Vainglorious Boy - Peter Hammill

I said steady up, settle down, make way for the Idiot Boy

He’s here to sell you some kind of a story;

Like a stuck-up sore thumb he’ll be coming on bashful and coy

All of the while pumping up his vainglory

I said give it up, slap it down, idolise the Idiot Boy;

Love’s what he wants, or at least some attention

And he believes all the hype…

Like an archetypal Geijin-cum-goy

He plays up the Alien Genius Pretension

He’d fake his own confession to get you on his side

Oh, I say lighten up, calm it down, time out for His Idiocy now

What’s going to happen when the audience dwindles?

The tide’s out, the ride’s up, the world’s got no comfort somehowö

Truth to tell, it’ll be himself that he’s swindled

In a broken-down profession of over-weaning pride

Nowhere to hide…

Heaven sent compliments that were meant sincerely fall flat

And the bitterest pill is the one he can’t swallow

The idiotic thing is what we have always known:

However great success is, however far you’ve flown

You’ll come to face this audience:

Yourself, yourself alone

You’ll come to face yourself alone

You idiot, idiot boy!