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Senior Service Lyrics
Chorus:
Senior service
Junior dissatisfaction
It's a breath you took too late
It's a death that's worse than fate
Senior service
Junior dissatisfaction
Though it may be second hand
It's by no means second rate
I want your neck
I want the seat that you sit at
I want your cheque
Because they told me I would get on
I wanna chop off your head and watch it roll into the basket
If you should drop dead tonight then they won't have to ask me twice
(Chorus)
They took me in the office and they told me very carefully
The way that I could benefit from death and disability
(Chorus)
I want your company car
I want your girlfriend and love
I want your place at the bar
Because there's always another man
To chop off your head and watch it roll into the basket
If you should drop dead tonight then they won't have to ask me twice
(Chorus)
Senior service
Junior dissatisfaction
It's a breath you took too late
It's a death that's worse than fate
Junior dissatisfaction
Though it may be second hand
It's by no means second rate
I want the seat that you sit at
I want your cheque
Because they told me I would get on
I wanna chop off your head and watch it roll into the basket
If you should drop dead tonight then they won't have to ask me twice
The way that I could benefit from death and disability
I want your girlfriend and love
I want your place at the bar
Because there's always another man
To chop off your head and watch it roll into the basket
If you should drop dead tonight then they won't have to ask me twice
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From Armed Forces, aka Emotional Fascism. I read the whole record as a play on corporate life, organizations and life in hierarchic groups. This song's narrator obviously wants the place of his superior and hates his life in the corporate ladder.
Are these merely the lyrics Costello submitted for the lyric sheet?
I want your neck I want the seat that you sit at I want your check Because they told me I would get on
If so, he was particularly clever getting past Standards and Practices (or whatever the censor at a major record label is called). ‘Cause it sounds more as if he’s singing:
I want your dick [...] I want your chick
Not as if it isn’t clear enough, either way: all this is about more than wanting to get it up higher on the company ladder.
@mandc You need to have your ears checked!
@mandc You need to have your ears checked!
Senior Service was (or is) a brand of cigarettes in England...song makes more sense now doesn't it? ; ) They took me in the office and they told me very carefully The way that I could benefit from death and disability
Smoking is coooooool!!!!
I think this is Elvis's neurotic comment on the world of work. Senior Service are working-class cigarettes, furthering the idea. He discusses how it's impossible to form any fraternal bonds with your coworkers when you know that their misfortune is ultimately to your advantage.
How many songwriters would write such an incredibly clever chorus, then perform it at such breakneck speed you can barely understand it? Most would want to go slow enough to emphasize each syllable, making sure you "get it". (Elvis is confident he can write another one.) The song could only work at this tempo; it has the feeling of urgency suitable to an environment where you have to watch your back, "because there's always another..."
In addition to being a brand of cigarettes, the armed forces in the UK are ranked, with the navy being the highest rank, or called senior service. The cigarettes are supposedly very rough cut and geared for macho men. Therefore on another level, he's unhappy with the macho types as well.