Jimmie Standing in the Rain

Album: National Ransom (2010)
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  • Third-class ticket in his pocket
    Punching out the shadows underneath the sockets
    Tweed coat turned up against the fog
    Slow coaches rolling o'er the moor
    Between the very memory
    And approaches of war

    Stale bread curling on a luncheon counter
    Loose change lonely, not the right amount
    Forgotten man of an indifferent nation
    Waiting on a platform at a Lancashire station
    Somebody's calling you again
    The sky is falling
    Jimmie's standing in the rain

    Nobody wants to buy a counterfeited prairie lullaby in a colliery town
    The hip flask and fumbled skein of some stage door Josephine is all he'll get now
    Eyes going in and out of focus
    Mild and bitter from tuberculosis

    Forgotten man
    Indifferent nation
    Waiting on a platform at a Lancashire station
    Somebody's calling you again
    The sky is falling
    Jimmie's standing in the rain

    Her soft breath was gentle on his neck
    If he could choose the time to die
    Then he would come and go like this
    Underneath a painted sky

    She woke up and called him "Charlie" by mistake
    And then in shame began to cry
    Tarnished silver band peels off a phrase
    And then warms their hands around the brazier

    Forgotten man
    Indifferent nation
    Waiting on a platform at a Lancashire station
    Somebody's calling you again
    It's finally dawning
    Jimmie's standing in the rain

    Brilliantine glistening
    Your soft plaintive whistling
    And your wan wandering smile
    Died down at The Hippodrome
    Now you're walking off to jeers, the lonely sound of jingling spurs,
    The "toodle-oos" and "Oh, my dears" down at "The Argyle"

    Vile vaudevillians applaud sobriety
    There's no place for a half-cut cowboy in polite society

    Forgotten man
    Indifferent nation
    Waiting on a platform at a Lancashire station
    Somebody's calling you again
    It's finally dawning
    Jimmie's standing in the rain
    Somebody's calling you again
    It's finally dawning
    Jimmie's standing in the rain Writer/s: ELVIS COSTELLO
    Publisher: BMG Rights Management
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

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