All This Useless Beauty Lyrics

Lyric discussion by musoshi 

Cover art for All This Useless Beauty lyrics by Elvis Costello

To 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.