Hi Wolverinefan
Here's a link to other people's thoughts on this song: http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/131852/
I've cut and pasted the one which intrigues me most :
I joined this site only so that I could add to this page.
Ever since I heard this song over twenty years ago, I had a conviction that it was about only one thing, actually, one person.
Roberto Calvi.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…
Roberto Calvi (Milan, April 13, 1920 - London, June 17, 1982) was an Italian banker dubbed by the press as "God's Banker", due to his close association with the Vatican. Calvi was the chairman of Banco Ambrosiano which collapsed in one of Italy's biggest modern political scandals, and his death in London in June 1982 has been the source of enduring controversy.
His body was discovered exactly two weeks to the day before the realease of Costello's 'Imperial Bedroom'.
The first three stanzas (above) seem to describe Calvi's whereabouts in the last few hours before his death, before he was discovered hanging from Blackfriar's Bridge in London'.
"So this is where he came to hide
When he ran from you "
- Calvi was being chased, and was caught before his assailant hanged his body
"In a private detective's overcoat
And dirty dead man's shoes "
- Calvi was discovered wearing an overcoat and loafers.
"The pretty things of Knightsbridge
Lying for a minister of state "
- Calvi may have spent his last hours in this part of London. There's also a double entendre here:
1 ) Calvi was lying FOR a minister of state, ie. he was covering up for a minister of state
2 ) The pretty things were lying for a minister of state, which may refer to a prostitution scandal
"Are a far cry from the nod and wink
Here at traitor's gate "
Traitor's gate is a few bridges down the Thames from where Calvi's body was found. This may refer
to where he was murdered. There is speculation that Calvi was murdered elsewhere, and brought to
Blackfriar's bridge, as reference to P2 - a Mason sect.
"'Cause the high heel he used to be has been ground down
And he listens for the footsteps that would follow him around "
- Calvi was being followed on the night he was killed
"To murder my love is crime
But will you still love
A man out of time "
- Calvi was a 'man out of time' because he had no time left in his life, or alternately because he was part of one (or three, or four) organizations started a long, long time ago...
"There's a tuppeny hapenny millionaire
Looking for a fourpenny one "
- This may be a reference to two men who partnered to have Calvi killed... a 'fourpenny one' may refer to a man who was worth 41 million pounds sterling (at that time)
With a tight grip on the short hairs
Of the public imagination "
- This verse refers to the huge sensation that the case called.
"But for his private wife and kids somehow
Real life becomes a rumour
Days of dutch courage
Just three French letters and a German sense of humour "
- Reference to how Calvi got from Italy to England, via Germany, France and the Netherlands.
"He's got a mind like a sewer and a heart like a fridge
He stands to be insulted and he pays for the privilege "
- This may be a reference, again, to the prostitution scandal and some kind of extortion. The moneyed classes are known to pay for sexual humiliation, insults and so forth...
(chorus)
"The biggest wheels of industry
Retire sharp and short "
- Perhaps another reference to three men involved in the conspiracy: a retired man, a sharp man, and a short man involved in industry.
"And the after dinner overtures
Are nothing but an after thought "
- This may refer to a meeting that happened that fateful night.
"Somebody's creeping in the kitchen
There's a reputation to be made
Whose nerves are always on a knife's edge
Who's up late polishing the blade "
- It sounds like this refers either literally or figuratively to the mercenary who was hired to kill Calvi
"Love is always scarpering or cowering or fawning
You drink yourself insensitive and hate yourself in the morning "
- It sounds like this could be a description of Calvi - always fleeing, cowering or fawning. And the last line, perhaps a prescription for all of us to drink and forget about such awful things.
I have always had this strong feeling that this was what the song was about. When I found this site, I looked up the release date for the album and realized that Calvi's body was found two weeks to the day before the album was released that sealed it.
This is exactly the type of scandal that Elvis would write about, but how could he have known ? The records would have been on their way to the shops by the time this transpired.
My own view is that this is all probably wide of the mark, but it got my attention and away from my work, hey ho back to the inbox.
Colin Top Balcony