When he’s on top of his game, Elvis Costello has no equal as a lyricist. His ability to twist and turn the English language, to fracture and reassemble puns and cliches with devilish glee, borders on the surreal. Particularly on his early albums, Costello’s wordplay is almost frighteningly intricate.
To quote a song on a future Costello album, he calls to mind “a chainsaw running through a dictionary.”
For all of that lyrical ingenuity, or perhaps because of it, it’s often nearly impossible to tell what Costello’s songs are actually about. Often I’ll find myself thinking, “These lyrics are amazing… if only I knew what the hell they meant.”
In concert once, Costello said that he’s often asked what his songs mean and his response is that (I’m paraphrasing) “if I could say it in different words than are in the song, I’d have written a different song.” That’s a clever response, but it’s largely bullshit. I’m guessing that’s a cute way to say he wants his songs to speak for themselves.
On some occasions, Costello has been forthcoming about the inspiration for a song, if not the meaning behind each line. One example is Get Happy!!‘s ‘Temptation,’ about which he said this:
“It’s really hard to fall in love with someone from row 97…..This here song is a song I wrote in 1978 in Nashville, TN, I was in row 97 actually, at a concert by a very famous American rock singer, and I was looking at him and thinking, ‘ Wow, this is getting tough for this guy’. I know he’s real, but it’s getting like he’s not allowed to be real anymore. I said ‘That’ll never happen to me. Fame will never go to my head .”
He later revealed that the famous American rock singer is Bruce Springsteen.
Even knowing that, I find some parts of this song hard to decipher. How about you?
Living in air-conditioned limbo
Though they treat him just like a guest
He’s living under threat of arrest
Now that he’s finally trying to make some sense
He drinks in self-defense
Give me temptation
The subtle touch of authority will
Take you anytime down to the station
You say that it’s alright by me
Now you’re living with the curse of sophistication
Now that you’re shackled up to the rigmarole
With absolute control
Give me temptation
I see you lying so wide awake
After I’ve given you all that you can take
So for heaven’s sake
Give me temptation
Still you want to succeed so badly
Finding your life will not be deadly
You tell me you can take it or leave it
Sometimes I think that you really believe it
You’re just itching to break her secret laws
As you go from claws to clause
Give me temptation
Meet Me In Montauk 
As we previously discussed, I rarely try to understand what the hell EC is singing about. Just kinda makes my brain hurt. But reading through the lyrics, I suppose I do come away with the description of a working class nondescript musician who wants to be rich, famous or both. He recognizes that the fame will come with negatives—lack of anonymity, infidelities, alcohol and drug excess, but, for the sake of achieving his dream, give him those temptations!
By the way, in the Spectacle interview with Bruce, he mentioned being in Memphis for that concert. I don’t think he specifically mentioned this song coming out of that experience, but I just think its cool to connect all of this up.
Her secret laws might be fame’s? The clause could be the actual clause in a recording contract or (and/or?) the clause someone figuratively signs when making a deal to be famous. The whole Devil and Daniel Webster sort of thing.
Pretty cool little song. I wonder if “air conditioned limbo” would have qualified in our game of Encore 🙂
“When he’s on top of his game, Elvis Costello has no equal as a lyricist. ”
Huh> Neil Finn is everything Elvis wanted to be and more!
I think that a lot of his songs are not really “about” one thing in a focused way; there are bits and pieces. Several of the songs on GET HAPPY!! were written in the aftermath of the Ray Charles/racial slurs incident, notably “Riot Act.” There’s a little of that in this one too. More broadly, I read it as an ambivalent response to fame. EC is the kid with his mumbo-jumbo living in air-conditioned limbo, being treated just like a guest, et cetera, and he’s also the “you” who wanted to succeed.