Elvis Costello - Sleep Of The Just lyrics

The soldier asked my name and did I come here very often

Well I thought that he was asking me to dance

In my HOLEY coat and hat and him in his red bonnet

We'd have made a lovely couple but we never had the chance

[chorus]

And now you say that you've got to go

Well if you must you must

I suppose that you need the sleep of the just

Well it was a powerful day and there were black crows in the road

And I kept my strong opinions to my chest

I suppose I should have told them that I was on fire for you

When the bus burst into flames outside some place, 'The Poet's Rest'

[chorus]

A girl woke up in a naked light and said "Oh no not again"

He even looked like her brother in the army but she never mentions him

He'll be tucked up in his bed tonight with his dirty-pictures girl

Saying, 'You're some mother's daughter you know or is it

immaterial girl?'

Now she's pinned up upon the barracks wall in her home town

All the soldiers taking turns with their attentions

And as they speculate what she'd look like beneath that thin nightgown

His family pride was rising up as he cast his eyes down