Mighty Like A Rose lyrics

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The Other Side Of Summer

The sun struggles up another beautiful day
And I felt glad in my own suspicious way
Despite the contradiction and confusion
Felt tragic without reason
There's malice and there's magic in every season

(chorus):
From the foaming breakers of the poisonous surf
The other side of summer
To the burning forests in the hills of Astroturf
The other side of summer

The automatic gates close up between the shanties and the palace
The blowtorch amusements, the voodoo chalice
The pale pathetic promises that everybody swallows
A teenage girl is crying 'cos she don't look like a million dollars
So help her if you can
'Cos she don't seem to have the attention span

(chorus)

Was it a millionaire who said "imagine no possessions"?
A poor little schoolboy who said "we don't need no lessons"?
The rabid rebel dogs ransack the shampoo shop
The pop princess is downtown shooting up
And if that goddess is fit for burning
The sun will struggle up, the world will still keep turning

Madman standing by the side of the road saying
"Look at my eyes, look at my eyes, look at my eyes, look at my eyes"
Now you can't afford to fake all the drugs your parents used to take
Because of their mistakes, you'd better be wide awake

(chorus)

The mightiest rose
The absence of perfume
The casual killers
The military curfew
The cardboard city
An unwanted birthday
The other side of summer

The dancing was desperate, the music was worse
They bury your dreams and dig up the worthless
Goodnight
God bless
And kiss "goodbye" to the earth
The other side of summer


Hurry Down Doomsday (The Bugs Are Taking Over)

The man in the corner of this picture has a sinister purpose
In the teeming Temple of the Railroad Kings
He's planting a trashy paperback book for accidental purchase
Containing all the secrets of life and other useless things
But I can't bring myself to look
Wake up Zombie, write yourself another book
You want to scream and shout, my little flaxen lout
Hurry down Doomsday, the bugs are taking over

She sleeps with the shirt of a late, great country singer
Stretched out on her poor jealous husband's pillow
In time you can turn these obsessions into careers
While the parents of those kidnapped children start the bidding for their tears
But I can't bring myself to look
Wake up Zombie, get yourself off the hook
You want to scream and shout, my little waxen lout
Hurry down Doomsday, the bugs are taking over

Forget about Beethoven, Rembrandt and rock and roll
Forget about Mickey Mouse, Marlboro and Coca Cola
Forget about Cadillac, Mercedes and Toyota
Forget about Buddha, Allah, Jesus and Jehovah
Hurry down Doomsday, the bugs are taking over

Any day now a giant insect mutation
Will swoop down and devour the white man's burden
Starting out with all of the sensitive ones
Better make like a fly if you don't want to die
Look out! There goes Gordon!

But I can't bring myself to think
Wake up Zombie, kick up a big stink
You want to scream and shout, my little Saxon lout
Hurry down Doomsday, the bugs are taking over


How To Be Dumb

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

(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 a 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


All Grown Up

"I'm trouble" she said
Spread out on the floor of her father's house
Her promise was almost undone
Under her tongue, dissolving her responsibilities
To finally deny everyone with every unflattering comparison

(chorus):
All grown up
And you don't care anymore
And you hate all the people that you used to adore
And you despise all the rumours and lies of the life you led before

Did I hear you right?
You're feeling hounded and pushed around
You want to just lay down and die
If all of this life has been such a big disappointment to you
Why don't you stop blaming some guy
And go give the next one a try

(chorus)

But look at yourself
You'll see you're still so young
You haven't earned the weariness
That sounds so jaded on your tongue

"I'm weak" she says
And blesses herself and gets into bed
Clutching the covers to her throat
"So punish me now and let me go back to the sham of my life"
"This night is the perfect antidote for all of the poison that you wrote"

(chorus)

But look at yourself
You'll see you're still so young
You haven't earned the weariness
That sounds so jaded on your tongue


Invasion Hit Parade

Now that you set everybody free
Whatcha gonna do about me?
Don't want to be treated like some poor grateful clown
I'd rather go back to the sweet underground
Where I can tell the time by the colour of my skin
And I know my neighbour 'cos he's the one, yes he's the one
Who always turns me in

