Lyrics to
Watching The Detectives

This version of Watching The Detectives was released by Elvis Costello in 1977.

Visit the Elvis Costello Lyrics profile at Decade Lyrics - it has the Watching The Detectives 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.

Nice girls not one with a defect,
cellophane shrink-wrapped, so correct.
Red dogs under illegal legs.
She looks so good that he gets down and begs.

She is watching the detectives.
“ooh, he’s so cute!”
She is watching the detectives
when they shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot.
They beat him up until the teardrops start,
but he can’t be wounded ’cause he’s got no heart.

Long shot of that jumping sign,
Visible shivers running down my spine.
Cut the baby taking off her clothes.
Close-up of the sign that says,”We never close”
You snatch a tune, you a match a cigarette,
She pulls the eyes out with a face like a magnet.
I don’t know how much more of this I can take.
She’s filing her nails while they’re dragging the lake.

You think you’re alone until you realize you’re in it.
Now fear is here to stay. Love is here for a visit.
They call it instant justice when it’s past the legal limit.
Someone’s scratching at the window. I wonder who is it?
The detectives come to check if you belong to the parents
who are ready to hear the worst about their daughter’s disappearance.
Though it nearly took a miracle to get you to stay,
it only took my little fingers to blow you away.

Just like watching the detectives.
Don’t get cute!”
It’s just like watching the detectives.
I get so angry when the teardrops start,
but he can’t be wounded ’cause he’s got no heart.
Watching the detectives.
It’s just like watching the detectives.

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Elvis Costello has released many songs over the years besides Watching The Detectives. 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 1977 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Watching The Detectives by Elvis Costello

The lyrics for Watching The Detectives are defined as the words making up the song released by Elvis Costello in 1977. It also includes the verses and words used by the background chorus in the song. Like many hit songs, the lyrics to Watching The Detectives have different meanings to different people. While it is clear in some of the lyrics what the artist is trying to really say, only Elvis Costello and those working with them know all of the meanings behind all of the lyrics to their songs.

Some folks are interested in word and phrase etymology. It is easy to understand the lyrics to Watching The Detectives by Elvis Costello if you think through it. 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 Watching The Detectives" means the words set to the music of Watching The Detectives, 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 Watching The Detectives and the lyrics to Watching The Detectives 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 Watching The Detectives, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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