How To Be Dumb
Read How To Be Dumb lyrics by Elvis Costello on LyroVerse, with linked artist context and related song paths.
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How To Be Dumb
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I was hell-bent on destroying my powers of concentration
While you were living like a saint
And all the time the very one you trusted was washing off
Somebody else's paint
Now you've got yourself a brand new occupation
Every fleeting thought is a pearl
And beautiful people stampede to the doorway
of the funniest fucker in the world
They're here to help you
Satisfy your desire
There's a bright future for all you professional liars
Chorus:
Now you know how to be dumb
Are you ready to take your place in the modern museum of mistakes?
Don't you know how to be dumb?
Like a building thrown up overnight in one of those reverse earthquakes
They emptied out all the asylums, they emptied out all the gaols
The "New Bruise" was the name of a dance craze
By "Jesus Cross and the Cruel Nails"
Followed up by "Torturing Little Beaver"
With their contraption of barbed wire
Between the fear and the fever lies all the rejection they require
They'll be howling by midnight, they'll be drooling by dawn
Skulls shrunk down to the size of their brains
Heads shaven and shorn
Chorus
Trapped in the House of the Perpetual Sucker
Where bitterness always ends so pitifully
You always had to dress up your envy in some half-remembered
philosophy
Now you're masquerading as pale powdered genius
Whose ever bad intention has been purged
You could've walked out any time you wanted but face it you
didn't have the courage
I guess that makes you a full time hypocrite or some kind of
twisted dilettante
Funny though people don't usually get so ugly 'til they think
they know what they want
Scratch your own head stupid
Count up to three
Roll over on your back
Repeat after me
Don't you know how to be dumb?
Are you ready to take your place in the modern museum of mistakes?
Don't you know how to be dumb?
Like a building thrown up overnight in one of those reverse earthquakes
What this page can answer fast
Who performs "How To Be Dumb"?
Elvis Costello performs "How To Be Dumb", and this lyric page sits inside the Elvis Costello catalog on LyroVerse.
Are there related songs to explore after "How To Be Dumb"?
Yes. The related section below points to All This Useless Beauty and Beautiful with a short reason for opening each page next.
Where can I find more songs by Elvis Costello?
Use the artist link near the top of the page or the related paths section below to keep moving through Elvis Costello's lyric pages.
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