Five Small Words

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Maybe you'll recognize in time
Maybe one day you will discover
All the pain that lies behind
You and your unfortunate love

Somebody might be more
Unsuitable and strange
With eyes that offer everything
And are capable of danger

My mind turns over lies you told
Things said to your other lover
Sweet as they had been to me
You lay there telling them to each other

Now I stand outside the door
My head is filled phrases
Inside someone's calling out
Their voices rise with praises

Five Small Words
"I don't want you anymore"
Five Small Words
"I don't need you anymore"
Five Small Words
Coward that you are, you would faithlessly implore
"Baby please don't leave me"
"Why don't you believe me?"
"Why did you deceive me?"

It didn't take some shiny dagger
The tattooed fingers grip and hone
I walked under some dark ladder
Heard your final loving moan
All your indiscretions are
So merciful and brief
Genteel poison sprinkled on your Spanish handkerchief

Five Small Words
"Don't you love me anymore?"
Five Small Words
But then who is keeping score?

Coward that you are, you would so faithlessly implore
"Baby please don't leave me"
"Why don't you believe me?"
"Why did you deceive me?"

Maybe in time you'll want me more
Accidentally like this ‘45
This ‘44

Tucson, Arizona, 1978

Five Small Words
Written byElvis Costello
Performed byElvis Costello
Produced byT Bone Burnett
MusiciansElvis Costello - lead vocal, Fender Telecaster guitar (1952), Mastertone open-tuned guitar, Farfisa organ
Pete Thomas - drums
Mike Piersante - shakers
Davey Faragher - Fender Precision electric bass
T Bone Burnett - Gretsch Black Falcon electric guitar
Mike Compton - harmony vocals
AlbumsNational Ransom, 2010
Length4:45

First known performance:
June 2, 2009, New York, NY
Last known performance:
November 25, 2013, Wilkes-Barre, PA
     (20 known performances)


National RansomNational Ransom album cover.jpg

Covers

Erich Sellheim home studio production, sung in German 2022 YouTube

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External links