submissions
| Elvis Costello – Oliver's Army Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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OK, so it's more than five years after the original post...
This is interesting: I always thought that the line was "the boys from the Mersey and the Thames and the Times", referring to war reporters. |
submissions
| Elvis Costello – Little Palaces Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I think that it's correct as written: "There's a rat in someone's bedroom" could be a literal comment on the poor quality of the housing or could refer to some sort of informer, and "they're shutting someone's trap" means that someone is being made to keep quiet (probably violently). |
submissions
| Elvis Costello – Sleep of the Just Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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The last two verses seem to be about a woman who poses for a soft-porn "pinup" photo, which winds up in the barracks where her brother in the army is stationed. I can't quite connect it with the first two verses - did the woman lose a man she loved in some kind of accident or attack on a bus, and then, being despondent, agree to make the pinup photo? |
submissions
| Elvis Costello – I'll Wear It Proudly Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Maybe I have a gruesome imagination, but this seems to be about someone who has just killed his lover. First, the refererence to "this bloody big bed of mine". While this of course could just be mild profanity, if we take it literally then the "white and scarlet billows" could refer to bloodstained sheets. The lover "shivering" while "the room is awfully warm" could be bleeding to death, while the murderer quite naturally feels overheated. And the air turning "blue with fright" could be the flashing lights of a police car.
Have I been reading too much pulp fiction? |
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