There's a body in the basement The TV's full of guns In the room adjacent Cold water runs The sound of cisterns Sizzling bacon or chips Footsteps in the distance She's working on the midnight shift The room is getting colder Start jumping Jack You're the bluebird over her shoulder The monkey on her back She left your taxi fare There's a message in the gift You got more than she could spare She's working on the midnight shift Feedback screams on a twisted riff Luxembourg by night The cheapjack dream of the midnight shift Doesn't work out right He's got to shoot, he's got to shoot Put his face about It's like the long abandoned baseball boot With the tounge hanging out The perfume of the essence rare That lingers in the lift He's a prince among the peasants where She's working on the nidnight shift You're gonna find her stuck in the lift To the wonderland of vice You're gonna find her on the midnight shift With feet like blocks of ice She carried water for the mainman She had to walk the streets She married a door-to-door salesman Who worked away all week She lived with an empty chair Until the final rift She didn't have a thing to wear She had to work on the midnight shift You're gonna find her frozen stiff You think you been hurt You're gonna find her on the midnight shift Standing in the dirt You like to put yourself about Like the main man about town She needs someone to help her out But that's where you keep falling down Was there ever a thing so fair That smashed itself to bits Sometimes you get nowhere Working on the midnight shift A million tears gonna tear her apart Eyes that never shut A million spears gonna pierce your heart It's the death of a thousand cuts A million souls all running scared Or else they only drift You won't find her anywhere She's working on the midnight shift You're gonna find her on the hit list Of a cheapskate beastly rag You're gonna find her on the midnight shift What a fuckin' drag You really can't stop now The visitors arrive Here come the cops now Crunching up the drive Flat footsteps on the stairs Bad news travels swift Sometimes you get nowhere Working on the midnight shift