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Oh, I used to be disgusted
And now I try to be amused
But since their wings have got rusted
You know, the angels want to wear my red shoes
But when they told me 'bout their side of the bargain
That's when I knew that I could not refuse
And I won't get any older, 'cause the angels want to wear my red shoes
Oh, oh, I was watching while you're dancing away
Our love got fractured in the echo and sway
How come everybody wants to be your friend?
You know that it still hurts me just to say it
Oh, I know that she's disgusted (Oh, why's that?)
'Cause she's feeling so abused (Oh, that's too bad)
She gets tired of the lust (Oh, I'm so sad)
But it's so hard to refuse
Can you say that I'm too old
When the angels have stolen my red shoes?
Oh, I said, "I'm so happy I could die"
She said, "Drop dead," then left with another guy
That's what you get if you go chasing after vengeance
Ever since you got me punctured, this has been my sentence
Oh, I used to be disgusted
And now I try to be amused
But since their wings have got rusted
You know, the angels want to wear my red shoes
But when they told me 'bout their side of the bargain
That's when I knew that I could not refuse
And I won't get any older, 'cause the angels want to wear my red shoes
Oh, I won't get any older, now the angels want to wear my red shoes
Red shoes, the angels want to wear my red shoes
Red shoes, the angels want to wear my red shoes...
And now I try to be amused
But since their wings have got rusted
You know, the angels want to wear my red shoes
But when they told me 'bout their side of the bargain
That's when I knew that I could not refuse
And I won't get any older, 'cause the angels want to wear my red shoes
Oh, oh, I was watching while you're dancing away
Our love got fractured in the echo and sway
How come everybody wants to be your friend?
You know that it still hurts me just to say it
Oh, I know that she's disgusted (Oh, why's that?)
'Cause she's feeling so abused (Oh, that's too bad)
She gets tired of the lust (Oh, I'm so sad)
But it's so hard to refuse
Can you say that I'm too old
When the angels have stolen my red shoes?
Oh, I said, "I'm so happy I could die"
She said, "Drop dead," then left with another guy
That's what you get if you go chasing after vengeance
Ever since you got me punctured, this has been my sentence
Oh, I used to be disgusted
And now I try to be amused
But since their wings have got rusted
You know, the angels want to wear my red shoes
But when they told me 'bout their side of the bargain
That's when I knew that I could not refuse
And I won't get any older, 'cause the angels want to wear my red shoes
Oh, I won't get any older, now the angels want to wear my red shoes
Red shoes, the angels want to wear my red shoes
Red shoes, the angels want to wear my red shoes...
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Oh, I used to be disgusted (angry young adolescent)
And now I try to be amused (starting to mature and look at things objectively with humour)
But since their wings have got rusted (hotty angels getting past their prime)
You know, the angels want to wear my red shoes (now want to dance and have sex with him)
But when they told me 'bout their side of the bargain (they are desperately looking for a husband to impregnate them and buy them a house)
That's when I knew that I could not refuse (no choice in the deal)
And I won't get any older, 'cause the angels want to wear my red shoes
(refusing to grow up stop dancing (dating) others in other words won't committ)
Oh, oh, I was watching while you're dancing away (jealous now that she dumps him becaue of his lack of committment)
Our love got fractured in the echo and sway (pretty obvious)
How come everybody wants to be your friend? (now she has plenty of other guys after her)
You know that it still hurts me just to say it (hurts to think of her)
Oh, I know that she's disgusted (Oh, why's that?)
'Cause she's feeling so abused (Oh, that's too bad)
She gets tired of the lust (Oh, I'm so sad)
But it's so hard to refuse
(She is getting fed up with all the guys just wanting to sleep with her but who won't commit)
Can you say that I'm too old
When the angels have stolen my red shoes?
( he is no longer attractive to young sexy girls)
Oh, I said, "I'm so happy I could die"
(so he proposes to her and now she rejects him)
She said, "Drop dead," then left with another guy
That's what you get if you go chasing after vengeance
(He really only proposed because he was jealous of seeing her with other guys)
Ever since you got me punctured, this has been my sentence
(He realizes too late that he loved her)
Oh, I used to be disgusted
And now I try to be amused
But since their wings have got rusted
You know, the angels want to wear my red shoes
But when they told me 'bout their side of the bargain
That's when I knew that I could not refuse
And I won't get any older, 'cause the angels want to wear my red shoes
(Now that he is heartbroken he is contemplating suicide)
Oh, I won't get any older, now the angels want to wear my red shoes
Red shoes, the angels want to wear my red shoes
Red shoes, the angels want to wear my red shoes...
Like several other songs such as Mystery Dance and No Dancing on the first album, this one's about sex, lust and relationships. I hear a reference to H.C. Andersen's classic (and gruesome) fairy tale about the vain girl (in this case the storyteller) whose red dancing shoes, once she starts dancing, won't let her stop. The storyteller makes a deal with the angels, where they show him the secret of sex, and once he understands it, he can't stop. His girlfriend gets tired of his lust, feels disgusted and abused. Once the angels lose their own power "their wings have got rusted", they want the shoes back, resulting in the storyteller's quick aging and imminent death. While he declares his love "I'm so happy I could die" to the girl, she tells him to drop dead and dances on without him.
