Church Underground

She stood spotlit in a plain print dress

Came howling out of the wilderness

There beat a cunning and murderous heart

Beneath that calm exterior

"You know my name

You don't know my mind

Don't doubt my eyes

They betray the past

And I've already forgotten

Much more than you will ever know"

And every word that I have spoken is true

Except for those that were broken in two

I'm trying to make peace after a long night of pretend

I need a pawnbroker or moneylender

Why do you do me down, Mister?

Sing "Hallelujah," Sister

Turn up the volume, just to turn it down

The trivial secrets buried with profound

It's enough to put a Church Underground

Deflowered young and then ever since

She's tried to wash off his fingerprints

So every charlatan and prince

Was made to feel inferior

She worked for tips in a 10-cent dance

Said moving pictures might pay perchance

10,000 one-way tickets to the sparkling coast

From the blank interior

Everybody's either talking in code

Or getting ready to explode

Then she was singing with five-piece band

But seems that no-one wants this sound

Why do you do me down, Mister?

Sing "Hallelujah," Sister

Turn up the volume, just to turn it down

The trivial secrets buried with profound

It's enough to put a Church Underground

The shaft of fanlight streaked with rain

Poured through the glass, punched through the pain

A holy picture hidden in the midden of that poisoned stitch

Her lonely voice was just a ruin in these riches

Must have been dreaming this all along

Could she be redeeming herself in song?

"I'm no-one's martyred, plaster saint

Below the grease, beneath the paint"

I'm rolling like barrel

Swinging like a gallows

I'm rising up fast like all hell and all hallows

Why do you do me down, Mister?

Sing "Hallelujah," Sister

I'll be damned or purgatory bound

Before those jokers ever understand

It's enough to put a Church Underground