This is one of the first songs I heard by Elvis Costello, and one of my favorites. I came to the site to check the lyrics (parts of which I've never quite been able to grasp from the recording). This is the way I read them, and I think also the meaning I have always felt from the delivery.
For me, the narrator explores the frustrating tension between livelihood (money) struggles and other constraints, with progression across the three stanzas.
The first stanza turns on conflict between love/affection and the money game. Maintaining connection with the (remote) lover by being provider ("mail it to you") runs against tax demands. Forced to the choice, narrator chooses affection (providing for the lover). To do that he commits to tell the tax man to buzz off (or at least justifies breaking the rules to himself, and to the lover). So "Blame it on Cain."
The second stanza, for me, turns on moral (or Christian-religious) imperatives and the money game. Forced to a choice between principle (saintly purity, symbolized by the "silver cup") and a need for money, the narrator flags the possibility of selling out principle ("heat it up or trade it in"). But selling out for money trades one curse (lack of money) or another (loss of heaven, or metaphorically loss of the value of purity). Morality tells us not to be dissatisfied if we are upright, so if we are not satisfied (because squeezed for money), the solution (morally) is to invent a straw man to absorb the blame for our plight. Again, "Blame it on Cain."
The third stanza (again, for me) turns on cold boundaries of criminal law and the money game. Isolated, there is no channel to vent the frustrations that build from absorbing abuse and turning the other cheek, and the anger builds. Escaping emotionally ("break out some weekend") crosses a red line, but he wonders how long he can tolerate his plight. So if he does escape, "Blame it on Cain."
In each stanza, the final line before the refrain moves from distance (future tense, "what I'm gonna say," to a trigger, "so if you're not satisfied," to immediacy: "how much longer?" At the final refrain, the narrator has snapped (both in the verse, and in the delivery). In the final line of the last refrain ("it just seems to be his turn") the narrator throws off all illusion that the mental sleight of hand used to escape from the three dilemmas has any grounding in reason. It just is.
This is one of the first songs I heard by Elvis Costello, and one of my favorites. I came to the site to check the lyrics (parts of which I've never quite been able to grasp from the recording). This is the way I read them, and I think also the meaning I have always felt from the delivery.
For me, the narrator explores the frustrating tension between livelihood (money) struggles and other constraints, with progression across the three stanzas.
The first stanza turns on conflict between love/affection and the money game. Maintaining connection with the (remote) lover by being provider ("mail it to you") runs against tax demands. Forced to the choice, narrator chooses affection (providing for the lover). To do that he commits to tell the tax man to buzz off (or at least justifies breaking the rules to himself, and to the lover). So "Blame it on Cain."
The second stanza, for me, turns on moral (or Christian-religious) imperatives and the money game. Forced to a choice between principle (saintly purity, symbolized by the "silver cup") and a need for money, the narrator flags the possibility of selling out principle ("heat it up or trade it in"). But selling out for money trades one curse (lack of money) or another (loss of heaven, or metaphorically loss of the value of purity). Morality tells us not to be dissatisfied if we are upright, so if we are not satisfied (because squeezed for money), the solution (morally) is to invent a straw man to absorb the blame for our plight. Again, "Blame it on Cain."
The third stanza (again, for me) turns on cold boundaries of criminal law and the money game. Isolated, there is no channel to vent the frustrations that build from absorbing abuse and turning the other cheek, and the anger builds. Escaping emotionally ("break out some weekend") crosses a red line, but he wonders how long he can tolerate his plight. So if he does escape, "Blame it on Cain."
In each stanza, the final line before the refrain moves from distance (future tense, "what I'm gonna say," to a trigger, "so if you're not satisfied," to immediacy: "how much longer?" At the final refrain, the narrator has snapped (both in the verse, and in the delivery). In the final line of the last refrain ("it just seems to be his turn") the narrator throws off all illusion that the mental sleight of hand used to escape from the three dilemmas has any grounding in reason. It just is.