Clubland - Elvis Costello

With a handful of backhanders and a bevy of beauty

You’re going off limits

Going off duty

Going off the rails

Going off with booty

They tell tales of fiction found on all the criminal types

Lead to a higher ranking man or a face with thin red stripes

The boys next door

The mums and dads

New weds and nearly-deads

Have you ever been had in Clubland?

There’s a piece in someone’s pocket to do the dirty work

You’ve come to shoot the pony

They’ve come to do the jerk

They leave him half way to paradise

They leave you half way to bliss

The ladies' invitation never seemed like this

The long arm of the law slides up the outskirts of town

Meanwhile in Clubland they are ready to pull them down

Hey

The right to work is traded in for the right to refuse admission

Don’t pass out now, there’s no refund

(when) Did you find out what you were missing

The crowd is taking forty winks minus ten percent

You barely get required sleep to go lingering with contemptment

Thursday to Saturday

Money’s gone already

Some things come in common these days

Your hands and work aren’t steady