Viceroy’s Row

Now there's a crank in every crowd sprinkled in gunpowder Seems that everything is about to blow They're lit the burning paper with a waxing taper Sitting up here on Viceroy's Row And they're gathering flowers in the crack of hours Where all of the nightmares go Watching the pipeline as it overflows Sitting pretty here on Viceroy's Row He made a fortune out of barbed wire in the last days of the empire Built a cast-iron curtain just to keep control He was a tycoon and a cheapskate, went out looking for a keepsake To tuck into a suitcase on Viceroy's Row And they're gathering flowers in the crack of hours Where all of the nightmares go Watching the pipeline as it overflows Sitting pretty here on Viceroy's Row He had a satchel full of cash and dishes full of ashes He went from boom to bust in the blinking of an eyelash Heard the rat-a-tat of the late patrol Shooting out the lights up on Viceroy's Row And they're gathering flowers in the crack of hours Where all of the nightmares go They're coming for him slowly, now the war is over Sitting up here on Viceroy's Row A woman in a blindfold, she doesn't want to end up Walking through a minefield, saying "How does this feel?" Stepping on the quicksand, going down slow Hiding up here on Viceroy's Row Nothing satisfies the ruin of his blue eyes Like bloodstains on a diamond knife Do you believe he felt not one measure of his guilt? Staring in the dark up on Viceroy's Row He had her bedded and covered, took the limit of rubber Tied her to the bed with a silken thread But without an ounce of mercy, they denounced him with a curse Hammering on the door up on Viceroy's Row Now his old concubine in her sanitary drag Her face all smeared with charcoal, his leaving on a carousel Take five hundred acres and see what you can sow We came to overthrow those on Viceroy's Row They're gathering flowers in the crack of hours Where all of the nightmares go Watching the pipeline as it overflows Sitting up here on Viceroy's Row