Wake Me Up

I've got this phosphorescent portrait of gentle Jesus meek and mild


I've got this harlot that I'm stuck with carrying another man's child


The solitary star announcing vacancy burnt out as we arrived


They'd throw us back across the border if they knew that we survived

And they were surprised to see us


So they greeted us with palms


They asked for ammunition, acts of contrition and small alms




Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up

With a slap or a kiss

Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up

There must be something better than this


I've got this imaginary radio, and I'm punching up the dial


I've got the A.C. trained on the T.V. so it won't blow up in my eye


And everything that I thought fanciful or mocked as too extreme


Must be family entertainment here in the strange land of my dreams


And I'm practising my likeness of St. Francis of Assisi


And if I hold my hand outstretched


A little bird comes to me





And I might recite a small prayer


If I ever said them


I lay down on an iron frame


And found myself in Bedlam


Stepping on the fingers that were stretching through the bars


Wailing echoes down the corridors





Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up

With a slap or a kiss

Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up

There must be something better than this


They've got this scared and decorated girl strapped to the steel trunk of a Mustang


They drove her down a cypress grove where traitors hang and stars still spangle


They dangled flags and other rags along a coloured thread of twine


They dragged that bruised and purple heart along the road to Palestine





Someone went off muttering, he mentioned thirty pieces


Easter saw a slaughtering, each wrapped in bloodstained fleeces




My thoughts returned to vengeance but I put up no resistance


Though I seemed a long way from my home


It really was no distance





Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up

With a slap or a kiss

Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up

There must be something better than this


And the player piano picks out "Life Goes On"


The Ringtone rang out "Jerusalem"


Into the pit of sadness


Where the wretched plunge


We've buried all the Innocents


We must bury revenge





Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up

There must be something better than this

There must be something better than this

There must be something better than this


In the name of the Father and the Son

In the name of Gasoline and a Gun

Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up, wake me up