Lyrics to
Goon Squad

This version of Goon Squad was released by Elvis Costello in 1979.

Visit the Elvis Costello Lyrics profile at Decade Lyrics - it has the Goon Squad lyrics as well as the rest of the songs by Elvis Costello.

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

Mother, Father, I’m here in the zoo
I can’t come home ’cause I’ve grown up too soon
I got my sentence
I got my command
They said they’d make me major if I met all their demands
I could be a corp’ral into corp’ral punishment
Or the gen’ral manager of a large establishment
They pat some good boys on the back and put some to the rod
But I never thought they’d put me in the

Goon squad
They’ve come to look you over and they’re giving you the eye
Goon squad
They want you to come out to play
You’d better say goodbye

Some grow just like their dads
And some grow up too tall
Some go drinking with the lads
Some don’t grow up at all

And you must find the proper place
For everything you see
But you’ll never get to make a lampshade out of me

I could join a chain of males or be the missing (a) link
Looking for a lucky girl to put me in the pink
They pat some good boys on the back and put some to the rod
But I never thought they’d put me in the

Good squad ….

Mother, Father, I’m doing so well
I’m making such progress now that you can hardly tell
I fit in a little dedication
With one eye on the clock
They caught you under medication
You could be in for a shock

Thinking up the alibis that ev’ryone’s forgotten
Just another mummy’s boy gone to rotten
They pat some good boys on the back and put some to the rod
But I never thought they’d put me in the

Goon squad….

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Want more lyrics and songs by Elvis Costello?

Elvis Costello has released many songs over the years besides Goon Squad. 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 Goon Squad by Elvis Costello

The lyrics for Goon Squad are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1979 song by Elvis Costello. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Goon Squad have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for Goon Squad - Elvis Costello and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to Goon Squad by Elvis Costello in multiple 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 Goon Squad" means the words set to the music of Goon Squad, 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 Goon Squad and the lyrics to Goon Squad 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 Goon Squad, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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