Elvis Costello — I Cant Turn It Off

Basement babies strangling saxophones They got twisted motives, they got eyes of stone And it's a terminal condition that is tattooed on their shoes It's not that they don't need you They're too mixed up to choose Broken noses hung up high on the wall Back-slapping drinkers cheer the championship brawl But they're so punch drunk they don't understand the word defeat They can take you out and shoot you They can't confiscate that beat Steam engineer breaks down in the newsreel He's seen the future of the diesel wheel Listen to the hammers falling in the breaker's yard When you're used to the glamour it comes at you twice as hard Sometimes I think that I have had enough Sometimes I scare myself by giving up Oh you know that I can't turn it off Young girl rehearses all her blackmail faces She's looking for a love that lasts She'd never break the heart of any aces But she's learning pretty fast I've seen those clowns running all over town Trying to satisfy all of their carnival desires They start out looking for their own melody They end up in the closing time choirs All you lucky people crying in your beer When it comes down to silence not even tears You're in real trouble between the two When it comes down to me When it comes down to you But there must be something you're allowed to keep In between all of these pantomimes Oh it's very easy to let love fall asleep When you are worrying about hard times Sometimes I think that I have had enough Sometimes I scare myself by giving up Oh you know that I can't turn it off Oh you know that I can't turn it off