114 :: The Lure of Vitriol :: A Slow Drag with "The World and His Wife"
Description
Today’s slow drag is with “The World and His Wife,” from “Punch the Clock,” released in 1983. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello.
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Show Notes:
Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA
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Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com
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References:
Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “The World and His Wife” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=The_World_And_His_Wife
“The World and His Wife” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4wgrLmdVaI
“The World and His Wife” Live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KJTTmA_vvs
“The World and His Wife” idiom: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/world-and-his-wife#:~:text=a%20great%20many%20people%2C%20especially,his%20wife%20will%20be%20there.
“It’s a Living” idiom https://www.englishforums.com/English/ItsALiving/mkphd/post.htm
“This is the life” idiom https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/this-is-the-life
Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday”
Listen to the audiobook for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y
"The World and His Wife" Lyrics
The family circle gathers 'round from very far and near
To pass around the same remarks they passed away last year
The little girl you dangled on your knee without mishap
Stirs something in your memory and something in your lap
Chorus:
But it's a living
This is the life
For the world and his wife
The world and his wife
The kissing cousins slip outside to cuddle and confess
She says sweet nothing at all, it's much more of a mess
The conversation melts like chocolate down their open jaws
As the juniper berry slips down just like last night's drawers
(Chorus)
To tell the truth our Mum ran off with someone else's father
Went for two weeks' holiday in Taramasalata
Daddy went out with the rubbish and he kept on walking
Between Mum and the walls
God only knows who does the talking
(Chorus)
But late time in the evening through the tears and fol-de-rol
Come the sentimental feelings for the lure of vitriol
Longing thoughts go hankering for the old home overseas
With a blindfold and a national anthem sung in different keys