This song is one of the best moments on Mighty Like a Rose, and I thought it might be neat to attempt a closer look at how it works, with special attention to the song's central pun. I apologize in advance for trying anyone's patience.
Here lies the powder and perfume
The pretty clothes are scattered 'round the room
And it's so like Candy
Well, powder candy is of course that fairly frightening stuff we sometimes bought in packs as kids. My preferred variant came with a little stick you could use to shovel the powder into your face - the phallic implications of that I'll leave alone, though I doubt Elvis would. Of course there's also an echo here of 'nose candy,' as in cocaine. As for 'pretty clothes' being like candy, this speaks to a decidedly vibrant colour palette! She's as tacky as candy is. Naturally the entire verse also doubles as a general analogy for what Candy is like: she makes messes.
Here lies the lipstick and the face
The coloured tablets keep it all in place
And it's so like Candy
So like Candy
'Here lies the face' - a no-doubt-knowing nod here to the famous line of his co-author on this song, as Eleanor Rigby left her face 'in a jar by the door.' As for the coloured tablets being like candy, little need be said. The wider image at play, definitely echoing Sir Paul's earlier song, is of a person whose identity is manufactured and prone to dissolution. If 'nose candy' is just an echo in the earlier verse, drug addiction is surely lurking closer to the foreground here. She's bad news in Technicolour.
What did I do to make her go
Why must she be the one
That I have to love
So like Candy
He loves her 'like candy.' The narrator is cast in this light as a sort of greedy child - with the irrationality that entails - and it's also quite a tactile (not to say tacky) idea, given what we do to candy. Addiction and candy don't quite go hand in hand, but there's definitely an affinity between the greedy, dependent consumption given in both.
Here lies a picture of a girl
Her arms are tight around that lucky guy
And it's so like Candy
And in her eyes a certain look
I thought I'd seen the last of long ago
And it's so like Candy
So like Candy
The double-entendre, fully established, is allowed to fade somewhat here; if the 'picture' is 'like candy,' well, one can at best imagine that it's colourful eye-candy, as it were (the interplay between 'eye' and 'eye candy' being implied rather than stated). The real point of this verse is the obvious one, the way Candy is holding herself, the look in her eye, and how she relates to 'that lucky guy.'
I remember the day that picture was taken
We were so happy then
But that's so like Candy
-happiness being like candy? Sweet, temporary, ultimately empty? An interesting thought -
She seemed so sweet to me I was mistaken
Yep, candy seems sweet. Here the song's fundamental pun comes crashing in at its most obvious.
Oh no not that again
I'd like to put in a word for what I always assumed was a McCartney line. A cheap rhyme but one whose sentiment any veteran of heartbreak can ruefully identify with. EC emphasizes the humour via his comically overstated delivery.
But that's so like Candy
She just can't face the day
So she turns and melts away
C/candy melts in the sun, of course she/it does (leaving a sticky mess, one might add). One could find a gothic turn here - vampires etc. - but the principal echo is of the 'powder' of line one and the 'face' that is barely kept in place to begin with.
Here lie the records that she scratched
And on the sleeve I find a note attached
And it's so like Candy
"My Darling Dear it's such a waste"
She couldn't say "goodbye", but "I admire your taste"
And it's so like Candy
'Taste' again rings the lyrical bell while giving us one of EC's signature kiss-off lines. Can a note be 'like candy,' though? Not in any interesting way beyond the lyric's general argument that Candy is tempting but bad for you.
Is it a masterpiece? Of course not...but it's a lot of fun!
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