Beyond Belief Lyrics - Elvis Costello

Beyond Belief Lyrics - Elvis Costello

History repeats the old conceits 
We fall back in to our old sins
The glib replies the same defeats 
Christ falls three times
Keep your finger on important issues
Politicians 
With crocodile tears and a pocketful of tissues 
I'm just the oily slick 
British Petroleum
On the windup world of the nervous tick 

“A regular wind-up toy world this is, I think. Once a day the wind-up bird has to come and wind the springs of this world. Alone in this fun house, only I grow old, a pale softball of death swelling inside me. Yet even as I sleep somewhere between Saturn and Uranus, wind-up birds everywhere are busy at work fulfilling their appointed rounds.”

― Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

In a very fashionable hovel 

I hang around dying to be tortured 
You'll never be alone in the bone orchard 
very cool graphic - http://www.boneorchard.org/the_company.php
This battle with the bottle is nothing so novel 
Some guy wrote three novels around these lyrics!
http://www.amazon.com/The-Bone-Orchard-Daniel-Judson/dp/0553584162

So in this almost empty gin palace 
Through a two-way looking glass 
You see your Alice 

You know she has no sense 
For all your jealousy 
In a sense she still smiles very sweetly 

Charged with insults and flattery 
Her body moves with malice 
Do you have to be so cruel to be callous 

And now you find you fit this identikit completely 
You say you have no secrets 
And then leave discreetly 

[Chorus:] 
I might make it California's fault 
Be locked in Geneva's deepest vault 
Just like the canals of Mars and the great barrier reef 
I come to you beyond belief 

My hands were clammy and cunning 
She's been suitably stunning 
But I know there's not a hope in Hades 
All the laddies cat call and wolf whistle 
So-called gentlemen and ladies 
Dog fight like rose and thistle 

I've got a feeling 
I'm going to get a lot of grief 
Once this seemed so appealing 
Now I am beyond belief