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.
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.