Elvis Costello

Hidden Shame

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Hidden Shame Lyrics

	


I'm sorry to say that you don't know me
I'm set in ways you never understood
Each time I tried to tell the ugly truth
You always let it pass you by
You said I'd never tell you a lie
Just because I could

Did you really think I was a bad man?
You always said that bad should be my middle name
Well, you don't know the half of it
You don't know how that name fits
You don't know my hidden shame

Hidden shame, shame, shame
And I can't get free
From the blame and the torture
And the misery
Must it be my secret for eternity?
Till you know my hidden shame
You really don't know me

Well, there's a different kind of prison
And it don't even have to look much like a cell
It's already on your mind
Boy, we can see it in your eyes
So here's the bars and walls as well

Well, you know I'm never coming home, dear
You said you'd stand by me until I cleared my name
Sure, it's easy to be strong
When you know the charge is wrong
But the days and weeks get long
When you got a hidden shame

Hidden shame, shame, shame
And I can't get free
From the pain and the torture
And the misery
Must it be my secret for eternity?
Till you know my hidden shame
You really don't know me

I had a friend when I was just a boy
We were like brothers, we would run and hide
When we went walking on the high hillside
And I really don't know how it happened
He turned to me and had this strange look in his eye
But not a single word was spoken
I must have pushed him, but I don't remember why
And all at once, he lay there broken
And I walked down without him
And I buried it deep inside

Hidden shame, shame, shame
And I can't get free
From the blame and the torture
And the misery
Must it be my secret for eternity?
Till you know my hidden shame
You really don't know me

They say you always hurt the one you love
But I'm not saying if I did or if I didn't
'Cause just like shame, that kind of love is always hidden
They locked me up here for the ideas in my head
They never got me for the thing I really did

Hidden shame, shame, shame
And I can't get free
From the pain and the torture
And the misery
Must it be my secret for eternity?
Till you know my hidden shame
You really don't know me
You really don't know me
You really don't know me

	

Submitted by

chalissa On Aug 08, 2008

Watching the Detectives

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by TokedDingo

10y ago

Repressed homosexuality? It doesn't have to be that, but it does fit. It wasn't a run-of-the-mill argument that led to the death, because we're told "not a single word was spoken." I'm thinking the childhood friend made some kind of sexual advance, made overt something that had been subtler between them ("We would run and hide"), and it was too much for the narrator, and he lashed out and he's always been guilty.

In the final verse, "I'm not saying if I did or if I didn't"...he's already said he must have pushed the boy to his death, so it isn't that. It would seem to be "I'm not saying if I did or if I didn't [love him] / But like my shame that kind of love [between men] is always hidden."

This was written for Johnny Cash, whose "Folsom Prison Blues"-style recording is excellent.

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