skip this if your already familiar with "Watching the Detectives"
I've always thought Costello lyrics were the ultimate.
OK, maybe I was slow to catch on, but, 25 years on, this song took a turn for me today when I realized it was a sexual frustration song about sex with the TV on. A relatively mundane topic given a genius sex-entendre treatment in the traditional blues style. I used to think it was about period film noir but I now realize that it's just the beat and bass riff that affect the track in that way (maybe the lyrics were written without the noir association).
Nice girls
Not one with a defect
Cellophane shrink-wrapped
So correct
Just today figured out he's perusing an adult mag. (I said I was slow to catch on).
Red dogs under illegal legs
She looks so good that he gets down and begs
He gets excited, turns to his partner.
She is watching the detectives, "Oh, he's so cute!"
She is watching the detectives when they shoot
But she's not particularly interested. In fact we later find out she's thinking of leaving but for the cop show on TV
Long-shot of that jumping sign
Visible shivers running down my spine
What's happening on TV and in his mind/body begins to blend in a stream-of-conciousness blur (the organ is the musical interpretation of this); an experience that we are witness to.
I don't know how much more of this I can take
She's filing her nails while they're dragging the lake
Sexual frustration only partially released
You think you're alone until you realize you're in it
Fear is here to stay/Love is here for a visit
They call it instant justice when/It's past the legal limit
Someone's scratching at the window/I wonder who is it?
Orgasmic racing-thoughts sequence. But it's his. For now.
Though it nearly took a miracle to get you to stay it only took my little fingers to blow you away
a priori+wrapping it all up with a double entendre
.....or maybe not. But brilliant. Does somebody else have a different take?
Post Edited (03-04-07 14:20)
