Lyrics to
Busy Bodies

This version of Busy Bodies was released by Elvis Costello in 1979.

Our Elvis Costello Songs profile has Busy Bodies lyrics from 1979 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.

So you think that you have seen her
When you’re lying in between her
And you tell me that you don’t care
Busy bodies getting nowhere
Ev’rybody’s getting meaner
Busy bodies
Caught in the concertina

You check her outline
Break her regulations
You watch her legs through several
Service stations

Busy bodies
Very busy
Getting nowhere
Nowhere, nowhere, nowhere

Now you’re ready for the merger
With the company you’re part of
And you do the dirty business
With your latest sleeping partner

You’re becoming
Automatic
Busy bodies
Out playing with the traffic

You want attention
You try my patience
With the best intentions you are nothing but a nuisance

Busy bodies
Busy busy
Getting nowhere
Nowhere, nowhere, nowhere

Now you’ve given your performance
Though the matinee was idle
And you find that a wave of her right hand
Could seem so tidal

Just a second
Satisfaction
Busy bodies
Temporarily out of action

You wash and brush up
You want to dress up
You want to kiss her
But she’s busy with her makeup

Busy bodies
Very busy
Getting nowhere
Nowhere

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Elvis Costello has released many songs over the years besides Busy Bodies. 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 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1979 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Busy Bodies by Elvis Costello

The lyrics to Busy Bodies are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that Elvis Costello used when the song was created in 1979. The lyrics to Busy Bodies have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only Elvis Costello and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to Busy Bodies by Elvis Costello. 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 Busy Bodies" means the words set to the music of Busy Bodies, 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 Busy Bodies and the lyrics to Busy Bodies 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 Busy Bodies, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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