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 fucker in the world

They're here to help you
Satisfy your desires
There's a bright future
For all you professional liars

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 of the asylums
They emptied out all the jails
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 'Barb 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

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 reversed earthquakes

Trapped in the House of the Perpetual Succour 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
Every 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 till 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

Ohh don't you know how to be dumb?
Don't you know how to be dumb?
Don't you know how to be dumb?
Yes you know how to be dumb?
Dumb, dumb, dumb, d-d-d-dumb
Fine, fine