Can You HEAR Me? - Elvis Costello, The Roots

Signal fading

Listen to what I’m saying

Can you hear me?

Can you hear me?

Testing, testing

Can you hear me?

This better be worth all of the breath I’m wasting

Hear him coming through loud and clear

Hear him treacling in your ear

Well, you know your time has come

And you’re sorry for what you’ve done

All you gangsters

You should have never have been playing with a gun

Can you hear me?

Can you hear me?

Hear him coming through loud and clear

Hear him treacling in your ear

Next week there’ll be some fashionable new sin

For each harlot and each puritan

Pull off their wings, stick 'em on a pin

Can you hear me?

And just let the money roll in

Can you hear me?

Signal fading

Listen to what I’m saying

Can you hear me?

Can you hear me?

Testing, testing

Can you hear me?

This better be worth all of the breath I’m wasting

Hear him coming through loud and clear

Hear him treacling in your ear

There’s a line that you must toe

And it’s time for you to go

All you gangsters

It’s darker than you know

Can you hear me?

Hear him coming through loud and clear

Hear him treacling in your ear

The hands of the helpless are raised

Your dead little secrets are praised

The people stand dumbstruck and dazed

Can you hear me?

By the inches that you have erased

Hear him treacling in your ear

Do those drug dealer still polish women made of wax

Can you hear me?

Can you hear me?

Gangsters and world leaders

Require the same protection from attack

Can you hear me?

Can you hear me?

Libraries filled up with failed ideas

There’s nothing more for me there

I trust in tender ink and gentle airs

Tape starts running

He’s going to tell you something

Can you hear me?

Can you hear me?

Strings start strumming

Another humdrum conundrum…

Hear him coming through loud and clear

Hear him treacling in your ear

Barricaded in the talk radio station

Hostage taken

Can you hear me

The red «On-Air"light shines on

Can you hear me?

Can you hear me?

All you gangsters

So pay the ransom

Before the run-out groove

Hear him coming through loud and clear

Hear him treacling in your ear

Get my wife down here

A helicopter on the roof

No police marksman

Maintaining radio silence from now on

Signal fading

Listen to what I’m saying

Mystery voices drowned out by too much choice

Testing, testing

Maintaining radio silence