A woman works the tunnel in the middle of the night
Picking up every lost object in sight
Handbags, toupees, lost legs and fingernails
The black market eats up all your failures
Her transistor offers no salvation or regrets
No pool, no pets, no cigarettes
Just non-stop Disco Tex and the Sex-o-lettes

(chorus):
There's no name, no name for the place
Or pain we'll cause you again and again
If you do not cooperate with the Invasion Hit Parade

The liberation forces make movies of their own
Playing their Doors records and pretending to be stoned
Drowning out a broadcast that wasn't authorised
Incidentally, the revolution will be televised
With one head for business and another for good looks
Until they started arriving with their rubber aprons and their butcher's hooks

(chorus)

They're hunting us down here with Liberty's light
A handshaking double-talking procession of the mighty
Pursued by a T.V. crew and coming after them
A limousine of singing stars and their brotherhood anthem
The former dictator was impeccably behaved
They're mopping up all the stubborn ones who just refuse to be saved

(chorus)


Harpies Bizarre

He selects the plainest face from a spiteful row of girls
Elegant insulted women, a flaw of cultured pearls
He drops a name or two, she fails to catch
At last he's met his match
Unspoiled and unaffected, he wants her so much

She puts up half-hearted resistance, like she was taught to do
She's heard some of those small town playboys but this is something new
His promise seems dangerous, she'd like to believe
He says "You'd better leave"
"You've only got yourself to blame, shame, or deceive"

The waiting lines are long
They never get too far
Everyone wearing that medal with pride
Harpies Bizarre

I looked on but hesitated, I failed to interrupt
You're so hard to tell the truth to, so easy to corrupt
I'll memorize your face, your tragic smile
The hurt look in your eyes
As you betrayed yourself to the part of him that dies

The waiting lines are long
They never get too far
They're shining up their shoes to kick a falling star
You think you should be somebody
But you don't know who you are
Everyone wearing that medal with pride
Harpies Bizarre


After The Fall

In an anonymous rendezvous
Where the forbidden lovers repair
They're burning down another damn candle
They're melting the tables and chairs

Beneath them applause from the balcony
Whenever they accomplished making love
Other times they thought they heard laughter
Coming from the balcony above

(chorus):
She lies to his right and she carelessly recites
All of her brand new appetites
She seems brittle and small, it don't sound like her at all
Since she came back to him after the fall

She said "You never visit the countryside
So I've made you a country to order"
She put up a little tent in the bedroom
Crickets played on a tape-recorder
The ceiling was festooned with phosphorous stars
She noticed his skin turning cold
Burning all his clothes on the bonfire
"Relax" she whispered and tightened the blindfold

(chorus)

You've changed but not for the better babe
I'd tell you why but what's the use
'Cos it's the same kind of pity
A drunkard gives as his excuse
You were sharp and ideal as a bobby pin
Now your eyes are deserted and quiet
We both look like those poor shattered mannequins
Thrown through the window in the riot

She lies in his arms and without any qualms
Revels in shallow delights
She seems brittle and small, it don't sound like her at all
Since she came back to him after the fall


Georgie And Her Rival

Georgie grew to hate her name, it sounded like a tiny man
And the one she had said "I can't see you, but I'll call you whenever I can"
Sometimes the phone would ring, when she was half-asleep
A voice would drag her down with its suggestions
Though she often felt cheated, she never felt cheap

(chorus):
Well heaven knows what fills the heart
And makes you feel so alive
It's impossible to tear apart
Georgie and her rival

It was half-past February, and he hadn't called since New Year's Day
Maybe he'd found another woman to say those words no chapel girl should say
Her mother would phone and always keep her talking
She'd try to be polite, making faces
But somewhere in the back of her mind, her rival was stalking

(chorus)

Her rival would always wait till the eighth or ninth bell
He'd be desperate anyway and drunk as well
She always liked to hurt him to prove he was prepared
To love her anyway that she wanted
So she could tell which she preferred

He sat up with his address book trying to think what mood he's in
His finger traced past Georgie's name to someone who needed less persuading
She didn't hear through her disguise, he didn't leave her in a rush
Just like the promise that he left on her machine that almost made her blush
The radio plays a lover's symphony
"The number you have dialed has been re-directed"
Now she puts him on the speaker-phone whenever she has company

(chorus)


