Who would have predicted Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello as a songwriting team? The generally sunny Paul and the often caustic Elvis seemed like an odd match. Yet those differences fueled an impressive batch of songs.
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“So Like Candy”, which Costello recorded on his 1991 album Mighty Like A Rose, found the pair telling a story of a wayward girl who both captivates and infuriates the narrator. As it turned out, the duo was thinking in terms of a few famous songs from McCartney’s past when composing it.
“Candy” Creation
Neither Paul McCartney nor Elvis Costello was quite hitting on all cylinders when they decided to write together. McCartney was slumping a bit following the critical and commercial success of Tug Of War in 1982. And Costello seemed torn between becoming a full-fledged solo artist and keeping The Attractions afloat.
When they decided to write together, they each came into the project with a few songs that they’d already begun on their own. But they also initiated songs that they wrote side by side, each with a guitar in hand. “So Like Candy” belonged to the latter batch.
In terms of the song’s creation, Costello explained to Performing Songwriter that they were thinking in terms of a particular type of narrative that McCartney had pulled off earlier in his career on some notable occasions:
“I also thought Paul had written some great songs, both in the Beatles and in his solo career, where he’d be writing characters. ‘Eleanor Rigby’ being the most famous, but ‘Another Day’ is a great song. It’s just like a little sketch of somebody. So I thought, let’s do that with ‘So Like Candy’. Let’s write about this girl who’s disappeared out of this guy’s life.”
Exploring the Lyrics of “So Like Candy”
“So Like Candy” takes place in the aftermath. A woman has just left a man, and he’s wandering through his abode, looking at all the detritus of their relationship. It turns out she didn’t take all her belongings when she left. Powder, perfume, clothes “scattered ‘round the room,” all remain. “It’s so like Candy,” he surmises of her indifference to her possessions.
In the second verse, he starts to view the evidence of her as if he’s a third party. “Here lies the picture of a girl,” he explains. “Her arms are tight around that lucky guy.” The fact that he doesn’t identify himself as the guy in the picture displays how removed he feels from those memories. “And in her eyes a certain look,” Costello sings. “I thought I’d seen the last of long ago.”
The narrator keeps breaking from these observations to mourn his fate. “What did I do to make her go / Why must she be the one that I have to love,” he moans. In the middle eight, he explains the disconnect between the happy photos and the current reality. He intimates that her method of farewell was typical of her character. “She just can’t face the day”, he explains. “So she turns and melts away.”
In the final verse, the guy finds her final note on the vinyl records that she (naturally) damaged. “My darling dear, it’s such a waste,” the note reads. “She couldn’t say goodbye, but ‘I admire your taste.’” Whether her parting shot referred to his taste in music or his taste in women is difficult to say.
“So Like Candy” represents one of the most potent tracks of the many that Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney wrote during their collaborative period. It might resemble some classic McCartney songs about women. But it adds an extra element by documenting the bereft emotions of the poor sap drawing this particular character sketch.
Photo by Sean Dempsey – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images
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