Today’s slow drag is with “Heathen Town,” from “Out of Our Idiot,” released in 1987. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello.

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Show Notes:

Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA

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“Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, Podcasts” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Podcasts

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References:

Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Heathen Town” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Heathen_Town

“Heathen Town” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udnz2s_k8js

“The Fall of Rome” https://www.dictionary.com/browse/fall-of-rome#:~:text=The%20collapse%20of%20the%20Roman,%2C%20Romulus%20Augustulus%2C%20in%20476.

“Old hat” idiom: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/old-hat#:~:text=old%20hat%20in%20American%20English,of%20being%20trite%20or%20commonplace

John Howard Payne’s, “Home Sweet Home,” written in 1822 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqjjfF1Wn-s

“Ave Maria” (Ellen’s Third Song,” composed in 1825  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqjjfF1Wn-s

“Ave Maria” words: https://www.classicfm.com/composers/schubert/ave-maria-schubert-lyrics/

Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday”

Listen to the audiobook of “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y

 

"Heathen Town" Lyrics

They used to call it Sin City

Now it's gone way past that

Painting the town and then burning it down

Now even that's old hat

Now there's a choir of angels at the fall of Rome

Singing "Ave Maria" or "Home Sweet Home"

 

It's just a heathen town

I hear only evil as my tongue is tightened

I used to be god-fearing, now I'm so frightened

Cos the devil will drag you under

By the shark tail fin of your checkered cab

And I can't sit down, I'm going overboard

in this heathen town

 

It starts as a flirtation

And ends up as an expensive habit

With one eye on her place in debtor's prison

And the other on a girl dressed as a rabbit

Now you can live forever

Endure fits and starts

But the only stake you cannot raise

Is the one driven through your heart

 

It's just a heathen town

I hear only evil as my tongue is tightened

I used to be god-fearing, now I'm so frightened

Cos the devil will drag you under

By the shark tail fin of your checkered cab

And I can't sit down, I'm going overboard

In this heathen town

 

And I can't sit down, I'm going overboard

In this heathen town

In this heathen town

In this heathen town

In this heathen town

In this heathen town