(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea

I've always assumed this song was about the Chelsea Asylum, which was referred to simply as 'Chelsea'... The lyrics seem to make sense: warders, men in white coats, i don't want to go to Chelsea... also the reference to children and teachers - the military asylum housed war orphans...

I suppose this song refers to the Andy Warhol movie, "Chelsea Girls." The photographs, Warhol's polaroids, I've seen the movie, the models, the drugs, all the girls he's gonna "fix" meaning heroin. He doesn't want to be part of that type of scene event though he's "seen the movie." For all I know he visited with Warhol or else he was more using "Chelsea" as a metaphor of a drugged up, pop fashion scene.

I think a lot of people here have made the assumption that Elvis is referring to the Chelsea district of New York rather than the one in London. Of course, Elvis must have been aware of them both, so we can assume that he wrote the lyrics in such a multi-layered way that as many targets as possible could be assassinated in relatively few words.

The pun 'capital' in capital punishment suggests the song is more about London as a capital city, as well as affluence as ThunderCow pointed out; Chelsea notably being a well-to-do area of West London.

Whilst all the theories above (knowing EC's knack for lyrical intricacy) probably hit the nail on the head, it should also noted that the punk scene was centered around Chelsea (Malcolm McClaren and Vivienne Westwood's SEX boutique was situated on the King's Road) so that aspect shouldn't be ignored. Could Elvis be distancing himself from the punk bracket he found himself forced into with this tirade?

I can't believe nobody else noticed that the line "They call her Natasha but she looks like Elsie" is a reference to the number "Cabaret" from the musical of the same name, sung by the character Sally Bowles. Here are the pertinent lines:

"I used to have this girlfriend known as Elsie With whom I shared four sordid rooms in Chelsea

She wasn't what you'd call a blushing flower As a matter of fact she rented by the hour

The day she died the neighbors came to snicker 'Well, that's what comes from too much pills and liquor'

But when I saw her laid out like a Queen She was the happiest corpse, I'd ever seen"

Musical clip:

https://youtu.be/nx3F3YfsWHA

I think that Elvis was involved with Bebe Buell (the model) at this time so was probably involved heavilyin the life she lived which would have been quite alien to him at that time. He probably considered it a mad lifestyle. Chelsea is associated with high end fashion so this ties in with the modelling ( the album this is from is called 'this years model') but chelsea has also historically been linked with asylums - I believe bedlam was situated there in 18th & 19th century. It seems to me that he is trying to link madness and modelling/fashion ( see Bruno- the movie!!)

Costello's clearly a genius and one of the most gifted lyricists of all of pop and rock. The first three records blazed a trail in three intense years '77, '78 and 79 that in my opinion has never been equalled by any other artist in terms of intensity.

To me 'Chelsea is two stories in one. One is about the decadent lifestyle of the typical London, Chelsea rich upper class population, as lived by the likes of Max Mosley, witnessed thirty years later. Older men with younger girls, turning "fancy tricks." Girls who do not matter as individuals "you call her Natasha when she looks like Elsie" and this clearly is a life that repels the storyteller, as it's emotionally dead and degrading. In parallel there's the story about ending up at the Chelsea asylum and it's similarily repelling. The comparison between the rich, emotionally dead Chelsea life style and asylum life metaphorically connects the two worlds.

This song is pretty clearly Elvis' slap in the face to the art/fashion/modeling scene:

Fancy tricks = models, last year's model = last season's "it girl", chelsea hotel reference = slap at the famous and fabulous exemplified by Warhol's gang, etc.

The line that gets misunderstood, I think, is "they call her Natasha when she looks like Elsie." Elsie is a typical rural, girl-next-door, wholesome beauty's name (think the publican's daughter) -- the American equivalent might be Becky Sue (or Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island). So the rural natural beauty can't cut it in the fashion world, which has to make her into an "exotic" manufactured product -- "Natasha" -- to make its money.

this song has such a great beat.

Yeah, It's definitely my favourite Elvis Costello song. I can only really understand small bits of the lyrics, but it's a brilliant song all the same. The drumming's amazing, particularly at the start.

Chelsea is/has been at various times an entertainment and sometime red-light district of London. With this bit of knowledge in hand the rest of the song's meaning falls out fairly easily. Truly enough, another of Elvis' misogynistic, or at least feminambivalent tracks, disappointed by the tawdriness of the everyday dressed up flimsily as the exotic and so on. Around the time this song made the hit parade in England, according to Elvis in an interview somewhere, he got into a cab and asked to be driven, where else, to Chelsea, on some business or other. Supposedly the driver turned around with a sneer and a "Ha, Ha, bloody Ha!"