Lyrics to
Big Boys

This version of Big Boys was released by Elvis Costello in 1978.

Our Elvis Costello Songs profile has Big Boys lyrics from 1978 and most if not all of the lyrics by Elvis Costello that we have here at Decade Lyrics.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Elvis Costello or about the 1970s in general.

I am starting to function
In the usual way
Everything is so provocative
Very very, temporary
I shall walk (I shall walk)
Out of this place (out of this place)
I shall walk
Out on you
‘Cause you go silly
If she’s willing
Trying so hard to be like the big boys

So you take her to the pictures
Trying to become a fixture
Inch by inch trying to reach her
All the way through the second feature
Worrying about your physical fitness
Tell me how you got this sickness, Oh ohhhh..

I was caught in the suction
By a face like a truncheon
I was down upon one knee
Stroking her vanity

I was stuck on a hammerhead
I came alive and left for dead
As my face returned to red
Choking on my pride and pity

We can talk (we can talk)
Until your face is blue (till your face is blue)
We can talk but she’ll get to you
After you’ve been loved and hated
By the ones you’ve watched and waited
Found that they were overrated

She’ll be the one – when the party’s over
She’ll be the one – when the girls have gone home
She’ll be the one – that you’ll wish you’d held onto
She’ll be the one – but it’s too late for you to
She’ll be the one – who knows all your history
She’ll be the one –

So you can cross her off your list
And you try so hard
And you try so hard
And you try so hard
To be like the big boys, oh.

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Want more lyrics and songs by Elvis Costello?

Elvis Costello has released many songs over the years besides Big Boys. Elvis Costello released songs from 1977 to 2004 spanning across albums like My Aim Is True, This Year's Model, Armed Forces, Get Happy!!, Trust, Almost Blue, Imperial Bedroom, Punch The Clock, Goodbye Cruel World, Blood And Chocolate, King Of America, Spike, Mighty Like A Rose, The Juliet Letters, Brutal Youth, Kojak Variety, Deep Dead Blue, All This Useless Beauty, Painted From Memory, For The Stars, When I Was Cruel, North, and The Delivery Man. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Elvis Costello.

If you're a fan of popular 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1978 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Big Boys by Elvis Costello

The lyrics to Big Boys are the words, verses and chorus for the song released by Elvis Costello in 1978. Elements of the lyrics to Big Boys are both direct in meaning and also metaphorical with the real meanings of the song only known by Elvis Costello and any collaborating writers working on the lyrics for Big Boys back when it was created.

Some people have an interest in the etymology behind words and phrases. You can take apart the lyrics to Big Boys by Elvis Costello in a number of ways. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Big Boys" means the words set to the music of Big Boys, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Elvis Costello. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Big Boys and the lyrics to Big Boys are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Elvis Costello who came here looking just for the lyrics to Big Boys, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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