All This Useless Beauty

Elvis Costello

It's at times such as this, she'd be tempted to spit
If she wasn't so ladylike
She imagines how she might have lived
Back when legends and history collide

So she looks to her prince, finding he's so charmingly
Slumped at her side
Those days are recalled on the gallery wall
And she's waiting for passion or humor to strike

What shall we do, what shall we do with all this useless beauty?
All this useless beauty

Good Friday arrived, the sky darkened on time
Till he almost began to negotiate
She held his head like a baby and said "it's okay if you cry"
Now he wants her to dress as if you couldn't guess
He desires to impress his associates
But he's part ugly beast and Hellenic deceased
So she finds that the mixture is hard to deny

What shall we do, what shall we do with all this useless beauty?
All this useless beauty

She won't practice the looks from the great tragic books
That were later disgraced to face celluloid
It won't even make sense, but you can bet
If she isn't a sweetheart or plaything or pet
The film turns her into an unveiled threat

Nonsense prevails, modesty fails
Grace and virtue turn into stupidity
While the calendar fades almost all barricades to a pale compromise
And our leaders have feasts on the backsides of beasts
They still think they're the gods of antiquity
If something you missed didn't even exist
It was just an ideal, is it such a surprise?

What shall we do, what shall we do with all this useless beauty?
All this useless beauty

What shall we do, what shall we do with all this useless beauty?
All this useless beauty


Lyrics submitted by Mopnugget

All This Useless Beauty Lyrics as written by Declan Macmanus

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group

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All This Useless Beauty song meanings
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4 Comments

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  • 0
    General CommentThis reminds me of those LA beauty-queen types who don't really do anything... but more so the beautiful people who don't choose to make a show of it and get slated for that.
    PaleVengeanceon January 16, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General CommentTo Me:

    All this useless beauty is a reference to people having at home faces and public faces.

    People present a persona to their friends and employers and such.

    What would we do if we didn't have to labor under these facades?

    Women look pretty and are lady like, and men use these women as trophies... and a good women should like to be a trophy.

    This is all from the perspective of a young women wondering "Why?"

    It's all about trying to return to a time before all of this.
    musoshion June 22, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General CommentI think it has a feeling that there is a girl who lives somewhat in her fantasies because real life just ain't cuttin it....
    She is probably really HOT, but that does not mean anything to her truly, and she is still not satisfied, despite all that beauty.
    She is not wholly in love with her guy, but it is what she has, so she takes it. She is also, of course, disillusioned with politics, like that is new.
    All in all it sounds like she is a pretty woman who is just not happy to me at least!!
    zlloydon December 04, 2015   Link
  • 0
    My InterpretationI interpret "useless beauty" in this song as "wasted beauty." It's wasted because it's unappreciated. The wife in the song married someone beneath her because of her fantasies and desire to pursue social norms.
    thrillracerESQon April 05, 2018   Link

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