120 :: Dumbstruck and Dazed :: A Slow Drag with "American Gangster Time"

Today’s slow drag is with “American Gangster Time,” from “Momofuku,” released in 2008. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello.

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Show Notes:

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

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/

Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/slowdragwithremedy.com

Email: [e-mail]  

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

Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com

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

Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag

 

References:

 

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

“American Gangster Time” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnRIKlVsk1w

Flag Etiquette: https://www.vfw.org/community/flag-etiquette

Flatter to Deceive idiom meaning: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/flatter-to-deceive#:~:text=to%20give%20the%20appearance%20of,just%20a%20lull%20in%20hostilities.

 

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

 

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

 

"American Gangster Time" Lyrics: 

One, two, three, four

 

Somewhere downtown a pretty girl kneels

Offers her soft lips and a handful of pills

Peels off her dress and then the rest of her skills

It buys what she wants and the rest she just steals

 

He speaks between deep swallows of rum

While her head is beating like a big bass drum

And she wishes he were mute and not just dumb

When the trick asked her quick, "Did you come?"

 

It's a drag

Saluting that starry rag

I'd rather go blind

For speaking my mind

Or use it just like a gag

So, raise it in anger

Just let it hang

American Gangster Time

 

He sits back and starts to invent

All about some Saigon correspondent

"'Til the carbine fell silent and spent

I never knew it could be so eloquent"

 

Next week there'll be some fashionable new sin

For each harlot and each Puritan

Pull off their wings stick them on a pin

And just watch the money roll in

 

It's a drag

Saluting that starry rag

I’d rather go blind

For speaking my mind

Or use it just like a gag

So, raise it in anger

Just let it hang

American Gangster Time

 

What you got hidden up your sleeve?

The tracks of the train that were bidding you to leave

When they say that you should flatter to deceive

Don't count on any reprieve

 

The hands of the helpless are raised

Your dead little secrets are praised

The people stand dumbstruck and dazed

By the inches that you have erased

 

It’s a drag

Saluting that starry rag

I'd rather go blind

For speaking my mind

Or use it just like a gag

So, raise it in anger

Just let it hang

American gangster time

Committing the perfect crime

In American Gangster Time

 

Here we go

Bye bye

American Gangster Time