114 :: The Lure of Vitriol :: A Slow Drag with "The World and His Wife"

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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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

“Score Draw” https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/score-draw#:~:text=Word%20forms%3A%20plural%20score%20draws,the%20same%20number%20of%20goals.

Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday”

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"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