Yes, guys, it's a celebration of what is going to happen to the hot girl who won't go out with you.
So the protagonist in the song arranges with the angels to have eternal youth (or something similar) in exchange for their being able to experience human life (signified by the red shoes). Of course, Faustian agreements being what they are, the angels "steal" the main character's red shoes (too in love with being human?) while a simple human foible (the woman rejects the protagonist) creates an ironic end. The "sentence" referred to in the song is the Dorian Grey-ish youth bestowed upon our hero even though he's lost the reason he made the deal in the first place: the love of his woman.
My favorite line of the song is of course "I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused," which is -especially from an Elvis Costello at the ripe age of 23 - incredibly wise & cynical.
It's not about homicide or suicide or anything obtuse. No one dies, which is really the point. She's moved on, the angels have moved on, but the person who struck the deal - he's the sucker.
I think it is like everyone says a guy that is madly in love with a girl. I would say they were probably together briefly hence the 1st verse then in the 3rd verse it gets interesting. For me I picture the girl leaving him in the 2nd verse and he is upset. The 3rd verse leads into your "hollywood" type knife fight where the main guy is challenging the "new" guy in the girl's life to a fight for her love. I don't know but the line "you got me puntured and this is my sentence" seems to say that he was knifed and killed all for the sake of vegence. And then the song ends with him either in heaven or laying their dying thinking that he was disgusted with the situation now he finds his situation amusing cause there is nothing he can do about it.
Just my thoughts.
I think that the "angel" in the song is a girl that the subject of the song admired a good deal. He placed her on a pedestal, and had apparently done so for a good deal of time. I think he admired her for her virtue and poise.
I think that she slept with the subject to make someone jealous, then she rejects him ("She said "Drop dead," then left with another guy.") publicly, and leaves him embarrassed and alone. The new guy uses her as badly as she used the subject of the song, and destroyed everything that made her angelic in his eyes; perhaps having sex with her, and then spreading it around.
Now the subject is just watching her life spiraling apart, and her throw herself at him with amusement.
Pick that apart as you will :-)
Well, I hadn't listened carefully to Red Shoes until recently (I'm not an original Elvis fan but recently got to see him live). Suicide had not occured to me, but after reading these posts, it now seems quite logical. However, my original impression was quite different.
Angels stealing his shoes could refer to death. But the way he refers to angels suggested to me they signify something else. What does he mean their wings are rusted? What is the bargain they offer that he can't refuse?
So, though Elvis may choke, here's what I hear. This song is about his (then) newfound fame, and groupies. The angels are girls, who used to spurn him (given his "nerd" persona, not impossible), which disgusted him. Now that he's famous, they throw themselves at him, an offer he "can't refuse" (there is no pronoun saying who can't refuse the lust), a change of situation about which he tries to stay amused. The stuff in the middle is a flashback of sorts, thinking about a girl (or girls) who hurt him in the past, and who, even now, are compelled to chase after famous or "cool" guys (e.g., groupies, who may feel "abused"). Basically, the song takes a pretty dim view of women, but now that Elvis is on the other side of the fence, as it were, he's pretty amused about it. Is this the vengeance he's wreaking -- sleeping with groupies? (By the way, in this interpretation, red shoes take on a specific meaning -- his fame. It would make sense that Elvis would be grappling with the house of mirrors qualities of fame at about this time.)
Anyway, the most fascinating part is my interpretation can be just as coherent but completely different from someone else's. A testatment to the genius amgibuity w/which Elvis's lyrics are imbued. Personally, I feel my interpretation fits the upbeat melody a bit better.
Dad
A previous poster had stated that ‘Red Shoes’ is “obviously” about suicide. That writer is on track but did not finish. The more literal line of this story is, starting after the ‘lead in’ refrain, is about a older man (“how can you say I’m too old..”) in blissfully ignorant to reality love (“I’m so happy I could die”) with a girl who is sleeping around (“everybody wants to be your friend (it hurts me just to say it)”, and, (the lust is) “hard to refuse”. She finally tells him to “drop dead”, but (stalker like logic) he looks to get vengeance, either on her, by his suicide, or, going after the guy she is with. In either case his gets wounded (“you got me punctured”) mortally (“my sentence”, “won’t get any older” and ‘wearing red shoes’). At first he is pissed off at his situation, then as he resigns to death, he finds cynical amusement in the situation he brought on himself (“I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused”).
More broadly, the song is about giving your life to something or someone that does not appreciate the level of your sacrifice, and especially, about the visceral feelings when the truth is recognized. This is something that is usually not experienced while one is still young and idealistic, which maybe why Elvis is quoted as saying he finds it funny he wrote this at 22 years of age. I don’t think its funny…. it is flat out inspired. I think we are looking at the lyrical Van Gogh of our time. Under- understood and appreciated, he writes the poetry of the anti-fairy tale, vignettes of real life drama of the mundane or base human experience. His lyrics are a bit of a Rorschach test and allow for lots of visceral resonance. They are understood somatically even when they are not instinctually.