Ghost Repeater

All of the drunks
 Dressed up like Santa Claus
 Ring Salvation Army bells
 But the town square is quiet
 The juke joints are empty
 Everyone's buying
 What no one can sell
 And the girl I loved once
 Came to me last night
 In a dream with a secret to tell
 She whispered close
 Can't you hear the ocean?
 As she leaned her ear
 Against a shotgun shell
 Chorus:
 Dark was the night
 Cold was the ground
 I could barely make out the song
 Of the Ghost Repeaters
 Singing Hallelujah
 His truth is marching on
 Willie Mae's crying
 At the toll booth to heaven
 With a bottle of gin
 And a gold-toothed smile
 Where the dreams pile up
 All washed out and broken
 As thick as the stars
 On the Miracle Mile
 But the movie is over
 The theater is empty
 The credits are starting to roll
 The wages of sin
 Don't adjust for inflation
 It's a buyer's market
 When you sell your soul
 Chorus
 The plaza is dark
 The picadors are dreaming
 Of blood in the alleys
 And rust on the vines
 They sandbag the bulls
 And prop up the matadors
 It's a sweetheart contract
 They're taking their time
 And all the ghost prisoners
 Who aren't in the ghost prisons
 Don't weep at the sound
 Of your name
 They just stare up at the clouds
 Of passenger pigeons
 Winging back home
 To the cities of the plain
 Chorus
 The star up above
 The 5th Avenue Christmas tree
 Is shining tonight
 Through the cold and the rain
 To light all the faces
 In the live nativity
 Down on the floor
 Of the stock exchange
 Dark is the night
 Cold is the ground
 The armies march out to defend
 And the Ghost Repeaters
 Of the revelators
 Are singing "Peace on Earth
 And Good Will to all Men"