THIS SOnG KICKS!
ELVIS YOU ROCK MY WORLD!

This song is one of Elvis's best songs.

I think this is Costello's nod to his cynicism. He used to be disgusted by the world, but now he tries to make fun of it, to stay sane. Now all the angels, idealistic people, find that their idealistic wings failed them. They want his red shoes, his cynicism and realistic outlook.

It seems that whenever Elvis talks about dancing it usually means sex (Mystery Dance, No Dancing), especially on his first album. And in the song The Angles Wanna Wear My (Red Shoes) there’s the lyric “I was watching while you were dancing away/ our love got fractured in the echo and sway/ How come everybody wants to be your friend?” Judging by that, I’d say he’s fallen in love with a big slut. And the lyric “She gets so tired of the lust/ but it’s so hard to refuse” I think just supports my theory that the woman is just a big hussy.

this song is OBV about suicide.
"And I won't get any older, now the angels wanna wear my red shoes." this woman left him ("she said drop dead and left with another guy") and he doesn't want to live anymore because the angels that "want to wear his red shoes" have tempted him with death.

Not entirely sure but the opening line is great if you frame it thinking of an ex that you still have feelings for that you then find out is dating someone you despise. You are at first disgusted but then you try and take it in stride. Also works for someone you're into who you find out is with someone you dislike.

I realize I’m a responding to a post here that’s pretty old, having said that:
A previous poster had stated that ‘Red Shoes’ is “obviously” about suicide. That writer is on track but did not finish. The more literal line of this story is, starting after the ‘lead in’ refrain, is about a older man (“how can you say I’m too old..”) in blissfully ignorant to reality love (“I’m so happy I could die”) with a girl who is sleeping around (“everybody wants to be your friend (it hurts me just to say it)”, and, (the lust is) “hard to refuse”. She finally tells him to “drop dead”, but (stalker like logic) he looks to get vengeance, either on her, by his suicide, or, going after the guy she is with. In either case his gets wounded (“you got me punctured”) mortally (“my sentence”, “won’t get any older” and ‘wearing red shoes’). At first he is pissed off at his situation, then as he resigns to death, he finds cynical amusement in the situation he brought on himself (“I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused”).

More broadly, the song is about giving your life to something or someone that does not appreciate the level of your sacrifice, and especially, about the visceral feelings when the truth is recognized. This is something that is usually not experienced while one is still young and idealistic, which maybe why Elvis is quoted as saying he finds it funny he wrote this at 22 years of age. I don’t think its funny…. it is flat out inspired. I think we are looking at the lyrical Van Gogh of our time. Under- understood and appreciated, he writes the poetry of the anti-fairy tale, vignettes of real life drama of the mundane or base human experience. His lyrics are a bit of a Rorschach test and allow for lots of visceral resonance. They are understood somatically even when they are not instinctually.

the last word should be intellectually not instinctually-apologies
Dad

Rorschach test, indeed. It would be great if Elvis would log in and tell us who, if any of us, is right. But isn't a truism of postmodernism that the audience, not the author, determines what narratives "really" mean, which means meanings are always plural and contentious?

Well, I hadn't listened carefully to Red Shoes until recently (I'm not an original Elvis fan but recently got to see him live). Suicide had not occured to me, but after reading these posts, it now seems quite logical. However, my original impression was quite different.

Angels stealing his shoes could refer to death. But the way he refers to angels suggested to me they signify something else. What does he mean their wings are rusted? What is the bargain they offer that he can't refuse?

So, though Elvis may choke, here's what I hear. This song is about his (then) newfound fame, and groupies. The angels are girls, who used to spurn him (given his "nerd" persona, not impossible), which disgusted him. Now that he's famous, they throw themselves at him, an offer he "can't refuse" (there is no pronoun saying who can't refuse the lust), a change of situation about which he tries to stay amused. The stuff in the middle is a flashback of sorts, thinking about a girl (or girls) who hurt him in the past, and who, even now, are compelled to chase after famous or "cool" guys (e.g., groupies, who may feel "abused"). Basically, the song takes a pretty dim view of women, but now that Elvis is on the other side of the fence, as it were, he's pretty amused about it. Is this the vengeance he's wreaking -- sleeping with groupies? (By the way, in this interpretation, red shoes take on a specific meaning -- his fame. It would make sense that Elvis would be grappling with the house of mirrors qualities of fame at about this time.)

Anyway, the most fascinating part is my interpretation can be just as coherent but completely different from someone else's. A testatment to the genius amgibuity w/which Elvis's lyrics are imbued. Personally, I feel my interpretation fits the upbeat melody a bit better.

Ok, I've got a completely different take, but good art often inspires such disparate interpretations:

I think that the "angel" in the song is a girl that the subject of the song admired a good deal. He placed her on a pedestal, and had apparently done so for a good deal of time. I think he admired her for her virtue and poise.
I think that she slept with the subject to make someone jealous, then she rejects him ("She said "Drop dead," then left with another guy.") publicly, and leaves him embarrassed and alone. The new guy uses her as badly as she used the subject of the song, and destroyed everything that made her angelic in his eyes; perhaps having sex with her, and then spreading it around.
Now the subject is just watching her life spiraling apart, and her throw herself at him with amusement.

Pick that apart as you will :-)

After reading the lyrics, I would have to say it's not about suicide but rather about murder.

I think it is like everyone says a guy that is madly in love with a girl. I would say they were probably together briefly hence the 1st verse then in the 3rd verse it gets interesting. For me I picture the girl leaving him in the 2nd verse and he is upset. The 3rd verse leads into your "hollywood" type knife fight where the main guy is challenging the "new" guy in the girl's life to a fight for her love. I don't know but the line "you got me puntured and this is my sentence" seems to say that he was knifed and killed all for the sake of vegence. And then the song ends with him either in heaven or laying their dying thinking that he was disgusted with the situation now he finds his situation amusing cause there is nothing he can do about it.

Just my thoughts.

The key word is this song is "bargain" - this song is about a Faustian deal, not with the devil, but with the angels. Because in Elvis Costello's world, you can make a deal with the Knights of the Lord in exactly the same way you can with the Prince of Darkness.

So the protagonist in the song arranges with the angels to have eternal youth (or something similar) in exchange for their being able to experience human life (signified by the red shoes). Of course, Faustian agreements being what they are, the angels "steal" the main character's red shoes (too in love with being human?) while a simple human foible (the woman rejects the protagonist) creates an ironic end. The "sentence" referred to in the song is the Dorian Grey-ish youth bestowed upon our hero even though he's lost the reason he made the deal in the first place: the love of his woman.

My favorite line of the song is of course "I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused," which is -especially from an Elvis Costello at the ripe age of 23 - incredibly wise & cynical.

It's not about homicide or suicide or anything obtuse. No one dies, which is really the point. She's moved on, the angels have moved on, but the person who struck the deal - he's the sucker.

i always though this was a happy, peppy song about suicide. it's my second favorite elvis song next to "indoor fireworks" - that song is amazing...