[Intro: piano] [Verse 1] Ed Walden had a blazer with the buttons made of gold, And a Johnnie Walker Black at eleven, and a lie for every hole, He said "a friendly government," he said "consulting work," He said "the Company's behind me," with a country-club smirk. [Verse 2] I called Johnny down in Georgia, he was dusting peanut rows, The line went quiet while he chewed, and then he said, you know, "I don't like the smell of it, Sarge." I said I did. I liked it just as much as I needed to. [Chorus] Desert Phantom! Twenty tons of drilling mud, Every crate a Christmas present With a ribbon made of blood, And every Friday, a manila envelope, And I never once asked where it came from. [Verse 3] She was sitting in Valletta with a book in Italian, Sunglasses and a sundress, and she didn't look my way: "You're getting a sunburn, Sergeant Major." I said they're gonna do nothing. She said they're gonna watch: "Walden's not the target, Jack. Walden's the window." [Verse 4] A paper clip, a padlock, and a folder on the desk, Names in London, Rome and Bonn, and Denver, and the rest, A Minox the size of a stick of gum, And a Russian in the window with a cigarette, watching me come. [Chorus] Desert Phantom! Twenty tons of drilling mud, Every crate a Christmas present With a ribbon made of blood, And every Friday, a manila envelope, And I never once asked where it came from. [Verse 5] The film was in a bar of soap, a trick the Boy Scouts know, Three men at the front desk, they all had the same mustache, Through the kitchen, through the medina, over the brass pots, Off the roof and twelve feet down to a fishing boat and a roll of cash. [Verse 6] Fourteen hours under sardine nets, three in the morning, Malta, She was waiting on the dock in a man's sweater, and she held out her hand. I gave her the bar of soap. [Bridge] Walden got fifty-two years, and he swore the Company knew, The Company said they'd never heard of him, and that's probably true. Walden lied, the Company lied, I lied to Johnny on the phone, And maybe I lied to myself, but I did it on my own. [Final Chorus] Desert Phantom! Twenty tons of drilling mud, Every crate a Christmas present With a ribbon made of blood, And every Friday, a manila envelope, And I never once asked where it came from. [Outro: spoken over piano] The C-4 was real. The list was real. The bar of soap was real. [End]
