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'd survived

And they were surprised to see us

So they greeted us with palms

And 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 AC trained on the TV 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 practicing my likeness

Of Saint 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

Steppin' 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 to Cypress Grove

Where traitors hang and stars still spangle

They dangled flags and other rags

Along a colored 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 (Revenge)

We must bury revenge (Revenge)

We must bury revenge (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

There must be something better than this

There

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