Elvis Costello

Living In Paradise

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Living In Paradise Lyrics

	


I don't like those other guys looking at your curves 
I don't like you walking 'round with physical jerks 
Everything they say and do is getting on my nerves 
Soon they will be lucky to be picking up the perks 
Cause when they pull the shutters down and throw up in the dark 
They'll find that all the dogs outside bite much worse than they bark 

Here we are living in paradise, living in luxury 
Oh, the thrill is here but it won't last long 
You better have your fun before it moves along 
And you're already looking for another fool like me 

I call you Betty Felon 'cause you are a pretty villain 
And I think that I should tell them that you'd make a pretty killing 
Cause meanwhile up in heaven they are waiting at the gate 
Saying, "We always knew you'd make it, didn't think you'd come this late" 
And now it's much too dangerous to stop what you've begun 
When everyone in paradise carries a gun 

Here we are living in paradise, living in luxury 
Oh, the thrill is here but it won't last long 
You better have your fun before it moves along 
And you're already looking for another fool like me 

Later in the evening when arrangements are made 
I'll be at the keyhole outside your bedroom door 
Cause I'm the first to know whenever the plans are laid 
That never go further than floor to floor 
You think that I don't know the boy that you're touching 
But I'll be at the video and I will be watching 

Here we are living in paradise, living in luxury 
Oh, the thrill is here but it won't last long 
You better have your fun before it moves along 
And you're already looking for another fool like me

	

Submitted by

planetearth On Jan 23, 2005

Watching the Detectives

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4 Meanings

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by wackydeli3

17y ago

why no comments? anyway, i love this song, basically just think its about a girl who just uses him and he's thrilled that she's paying attention to him, and thrilled everyone else thinks shes "hot" apparently, but he knows she'll leave him in the long run.

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by surfwaxafghani

17y ago

i think this song is about being famous and its dangers. ill elaborate if anyone wants to know why.

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by Rich87

11y ago

I always thought it was about a guy who has been dumped by a girl but he's still heavily infatuated with her so has took to stalking her, going as far as peeping on her sexual encounters with other guys.

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by razajac

10y ago

I partially agree with elements in the three comments preceding mine, but want to add a touch or two.

He's talking about a woman with whom he wants to maintain a relationship, but knows he'll never really get along with; typifying her as a kind of overly-carnal type, with pauperized values. he's obsessed. It's as though, beside being someone not really worthy of an idealistic type like him, she's also some kind of immutable ideal, even in that degraded state; like Pythagoras's Theorem..

And this serves to highlight something about Costello that might partially explain why he has only a cult following: Sometimes he lavishes an amazing amount of craft on squinky subjects like this that arguably aren't worthy of such exertions.

It's nice to imagine a redemptive angle, like he's reaching out to the guys out there who suffer from being stuck in these places. Only I question the efficacy of this approach to interpersonal, emotional truth.

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