Hand in Hand Lyrics
I won't ask you to forgive me
If I'm gonna go down,
you're gonna come with me
like they do in the grown-up movies?'
But when it comes to the other way around,
you say you just wanna use me Oh,
you sit and you wonder whether
it's gonna be syndicated
You sit with your knees together
All the time your breath is baited
No, don't ask me to apologise
I won't ask you to forgive me
If I'm gonna go down,
you're gonna come with me
changing someone's facial design,
sitting with my toy room lout,
polishing my precious china
Don't you know I'm an animal?
But don't you know I can't stand up steady?
But you can't show me any kind of hell
that I don't know already
No, don't ask me to apologise
I won't ask you to forgive me
If I'm gonna go down,
you're gonna come with me
Hand in hand, hand in hand, hand in hand...
I read somewhere years ago that it's about Jimmy Page, it would certainly fit. The 'bully boys' being Zeppelin's violent heavies and hand in hand meaning the devil [Page's occult practices] also the mention of hell. Costello's manager Jake Riviera was also manager of Dave Edmunds, who was signed to Zeppelin's record label Swan Song.
@FishnChips "backward masked" lyrics song intro is also a bit of a clue
@FishnChips "backward masked" lyrics song intro is also a bit of a clue
@FishnChips "backward masked" lyrics song intro is also a bit of a clue
@FishnChips "backward masked" lyrics song intro is also a bit of a clue
@FishnChips "I was really anti the posturing of rock 'n' roll, the crotch-thrusting element of it, I tried to write the opposite of that. I am really grossly offended by Led Zeppelin, not only because they're total charlatans and thieves, but because it actually embarrasses me. I grew up being bludgeoned with Deep Purple and all that heavymetal shit." http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Musician,_March_1986
@FishnChips "I was really anti the posturing of rock 'n' roll, the crotch-thrusting element of it, I tried to write the opposite of that. I am really grossly offended by Led Zeppelin, not only because they're total charlatans and thieves, but because it actually embarrasses me. I grew up being bludgeoned with Deep Purple and all that heavymetal shit." http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Musician,_March_1986
"masked backward words" at start of song is also a bit of a clue
"backwards masking" is also a clue
"backward masking" of intro is also a bit of a clue
All the songs of his early period (Armed Forces era) were about Bebe Buell, ex-girlfriend of Todd Rundgren and former Playmate of the Year. All that Sturm und Drang of his early years - the menace, the love-hate relationships he sang about - were about her. She saw the PR potential of their relationship, the angry nerd rock-god and the bombshell beauty ("you just want to use me"). He was never sure if that was ALL she saw in him and, even so, he couldn't resist her beauty and despised himself for it.
it's about cunnilingus ("if I'm gonna go down, you're gonna come") and mutual masturbation (the title is obvious), along with the sexual/romantic angst that defined Costello's lyrics.