Elvis Costello Little Palaces song lyrics

In chocolate town all the trains are painted brown

In the silver paper of the wrapper

There's a dapper little man

And he wears a wax mustache

That he twists with nicotine fingers

As he drops his cigarette ash

And someone comes and sweeps it up

And then he doffs his cap

And there's a rat in someone's bedroom

And they're shutting someone's trap

And they'll soon be pulling down the little palaces

And the doors swing back and forward

From the past into the present

And the bedside crucifixion

Turns from wood to phosphorescent

And they're moving problem families

From the South up to the North

Mother's crying over some

Soft soap opera divorce

And you say you didn't do it

But you know you did of course

And they'll soon be pulling down the little palaces

It's like shouting in a matchbox

Filled with plasterboard and hope

Like a picture of Prince William

In the arms of John the Pope

There's a world of good intentions

And pity in their eyes

The sedated homes of England

Are theirs to vandalize

So you knock the kids about a bit, because they've got your name

And you knock the kids about a bit, until they feel the same

And they feel like knocking down the little palaces

You're the twinkle in your daddy's eye, a name you spray and scribble

You made the girls all turn their heads

And in turn they made you miserable

To be the heir apparent to the kingdom of the invisible

So you knock the kids about a bit, because they've got your name

And you knock the kids about a bit, until they feel the same

And they feel like knocking down the little palaces