Welcome AtoZ-ers and other blog friends! This month I'm participating in the AtoZ blogging challenge, and you'll see a post every day (except Sundays) about one of the Songs of my Heart. Today's edition: Veronica by Elvis Costello. (If my embedded video won't work, you can listen at this link).
I'm a little hit and miss with Elvis Costello. When I'm in the right mood, his hipster vibe and snarky attitude work for me. When I'm not, it's less fun. But I nearly always like this song when I hear it.
The height of my enjoyment of Costello's music was his Mighty Like a Rose album, smack dab in the middle of my college years. This one was recorded in the later 1980s, so a bit before that album.
Revisiting it now, especially with the video, it strikes me very differently, with commentary on aging and losing you used to be. But at least the singer remembers who she was and misses her (even if he's a little patronizing about it with that "pretty little head" nonsense).
Lyrics from Elvis Costello Wiki:
Is it all in that pretty little head of yours?
What goes on in that place in the dark?
Well, I used to know a girl and I would have sworn that her name was Veronica
Well, she used to have a carefree mind of her own and a delicate look in her eye
These days I'm afraid she's not even sure if her name is Veronica
(Chorus:)
Do you suppose that waiting hands on eyes, Veronica has gone to hide?
And all the time she laughs at those who shout her name and steal her clothes
Veronica
Veronica
Veronica
Did the days drag by? Did the favours wane?
Did he roam down the town all the time?
Will you wake from your dream with a wolf at the door, reaching out for Veronica?
Well it was all of sixty-five years ago
When the world was the street where she lived
And a young man sailed on a ship in the sea with a picture of Veronica
On the "Empress of India"
And as she closed her eyes upon the world
And picked upon the bones of last week's news
She spoke his name out loud again
(Repeat Chorus)
Veronica sits in her favourite chair, she sits very quiet and still
And they call her a name that they never get right
And if they don't, then nobody else will
But she used to have a carefree mind of her own, with a devilish look in her eye
Saying "You can call me anything you like, but my name is Veronica"
(Repeat Chorus)
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Veronica is one my favorite Costello song, okay, it's the only song since I don't really like his other works. I always get the lyrics wrong because the singer pronounce words in an odd way sometimes.
ReplyDeleteHave a lovely day.
He does have his own particular diction.
DeleteI love this song. Even as a kid, I got the whole sadness of the dementia of the subject. (Funny how my mother ended up going that route, but much later.)
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young, I might have thought her memory problems were due to partying and drugs and instead of dementia, but I definitely caught the sadness.
DeleteIt's a swell song. I like how he sings her name. He puts so much into it.
ReplyDeleteHe does, doesn't he?
DeleteThos is pretty food and I'm not a Costello fan.
ReplyDeleteI'm not always either. Just a few songs when I'm in the right mood.
DeleteI'm the same as you with Elvis Costello - he's a mood, but you have to be in the right one to appreciate him! I do have to love "Alison" though, I think it's the law.
ReplyDelete- Allison
https://lightningflashwriting.blogspot.com/
You know, there's probably at least a statue or something about that…LOL.
DeleteI like this song but I'm not much into him. I can't stand the singing of his wife, Diana Krall.
ReplyDeleteOh! I had no idea the two of them were connected.
Delete