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Songs I Probably Shouldn’t Listen To #37
Song: I Want You (Download)
Artist: Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Album: Blood & Chocolate
Key Lyric:
It’s the stupid details that my heart is breaking for
It’s the way your shoulders shake and what they’re shaking for
Commentary:
En-route to pickup my two other buddies for dudes night out on the evening of Valentine’s Day is a pretty awesome thing already. Add to that the fact that this song by Elvis Costello comes onto the radio, and you have a perfect omen of the good things to come that night.
The opening verse of this song starts off in an almost like a formulaic folk/country-like about a breakup. As he sings “Oh my baby baby, I love you more than I can tell, I don’t think I can live without you…”, Elvis Costello sounds nostalgic and wistful as he recounts a tale of a romance gone sour. There is nothing creepy or dark about his tone of voice, although you can sense a tad bit of loneliness and longing.
Then all of a sudden there is a twangy guitar riff, and the mood of the song turns dark and unpleasant in the blink of an eye. Elvis Costello has always had the bitter woman hating attitude solidified in his songs and persona, but in “I Want You” he goes further than even when Sting or Phil Collins channel their inner stalker alter-egos.
This nearly 7 minute long song just gets progressively creepy and demented and when he sings “I’m afraid I won’t know where to stop”, he truly means it. Especially when the lyrics that follow that statement juxtapose two conflicting feelings: “I want to hear he pleases you more than I do / I want you / I might as well be useless for all it means to you.” Just the way he says “I Want You” and how the statement is sandwiched between the other two lines is downright disturbing.
