Chewing Gum - Elvis Costello

With their cardboard hands by their sides

Here’s a naked man and lady

And they’re yours to cut out and keep

So you can dress them up maybe

They don’t know just who they are, or who they’re

Supposed to be

You can make them happy or sad

Or assume their identity

So here they are in the departure lounge

It’s the «Gateway to the East»

She is just another mail-order bride

She doesn’t know he’s a kinky beast

So he gives her a picture of Maradona and child

She wants to «roll and rock»

As he spills his beer over her, bumps and he

Grinds, as he repeats «Bang-Cock»

There must be something that is better than this

It starts with a slap and ends up with a kiss

Begins with you bawling and it ends up in tears

Oh my little one, take that chewing gum out of

Your ears

She might as well be in the jungle

She might as well be on the moon

He’s away on a business trip, in Dusseldorf, but

She’s becoming immune

To the lack of glamor and danger in a West

German city today

The nearest she comes to the «Dynasty» he

Promised her

Is a Chinese takeaway

Though he only taught her three little words, it

Doesn’t matter if they’re dirty or clean

He can only control what they look like

He can never possess what they mean

Now he wants to whisper in her ear

All the shrinking nothingness

But something always comes between them

I wonder if you can guess