Elvis Costello: Tokyo Storm Warning

The sky fell over cheap korean monster-movie sceneryAnd spilled into the reservoir of the crushed capsule hotelBetween the disney abattoir and the chemical refineryAnd I knew I was in trouble but I thought I was in hellSo you look around the tiny room and you wonder where the hell you areWhile the k.k.k. convention are all stranded in the barThey wear hoods and carry shotguns in the main streets of montgomeryBut they're helpless here as babies 'cause they're only here on holidayChorus: what do we care if the world is a joke(tokyo storm warning)We'll give it a big kissWe'll give it a poke(tokyo storm warning)Death wears a big hat 'cause he's a big bloke(tokyo storm warning)We're only living this instantThe black sand stuck beneath her feet in a warm sorrento sunriseA barefoot girl from naples or was it a barcelona hi-riseWhistles out the tuneless theme song on a hundred cheap suggestionsAnd a million false seductions and all those eternal questionsChorusSo they flew the super-constellation all the way from riminiAnd feasted them on fish and chips from a newspaper facsimileNow dead italian tourists bodies litter up the broadwaySome people can't be told you know they have to learn the hard wayHolidays are dirt-cheap in the costa del malvinasIn the hotel argentina they can hardly tell between usFor teresa is a waitress though she's now known as juanitaIn a tango bar in stanley or in puerto margaritaShe's the sweetest and the sauciestThe loveliest and the naughtiestShe's miss buenos aires in a world of lacy lingerieChorusJapanese god-jesus robots telling teenage fortunesFor all we know and all we care they might as well be martiansThey say gold paint on the palace gates comes from the teeth of pensionersThey're so tired of shooting protest singersThat they hardly mention usWhile fountains fill with second-hand perfumeAnd sodden trading stampsThey'll hang the bullies and the louts that dampen down the dayChorusWe braved the cold november air and the undertaker's cursesSaying "take me to the folies bergere and please don't spare the hearses"For he always had a dream of that revolver in your purseHow you loved him 'til you hated him and made him cry for mercyHe said "don't ever mention my name there or talk of all the nights you criedWe've always been like worlds apart now you're seeing two nightmares collide"Chorus