Radio Silence - Elvis Costello

Signal fading, listen to what I’m saying.

Testing, testing,

this better be worth all of the breath I’m wasting.

Maintaining radio silence from now on.

Barricaded in the talk radio station

Hostage taken

The red 'On Air' light shines on Something cheaper than passes for free speech

Will have to do Hear him coming through loud and clear

Trickling in your ear

He’ll tell you anything you want to hear

The tape starts running

He’s going to tell you something

Strings start strumming another humdrum conundrum.

Signing off now,

Maintaining radio silence from now on.

But there’s one thing I should have said,

The hostage will end up dead.

It’s just a comedy, the hostage is me.

So pay the ransom beyond the run-out groove and

Get my wife down here, a helicopter on the roof.

No police marksman

Maintaining radio silence from now on.

Mystery voices drowned out by too much choice

That’s not to mention

The sad waste of this wonderful invention

Maintaining radio silence from now on.

Libraries filled up with failed ideas,

there’s nothing more for me there.

I trust in tender ink and gentle airs.

Do those drug dealers still polish women made of wax?

Gangsters and world leaders require the same protection from attack.

From a distance it’s hard to tell the difference

Between a king and a jack

Between a poet and a hack

Maintaining radio silence from now on.