So Like Candy

Here lies the powder and perfume
The pretty clothes are scattered 'round the room
And it's so like Candy

Here lies the lipstick and the face
The coloured tablets keep it all in place
And it's so like Candy
So like Candy

(chorus):
What did I do to make her go
Why must she be the one
That I have to love
So like Candy

Here lies a picture of a girl
Her arms are tight around that lucky guy
And it's so like Candy

And in her eyes a certain look
I thought I'd seen the last of long ago
And it's so like Candy
So like Candy

(chorus)

I remember the day that the picture was taken
We were so happy then
But that's so like Candy
She seemed so sweet to me, I was mistaken
Oh no, not that again
But that's so like Candy

She just can't face the day
So she turns and melts away

Here lie the records that she scratched
And on the sleeve I find a note attached
And it's so like Candy

"My Darling Dear, it's such a waste"
She couldn't say "goodbye", but "I admire your taste"
And it's so like Candy
So like Candy


Interlude: Couldn't Call It Unexpected No. 2

(Instrumental)


Playboy To A Man

You had your own way one too many times
And now you're going to find out what it's like
Just what it's like, now you're a mess
You wanted something you could never possess

You went your own way one too many nights
You treated her like some small oversight
What in the world makes her think that she can
Turn you from a playboy into a man

(chorus):
She's going to make you suffer tonight
To turn you from a playboy into a man
And when you're worthy of her then she might
Turn you from a playboy into a man

You thought you were the answer to her prayers
The perfect gift that every girl prefers
But that's the trouble 'cos every girl still thinks you're hers
So there you are with your gold chains jangling
Your lucky charms and your jewelry dangling
But when she saw you she turned and ran
To turn you from a playboy into a man

(chorus)

You couldn't see that the juvenile things you do
Would drag you down and now that the joke's on you
You're pretty cold, you end as you start
When your facade isn't falling apart

So now you're standing in your underwear
Well now you know just how it feels for her
You're halfway there you know that she can
Turn you from a playboy into a man

(chorus)


Sweet Pear

Sweet pear, sweet pear
Those who say they love you would never dare
I'll watch out for you
I'll always be there
In the hour of your distress, you need not fear

In all the world there's only one true love
And finding it's hard enough
I bless whatever's in the sky above
For bringing you to me

But there's a void without your kiss
I wake on the precipice above the abyss
And though the touch of your lips these fears dismiss
Make no mistake there is an ache I have to live with

Was my grip too loose, my grip too strong
That made you want to run away
And now you're back where I pretend you belong
I wonder every night and day
How long

I swear this is my prayer
Till we're burned and scattered in the atmosphere
Or lost in the world across a crowded room
I am your stupid lover, your wretched groom


Broken

If I am frightened, then I can hide it
If I am crying, I'll call it laughter
If I am haunted, I'll call it my imaginary friend
If I am bleeding, I'll call it wine

But if you leave me, then I am broken
And if I'm broken, then only death remains

If I am drifting, then I can fight it
If I am sinking, no one will know it
If I am blinded, I'll have my voices still to guide me
If they yet fled away, I'd bless the silence

But if you leave me, then I am broken
And if I'm broken, then only death remains


Couldn't Call It Unexpected No. 4

I saw a girl who'd found her consolation
She said, "One day my Prince of Peace will come"
Above her head a portrait of her father
The wilted favour that he gave her still fastened to the frame
"They've got his bones and everything he owns
I've got his name"

Well, you can laugh at this sentimental story
But in time, you'll have to make amends
The sudden chill where lovers doubt their immortality
As the clouds cover the sky the evening ends
Describing a picture of eyes finally closing
As you sometimes glimpse terrible faces in the fire
We'll I'm the lucky goon
Who composed this tune from birds arranged on the high wire

Who on earth is tapping at the window?
Does that face still linger at the pane?
I saw you shiver though the room was like a furnace
A shadow of regret across a young mother's face
So toll the bell or rock the cradle
Please don't let me fear anything I cannot explain
I can't believe, I'll never believe in anything again


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Mighty Like A Rose
MLAR album cover large.jpg
studio album by
Elvis Costello
Released1991-05-13
Recorded-
ProducerMitchell Froom, Kevin Killen and
D.P.A. MacManus
LabelWarner Bros.
Length54:28
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