Wow. How can this song be up here for 2 and a half years without explanation. Here's my go at it. This is, perhaps, my favorite heartbrake song of all time. Costello has this way of being poetic without esotericism. He can craft words so beautifully and perfectly and not lose you in their meaning. Brilliant. So imagine...


A man who's in his unlit apartment. He's finaly come to grips with the fact that his 'significant' is 'playing around.' What's brilliant in the way this song is crafted is how well you can understand this man. He's known all along, but his head is finally telling his heart and he's coming to grips with reality. "It's not open to discussion anymore...no more excuses, no more justification...this is real.

So he's in his apartment pacing the living room waiting for her to get home. His desparate pining just wrings my heart out. For me, the most telling line in the song is, "She walks those shiny streets
I walk the worn out floor." His worry and heartache is pacing a wear into the carpet -- and she's off in blis somewhere. "To hold on to that girl, I had to let her go." He's so desparate over her that he lets her free to 'play around,' as it were, and look the other way. To keep her as 'his' he has to give her over to other suitors.

So to whomever reads this. Listen again. Turn down the lights and put yourself in this man's shoes. Watch him in his dim apartment. Look out his window at the exciting city and rain below. And imagine as he's experiencing.

Elvis Costello is a genius (even though his wife, at the time, wrote the song...). He can suck me into the middle of his stories... He peints enough of a picture to give you a skeleton and allows us to imagine the rest. Master of his craft...

This song was actually written by Costello's wife (at the time) Cait O'Riordan, who played bass for The Pogues before meeting him.

On a BBC special, Everything About Spike, in 1989 Costello explains that he didnt want to make the song a cliche and wanted it to stay simple, which it is and the lyrics are easily understood.

I know the song is easy to understand and my comment sounds repeated and hasnt added much to help just thought I'd comment. :)
Amazing song.