Lyrics to
Wave A White Flag

This version of Wave A White Flag was released by Elvis Costello in 1977.

Our About Elvis Costello page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Wave A White Flag from 1977 as well as all of the other lyrics from Elvis Costello that we have in our lyrics database.

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

Take off your shoes, hang up your wings
Stack up the chairs, roll up the rug
Savor the things that sobriety brings
Drain in the last from a jug
But when I hit the bottle, there’s no tellin’ what I’ll do
‘Cause something deep inside me wants to turn you black and blue
I can’t resist you, I can’t wait
To twist your loving arms till you capitulate

Beat me in the kitchen, and I’ll beat you in the hall
There’s nothing I love better than a free for all
To take your pretty neck and see which way it bends
But when it is all over we will still be friends

Wave a white flag, put away the pistol
Too many people just can’t get kissed
But if there’s nothin’ I can do to make amends, baby
Hope you don’t murder me

Oh, was it all right, or was it okay
I’ll make it all up to you someday
Oh, but you didn’t have to laugh that way
Oh, no, you didn’t have to laugh that way

Wave a white flag, put away the pistol
Too many people just can’t get kissed
But if there’s nothin’ I can do to make amends, baby
Hope you don’t murder me
Gee, baby, hope you don’t murder me

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Elvis Costello has released many songs over the years besides Wave A White Flag. 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 lyrics from 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1977 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Wave A White Flag by Elvis Costello

The lyrics for Wave A White Flag are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1977 song by Elvis Costello. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Wave A White Flag 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 Wave A White Flag - 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 Wave A White Flag 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 Wave A White Flag" means the words set to the music of Wave A White Flag, 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 Wave A White Flag and the lyrics to Wave A White Flag 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 Wave A White Flag, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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