Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet
Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet
Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet
Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet
Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet
Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet
Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet
Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet
Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet
Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet
Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet
Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet
Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet
Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet
Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet
Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet
Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet
Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet
Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet
Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet
Elvis Costello
[Verse 1]
I should open with a kiss
For if you're reading this
You must have opened up your case
And found this letter where I placed it
In between the silk and lace
There were other clues
Like your walking shoes
But I still refused to believe
That you were meant to be the first to leave
[Bridge]
Everybody here sends you their love
How could I forget you still walk above
Or below
Perhaps you'll never know this purgatory
We never could agree
There's a thought, there's a pause
No time to repent
Eternally yours
In a permanent Lent
[Verse 2]
But if I should give you up
If you're right and life just stops
And I never see your face again
Then from unearthly pleasures, proud and plain
I shall abstain
Till you realize my loss is your surprise
Unless you know otherwise
Then don't grieve
You see I had to be the first to leave
The First To Leave was written by Elvis Costello.
The First To Leave was produced by Kevin Killen & Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet.
Elvis Costello released The First To Leave on Tue Jan 19 1993.
From Elvis Costello’s liner notes:
[‘Last Post’] runs without a break into ‘The First To Leave.’ In this song, a man who believes in the afterlife leaves a letter for his atheist lover, which, we must assume, she is reading after his demise.