When I Was Cruel No. 2

Album: When I Was Cruel (2002)
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  • I exit through the spotlight glare
    I stepped out into thin air
    Into a perfume so rarefied
    "Here comes the bride"

    Not quite aside, they snide, "She`s number four"
    "There`s number three just by the door"
    Those in the know, don`t even flatter her,
    They go one better
    "She was selling speedboats in a trade show in Atlanta"

    Look at her now
    She`s starting to yawn
    She looks like she was born to it
    But it was so much easier
    When I was cruel

    She reaches out her arms to me
    Imploring: "Another melody?"
    So she can dance her husband out on the floor
    The captains of industry just lie there where they fall

    In eau-de-nil and pale carnation creation
    A satin sash and velvet elevation
    She straightens the tipsy head-dress of her spouse
    While hers recalls a honey house

    There`ll be no sorrows left to drown
    Early in the morning in your evening gown
    But it was so much easier
    When I was cruel

    The entrance hall was arranged with hostesses and ushers
    Who turned out to be the younger wives nursing schoolgirl crushes
    Parting the waves of those few feint friends
    Fingers once offered are now too heavy to extend

    The ghostly first wife glides up on stage whispering to raucous talkers
    Spilling family secrets out to flunkies and castrato walkers
    See that girl,
    Watch that scene
    Digging the "Dancing Queen"

    Two newspaper editors like playground sneaks
    Running a book on which of them is going to last the week
    One of them calls to me
    And he says, "I know you"
    "You gave me this tattoo back in `82"
    "You were a spoilt child then with a record to plug"
    "And I was a shaven headed seaside thug"
    "Things haven`t really changed that much"
    "One of us is still getting paid too much"

    There are some things I can`t report
    The memory of his last retort
    But it was so much easier
    When I was cruel

    Look at me now
    She`s starting to yawn
    She looks like she was born to it
    Ah, but it was so much easier
    When I was cruel Writer/s: ANTONIO AMURRI, BRUNO CANFORA, ELVIS COSTELLO
    Publisher: BMG Rights Management, Downtown Music Publishing
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

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