The Hold Steady - The Ambassador

While you were in Michigan
She was pretty much living in
A 3.2 bars a stretch to call a club

It was called the ambassador
She was pretty much crashing there
The space between the skin and all her blood

The nights were hot and hissing like an iron
The days spent climbing walls like a vine

A bay city tire shop
It's just a temporary stop
A touchdown on a trip that was mostly undefined

While you were still staying there
All the halls smelled like burning hair
In the end it made you sick but at first you didn't mind

The nights were hot and hissing like an iron
The day were cold and crushed you like a can
Years spent faking pain and making plans

I'm pretty sure you'd recognize these guys
That were asking around for you just the other night
There was blood on the bed
And the lights in their eyes
If you came around the back
We could take them by surprise

Your friend from the tire shop
He keeps talking about some rock
Like he wants something hard to hit his head on

You said he's a mystic
Well I know he's not catholic
He's got a cross all upside down carved in his arm

The nights were hot and hissing like an iron
The days were cold and crushed you like a can
Years spent faking pain and making plans

I'm pretty sure you'd recognize these guys
That were asking around for you just the other night
There was blood on the bed
And the lights in their eyes

When you came back to us
In South Minneapolis
You said revenge exists outside of space and time
Back behind the ambassador
Man it feels kind of magical
I guess your friend can really move things with his mind

It was called the ambassador
There wasn't much diplomatic there
The space between the skin and all the blood