Elvis Costello - Lesson In Cruelty lyrics

(Words: Costello, music: Nieve)

Here's a thought to dwell upon,

Daddy's girl is almost gone

Now there's just a vain princess

'Her Ruthlessness'

Tearing up the nursery

Stars more used to glittering

Pictured in the guttering

Faces caught about to laugh

Torn in half

Slipping through your fingers

See them scatter

Maybe it doesn't matter

But I still really want to pick pieces up

You can't fool me

With this lesson in cruelty

It's not as if I was asking time to stop

In violent blue

Like roses red

She laughed as she tore off his head

The hours she gazed on her former champion

Now it's just a frame of sellotape and torn wallpaper

As she rips his pretty face to bits

-Chorus

It's too much too soon or so it seems

To put away these childish dreams

You'll find out soon enough that worship can be tough

Love is just a name to celebrate a vision

Or confetti littered with regrets.

See it scatter...

Dear heart to good to waste

But if some hot-head should claim it

Don't rush to his embrace

And it remains to say...

I'll love you just the same, whatever your decision

As you put the paper to the flame

(It's a lesson in cruelty)