Deep Dark Truthful Mirror

Words & Music:

Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus (Elvis Costello)

G Bm Am G

One day you're gonna have to face a deep, dark, truthful mirror.

D C D

And it's gonna tell you things that I still love you too much to say.

The sky was just a purple bruise; the ground was iron.

And you fell all around the town;

C G C

Until you looked the same.

CHORUS:

G B Em C C/B D/F#

The same eyes, the same lips, the same lie from your tongue trips.

C Am C C/B Am D/F# G

Deep, dark, deep, dark, truthful-- mirror.

C Am C C/B Am D/F# G

Deep, dark, deep, dark, truthful-- mirror.

Now, the flagstone streets where the newspaper shouts,

Ring to the boots of roustabouts.

And you're never in any doubt there's something happening somewhere.

You chase down the road till your fingers bleed on a fiberglass tumbleweed.

You can blow around the town but it all shuts down the same.

CHORUS:

Bm Em C G

So, you bay for the boy in the tigerskin trunks.

C G

They set him up, set him up on a stool.

He falls down, he falls down like a drunk; and you drink till you drool.

C Bm G C Bm Em

And it's his story you'll flatter. You'll stretch him out like a saint.

C Bm Em B/D# C D B/D#

But the canvas that he splattered will be the picture that you never paint.

INSTRUMENTAL VERSE, THEN: Em C G

Deep dark, deep dark truthful mirror

A stripping puppet on a liquid stick gets into it pretty thick.

A butterfly drinks a turtle's tears but how do you know he really needs it?

'Cause a butterfly feeds on a dead monkey's hand. Jesus wept, he felt abandoned.

You're spellbound, baby, there's no doubting that.

Did you ever see her stare like a Persian cat?

CHORUS: