Elvis Costello - How To Be Dumb Lyrics
I was hell-bent on destroying my powers of concentrationWhile you were living like a saintAnd all the time the very one you trusted was washing offSomebody elses paintNow youve got yourself a brand new occupationEvery fleeting thought is a pearlAnd beautiful people stampede to the doorwayOf the funniest *****er in the worldTheyre here to help youSatisfy your desireTheres a bright future for all you professional liarsChorusNow you know how to be dumbAre you ready to take your place in the modern museum of mistakes?Dont you know how to be dumb?Like a building thrown up overnight in one of those reverse earthquakesThey emptied out all the asylums, they emptied out all the gaolsThe new bruise was the name of a dance crazeBy jesus cross and the cruel nailsFollowed up by torturing little beaverWith their contraption of barbed wireBetween the fear and the fever lies all the rejection they requireTheyll be howling by midnight, theyll be drooling by dawnSkulls shrunk down to the size of their brainsHeads shaven and shornChorusTrapped in the house of the perpetual suckerWhere bitterness always ends so pitifullyYou always had to dress up your envy in some half-rememberedPhilosophyNow youre masquerading as pale powdered geniusWhose ever bad intention has been purgedYou couldve walked out any time you wanted but face it youDidnt have the courageI guess that makes you a full time hypocrite or some kind ofTwisted dilettanteFunny though people dont usually get so ugly til they thinkThey know what they wantScratch your own head stupidCount up to threeRoll over on your backRepeat after meDont you know how to be dumb?Are you ready to take your place in the modern museum of mistakes?Dont you know how to be dumb?Like a building thrown up overnight in one of those reverse earthquakes
