moodmat

I’m not quite sure how it happened, but back in 1981 I ended up with a cassette of Almost Blue instead of Trust. I bet it was a matter of heading to the store for “that Elvis album with him on the cover” or maybe that’s all that was left in the cassette racks at Lechmere. Anyways, Almost Blue served me well, but it was a bunch of years (and accumulating Costello albums) later that I got back to Trust. Then most recently, I stumbled across the (recently Kimmel-free) Sarah Silverman’s Celebrity Playlist which brought to mind a B side favorite, New Lace Sleeves.

I love the tumbling beat, the hurry up and wait bass line, and gods gift to lyric writing, delivering in his trademark regular-guy-can-really-croon singing voice. It’s songs like these that deserve repeat plays… with no apologies to my cube mate… and now yours.

Lyrics provided (for your vocal accompaniment) below.

New Lace Sleeves

Bad lovers face to face in the morning
Shy apologies and polite regrets
Slow dances that left no warning of
Outraged glances and indiscreet yawning
Good manners and bad breath get you nowhere
Even presidents have newspaper lovers
Ministers go crawling under covers
She’s no angel
He’s no saint
They’re all covered up with whitewash and grease paint
And you say…

Chorus:
The teacher never told you anything but white lies
But you never see the lies
And you believe
Oh you know you have been captured
You feel so civilized
And you look so pretty in your new lace sleeves

The salty lips of the socialite sisters
With their continental fingers that have
Never seen working blisters
Oh I know they’ve got their problems
I wish I was one of them
They say daddy’s coming home soon
With his sergeant stripes and his Empire mug and spoon
No more fast buck
When are they gonna learn their lesson
When are they gonna stop all of these victory processions
And you say…