On a dark night in a lost hour   In a town built from neon and chrome   Where las vegas seeks the desert   In an old broken down casino   There the gambler slapped his money down   Dirty dollars one hundred or more   Placed his last bet on a poker game   Crossed his heart for the winning score      But the players at the table   Two men of the phantom creed   Seemed to play with sombre purpose   Than a reason and pure greed   And the gambler felt his back freeze   And fear brushed his ageing brow   For he'd seen those men before in his dreams   Here they sat before him now      And the one smoothed back his black hair   With a comb slicked by brylcream and grease   Flipped the cards with a flippancy   Of a wily and slippery ease   With his sharp suit shade of lilac   On a shuffle he made the cards sing   Gold studs and menthol cigarettes   Rubies set in a skull ring      And the other of the clergy   With a colour and robe of pale ivory   Silver grey at the temples   And a smile that was stern and was kindly      Jack of hearts lead, wait for aces   Became faces of family and friends   Until the deck showed him a picture   Of his life from beginning to end   Reverend life he flipped an ace   And the gambler felt blood in his heart   For he knew this was the game of games   He would need all the reverend's heart      Anger, lust and gluttony   The gambler seems hit hard   Each failure and each feature   Mapped out in the slippery cards   Greasy mr.d. flashed a winning grin   And stood facing reverend life   The reverend paled as he saw the score   The gambler felt pain as a knife      His troubles, tribulations   Revelations and regrets   A wife, a child, a fight to trial   Turned by the hand of death   And the gambler saw his hand stained   With the blood of his family ties   And with the yellow smile of mr.d.   In his mind he crumples and dies      And these two great men from different worlds   Faced each other and shook of hands   The reverend shrugged "ah well next time"   And departed for heaven's land      And the flames leapt and the soul screamed   And the cards scattered round the room   And life is always a gamble   A game from the cradle to tomb      And the flames leapt and the soul screamed   And the cards scattered round the room   And life is always a gamble   A game from the cradle to tomb      And the flames leapt and the soul screamed   And the cards scattered round the room   And life is always a gamble   A game from the cradle to tomb