So I was listening to this on the way to work this morning, and The Letter Home, jesus h. I always liked this song, but I think it just hit me - I think this is a suicide note. And for EC, to say so much in so little space, without his trademark turn of a phrase or pun, and each verse having a different melody, each with its own mood making it cinematic. Good god, I'd have to put this in my top 5 all time Costello songs now. Anyway, am I reading into this too much to be a suicide note? I see this as written from a female point of view, the way subconsciously she says apologize, fault, excuse, distress in the first verse (though not subconscious for EC)... the "I'll go one better", and I imagine that the "he's gone" to mean he offed himself too, something her and the guy she's writing to would both understand. Maybe she even had a relationship (affair?) with him, and is the reason he offed himself...
Just wondering if others feel I'm on the right trackor if I'm reading too much into it.c/o St. Ignatus House, Willoughby Drive,
Parrametta, New South Wales
This fifth day of July,
in the year of Our Lord nineteen hundred and thirty five
Why must I apologize every time that I sit down to write
Through my own fault I may find
You're no longer living at this address
Please excuse the lack of news
The feeling of strange privilege
for the hour of trial, in these times of distress
Mean more than years imprisoned by etiquette.
I can remember when we were children
Though I could never imagine this day
Your brother told me we'd live forever
"I'll go one better," I heard myself say
And it seems so strange, now that he's gone,
to recall all these games
While the years have divided us
Friendships have strained and broken
Oh, by the way, how's that girl that you wed
I hated you then, but I'm over the worst of it
I can't come home
I might as well say, life is short
I shall not write again
