Today’s slow drag is with “Deportees Club,” from “Goodbye Cruel World,” released in 1984. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello.

Show Notes:

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy

Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com

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

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

References:

Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “The Deportees Club”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/The_Deportees_Club

“The Deportees Club”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf2RKMXjrMI

“Deportee” (slow version): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIzTXbixEaQ

“Did Nero Really Fiddle While Rome Burned?”: https://www.history.com/news/did-nero-really-fiddle-while-rome-burned

“The bouba/kiki effect: how do we link shapes to sounds?”: https://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2016/oct/17/the-boubakiki-effect-how-do-we-link-shapes-to-sounds

“On the Fiddle” expression: the-fiddle.html">https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/on-the-fiddle.html

Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” https://www.amazon.com/Most-Terrible-Time-Life-Thursday-ebook/dp/B07XLXS5PL/ref=sr_1_1?crid=Y4SGCT62WPEK&dchild=1&keywords=the+most+terrible+time+in+my+life+ends+thursday&qid=1608873405&sprefix=The+Most+Terrible+Time+in+%2Caps%2C195&sr=8-1

"Deportees Club" Lyrics:

In the Arrivederci Roma nightclub, bar and grill

Standing in the fiberglass ruins watching time stand still

All your troubles you confess to another faceless backless dress

Schnapps chianti Porto and ouzo

Pernod vodka sambuca, I love you so

Deportee

 

Tatty beauty talking in riddles

Rome burns down everybody's on the fiddle

Two thousand dollars for a wife and some class

A thousand years drowned in a chaser glass

How I wish that she was mine

I could have been a king in six/eight time

Schnapps chianti Porto and ouzo

Pernod vodka sambuca, I love you so

Deportee

 

It's a brittle charm but she's had enough

Still she wrote her number on his paper cuff

You don't know where to start or where to stop

All this pillow talk is nothing more than talking shop

 

When I came here tonight my pockets were overflowing

They took my return ticket without me even knowing

I pray to the saints and all the martyrs

For the secret life of Frank Sinatra

But none of these things have come to pass

In America the law is a piece of ass

I'm a deportee

 

Schnapps chianti porter and ouzo

Pernod vodka sambuca, I love you so

 

Alternate lyrics to “Deportee”

In the Arrivederci Roma nightclub, bar and grill Standing in the fiberglass ruins watching time stand still All your troubles you confess to another faceless, backless dress Schnapps, chianti, Porto and ouzo Pernod, vodka, sambuca--I love you so Deportee There's a tattered beauty talking in riddles Rome burns down and everybody fiddles Deportee But a thousand dollars won't buy you a Yankee wife, alas There's a thousand years of history ground in this chaser glass And how I wish that she was mine I could have been the King in Six Eight Time Deportee Oh, it's a brittle charm, but she's had enough Still she wrote her name upon his paper cuff And you don't where to start or where to stop All this pillow talk is nothing more than finally talking shop When I came here tonight my pockets were overflowing They took my return ticket without me even knowing Well, I pray to the saints and all the martyrs For the secret life of Frank Sinatra But none of these things have come to pass In America the law is a piece of ass Deportee So it's Schnapps, chianti, porter and ouzo Pernod, vodka, sambuca--I love you so Deportee Deportee Poor Deportee