115 :: Lipstick and Greasepaint :: A Slow Drag with "God's Comic"

Today’s slow drag is with “God’s Comic,” from “Spike,” released in 1989. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello’s birth name.

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Show Notes:

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

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Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com

Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com

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References:

Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “God’s Comic” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=God%27s_Comic

“God’s Comic” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajjBxMCMQQs

“God’s Comic” Live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0N6TfU54o8

“Requiem” by Andrew Lloyd Webber https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3CG8pUpVjg

“God is dead”: What Nietzsche really meant”: https://bigthink.com/thinking/what-nietzsche-really-meant-by-god-is-dead/ 

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

Listen to the audiobook for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y

 

"God's Comic" Lyrics 

I wish you'd known me when I was alive, I was a funny fella

The crowd would hoot and holler for more 

I wore a drunk's red nose for applause 

Oh yes, I was a comical priest 

"With a joke for the flock and a hand up your fleece" 

Drooling the drink and the lipstick and greasepaint 

Down the cardboard front of my dirty dog-collar 

 

(Chorus:)

Now I'm dead, now I'm dead, now I'm dead, now I'm dead 

And I'm going on to meet my reward 

I was scared, I was scared, I was scared, I was scared 

He might’ve never heard God's comic 

 

So, there he was on a waterbed, drinking a cola of a mystery brand 

Reading an airport novelette, listening to Andrew Lloyd-Webber's "Requiem" 

He said, before it had really begun, "I prefer the one about my son" 

"I've been wading through all of this unbelievable junk 

And wondering if I should have given the world to the monkeys" 

 

(Repeat Chorus) 

 

I'm gonna take a little trip down Paradise's endless shores 

They say that travel broadens the mind, till you can't get your head out of doors 

 

I'm sitting here on the top of the world, I hang around in the longest night 

Until each beast has gone to bed and then I say "God bless" and put out the light 

 

While you lie in the dark, afraid to breathe 

And you beg and you promise and you bargain and you plead 

Sometimes you confuse me with Santa Claus 

It's the big white beard, I suppose 

I'm going up to the Pole, where you folks die of cold 

I might be gone for a while if you need me 

 

Now I'm dead, now I'm dead, now I'm dead, now I'm dead

And you're all going on to meet your reward 

Are you scared? Are you scared? Are you scared? Are you scared? 

You might have never heard, but God's comic