Bagman's Gambit Lyrics

On the lam from the law, on the steps of the capitol
You shot a plain clothes cop on the ten o'clock
And I saw momentarily
They flashed with photograph, it couldn't be you

You'd been abused so horribly
But you were there in some anonymous room
And I recall that fall, I was working for the government
And in a bathroom stall off the National Mall

How we kissed so sweetly
How could I refuse a favor or two
And for a tryst in the greenery
I gave you documents and microfilm too

And from my ten floor tenement
Where once our bodies lay
How I long to hear you say

No, they'll never catch me now
No, they'll never catch me
No, they cannot catch me now
We will escape somehow, somehow

It was late one night, I was awoken by the telephone
I heard a strangled cry on the end of the line
Purloined in Petrograd, they were suspicious
Of where your loyalties lay, so I paid off a bureaucrat
To convince your captors, they're to secret you away

And at the gate of the emba*sy
Our hands met through the bars
As your whisper stilled my heart

No, they'll never catch me now
No, they'll never catch me
No, they cannot catch me now
We will escape somehow, somehow

And I dreamt one night
You were there in force
Head held high in uniform

It was ten years on
When you resurfaced in a motorcar
And with the wave of an arm
You were there and gone

Decemberists - Picaresque

Dec 2025

1. (from My Own True Love) Lost At Sea
2. Bagman's Gambit
3. Eli, The Barrow Boy
4. Engine Driver
5. Infanta
6. Mariner's Revenge Song
7. Of Angels And Angles
8. On The Bus Mall
9. Sixteen Military Wives
10. Sporting Life
11. We Both Go Down Together