Elvis Costello Songs - Veronica Lyrics

Elvis Costello - Veronica

Elvis Costello - Veronica Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Spike
Released: 1989

Veronica Lyrics

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 could 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

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

Did the days drag by? Did the favors wane?
Did he roam down the town all the while?
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

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 sits in her favorite chair
And 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 devilish look in her eye
Saying "You can call me anything you like,
But my name is Veronica"

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
Oh Veronica

Writer/s: GRANT FITCH, MARK HENNESSY
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Veronica

This song tells the story of an old lady who lives in a nursing home. She lives a quiet and still existence as she gradually loses her memory. It was inspired by Costello's grandmother, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease.

Paul McCartney wrote this with Costello. The lyrics are reminiscent of McCartney's Beatles song "Eleanor Rigby."

This was the first song to come from McCartney and Costello's co-writing relationship. Other songs the duo wrote include Costello's tracks "So Like Candy" and "Playboy to A Man," and McCartney's "My Brave Face" and "You Want Her Too."

Hard to believe, but McCartney was getting a lot of bad press around this time, as he was still feuding with his former Beatles associates and refused to attend The Beatles 1988 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Costello said in a 1989 interview with On The Street: "I know some people have very bad preconceptions about Paul McCartney, but I'm involved to the extent that I've written a bunch of songs with him as well. I know he's a really good bass player, so I'm not too bothered about what anyone thinks about him playing on my record. I don't think it reflects at all on my perception of myself as a songwriter."

This was Costello's first big hit in the United States. Seems Elvis prefers niche adulation to widespread commercial success, which might account for his lack of chart success. This song, in particular, is one he struggled with. He explained to NME in 1996: "As soon as you make a record, particularly if it becomes a big success, it doesn't belong to you any more, it's that 'Wah Boo!' situation. A similar thing happened with 'Veronica' in America. I never liked it. And recently I did this show with Steve (Nieve, Attraction's keyboardist), and I changed the key and the whole song changed completely. Suddenly I didn't have to think about the record. It went back to why I wrote it, how I wrote it about my grandmother and it really meant something to me, and I kind of regained it. I'd got my song back from the evil success that it had had."