Stan Ridgway - Pick It Up (And Put It in Your Pocket) Lyrics
A signal swings and the lights turn offAnd a missing man begins to coughAnd no one knows the lost ones from the foundAnd lady luck, well, she can't explainTo a hardened coin or a bill, the gameIt seems everything changes hands when it hits the groundThey said it's dog eat dog, cat eat mouseAnd mouse eat cheese and the cheese just smellsThe warning systems ring but help won't come.And all the calling cards and the walking sticksAnd the hidden punches and the coward's kicksSay we got a big mouthful nowChorus:Pick it up and put it in your pocketOr somebody else willPick it up and put it in your pocketOr somebody else just willRepeat as necessaryNow the world's a road and for miles aroundOn every inch of unclaimed ground, hide rewards for some but all the restSpin a creepy wheel or they trip the stairWhile the new school boys just can't play fairIn a place that leaves it's money in it's messChorus repeatNow an old man with a paper bagAnd a list so long on a dirty ragChecks each item that he will throw or keepBut he'll never thank the coin that's bentOr a greenback bill that a stranger sentBut he'll pick 'em just the sameAnd then he'll thank the streetHe turns and says it's dog eat dogAnd cat eat mouseAnd mouse eat cheeseAnd the cheese just smellsNow I don't wanna seem to sayThat the time ahead won't be okayBut the scale is loaded downWith the weight of sixteen tonsAnd the ones that haveTell the ones that don'tTo tell the ones that can'tAbout the ones who won'tAnd there's no place left here'Round to runChorus repeat endlessly
