Details

Author
Robyn Hitchcock
According to our records, Robyn has played this song 502 times, most recently at Off Broadway on March 21, 2025. He first performed it at Paradise Lounge on March 11, 1989, 36 years earlier.

Comments

In his Dec 20, 2020 interview with Jim Derogatis (q.v.) Robyn related that in the dreary last days of 1988, walking to catch a bus home, he saw a man mowing his lawn in the rain and on the ride home, this song formed in his mind. He said the song is about the decision to become a different (worse) version of yourself in order to achieve success.

Lyrics

People get what they deserve
Time is round and space is curved
Honey, have you got the nerve
To be Queen Elvis?

See that man who mows his lawn
He'll hang in drag before the dawn
Some are made and some are born
To be Queen Elvis

It could break your mother's heart
It could break your sister's heart
Coming out's the hardest part
When you're Queen Elvis

Justify your special ways
Justify your special ways

Getting blowjobs from the press
Oh, I'm jealous can't you guess?
I could never fit your dress
Queen Elvis

Oh and I'll sculpt you
So very hard
Oh and I'll sculpt you
Til you bleed

Everybody must get stoned
All together all alone
Babbling beside the throne
Of Queen Elvis

Justify your special ways
Justify your special ways

Two mirrors make infinity
In the mirror you and me
Find out just what love could be
Queen Elvis

Oh and I'll sculpt you
So very hard
Oh and I'll sculpt you
Til you breathe

People get what they deserve
Time is round and space is curved
Honey, have you got the nerve
To be Queen Elvis?