It's a sin to tell a lie until we trick out the truth
That depends on what you do and don't believe
What you have hidden up your sleeve

Younger than your shadow and as sweet as your tooth
What have you forbidden from my view?
What have you kept from me?
What have I held from you?

What will they say when they haul you away?
Will anyone miss you, or kiss you, to say
"Goodbye" (Goodbye)
With a tear or a coin for your eye
When they finally trick out the truth

There are witches in the air
Jack o'lanterns on the stairs
And a wig to turn your hair electric blue
Ghouls are sighted, children frighted

Superheroes and villains
Wondrous women by the millions
Who fade to the parade
And join the masquerade

Right outside your door a werewolf and his claw
Painted faces with a penny chew and Kensington gore

Mussolini and his mistress in defeat
And a witness with a cutlass arrange a winding sheet
Singing "Leaning On A Lampost On The Corner Of The Street"

The Marxists cheer a working girl
Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Karl
She's tattooed from her head to toe
She's inky like a girl I know

A contagion of invidia
Just like the famous Lydia
Just like Helen, late of Troy
The Myna Bird, the Myrna Loy

Bud and Lou were wrestling in the parlour
Playing cards with Gustav Mahler
We were calling every hand and every hold

To a silent movie pianist
Accompanying the action
From our description and distraction

Playing vamps and trills and rambles, sound effects and rags and rumbles
Without even breaking stride
Just as the bloody vampire nips his bride

We were so scared that we knelt down to pray
With a bishop by Bacon
Who caused some dismay
Who summons up tormented souls doused with feathers and molasses
And the ashes of unholy crosses

Somebody has to die before we trick out the truth
I'll be coming back and I will turn the screw

Longer than the shadow of some pulp fiction sleuth
Standing in a costume of your choice
Lady Godiva on a horse
And Godzilla, of course

For should we part at the end of the day
When angels attend you to whisk you away
We are falling down deep
Like children into sleep

And the candy has been counted
And the bonfire will be haunted
By orphans who are heard but never seen
Each and every Halloween

What will they say when they haul you away?
Will anyone miss you, or kiss you, to say
"Goodbye" (Goodbye)
With a tear or a coin for your eye
When they finally trick out the truth
When they finally trick out the truth