture made is in glorious cinemascope