[ti:All This Useless Beauty]
[ar:Elvis Costello]
[al:Aging Gracefully disc 2]
[by:]
[offset:500]
[00:25.22](player saying)

[01:05.23]It's at times such as this she'd be tempted to spit
[01:10.51]If she wasn't so ladylike
[01:15.63]She imagines how she might have lived
[01:19.80]back when legends and history collide
[01:26.78]So she looks to her prince finding he's so charmingly
[01:32.84]slumped at her side
[01:37.98]Those days are recalled on the gallery wall
[01:43.53]And she's waiting for passion or humour to strike
[01:49.39]
[05:20.56][04:59.46][01:52.54]What shall we do, what shall we do with all this useless beauty?
[05:31.87][05:10.83][02:00.62]All this useless beauty
[02:03.64]
[02:19.11]Good Friday arrived, the sky darkened on time
[02:24.79]'Til he almost began to negotiate
[02:31.08]She held his head like a baby and said "It's okay if you cry"
[02:42.11]Now he wants her to dress as if you couldn't guess
[02:47.53]He desires to impress his associates
[02:53.42]But he's part ugly beast and Hellenic deceased
[02:59.35]So she finds that the mixture is hard to deny
[03:04.88]
[03:06.51](player saying)
[03:07.27]
[03:37.57]She won't practice the looks from the great tragic books
[03:43.61]That were later disgraced to face celluloid
[03:49.37]It won't even make sense but you can bet
[03:55.21]If she isn't a sweetheart or plaything or pet
[04:00.91]The film turns her into an unveiled threat
[04:09.03]
[04:10.30]Nonsense prevails, modesty fails
[04:15.39]Grace and virtue turn into stupidity
[04:21.58]While the calendar fades almost all barricades to a pale compromise
[04:33.02]And our leaders have feasts on the backsides of beasts
[04:38.09]They still think they're the gods of antiquity
[04:44.14]If something you missed didn't even exist
[04:49.72]It was just an ideal -- is it such a surprise?
[05:40.62]THE END