Elvis Costello - How To Be Dumb lyrics

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 f**er 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 s**er 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