Today’s slow drag is with “Heathen Town,” from “Out of Our Idiot,” released in 1987. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello.
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Show Notes:
Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA
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“Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, Podcasts” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Podcasts
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References:
Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Heathen Town” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Heathen_Town
“Heathen Town” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udnz2s_k8js
“The Fall of Rome” https://www.dictionary.com/browse/fall-of-rome#:~:text=The%20collapse%20of%20the%20Roman,%2C%20Romulus%20Augustulus%2C%20in%20476.
“Old hat” idiom: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/old-hat#:~:text=old%20hat%20in%20American%20English,of%20being%20trite%20or%20commonplace
John Howard Payne’s, “Home Sweet Home,” written in 1822 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqjjfF1Wn-s
“Ave Maria” (Ellen’s Third Song,” composed in 1825 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqjjfF1Wn-s
“Ave Maria” words: https://www.classicfm.com/composers/schubert/ave-maria-schubert-lyrics/
Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday”
Listen to the audiobook of “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y
"Heathen Town" Lyrics
They used to call it Sin City
Now it's gone way past that
Painting the town and then burning it down
Now even that's old hat
Now there's a choir of angels at the fall of Rome
Singing "Ave Maria" or "Home Sweet Home"
It's just a heathen town
I hear only evil as my tongue is tightened
I used to be god-fearing, now I'm so frightened
Cos the devil will drag you under
By the shark tail fin of your checkered cab
And I can't sit down, I'm going overboard
in this heathen town
It starts as a flirtation
And ends up as an expensive habit
With one eye on her place in debtor's prison
And the other on a girl dressed as a rabbit
Now you can live forever
Endure fits and starts
But the only stake you cannot raise
Is the one driven through your heart
It's just a heathen town
I hear only evil as my tongue is tightened
I used to be god-fearing, now I'm so frightened
Cos the devil will drag you under
By the shark tail fin of your checkered cab
And I can't sit down, I'm going overboard
In this heathen town
And I can't sit down, I'm going overboard
In this heathen town
In this heathen town
In this heathen town
In this heathen town
In this heathen town
