Released in 2017
I Don't Want To Confess
Written by Paul McCartney • Declan MacManus / Elvis Costello
Last updated on May 24, 2025
Released in 2017
Written by Paul McCartney • Declan MacManus / Elvis Costello
Last updated on May 24, 2025
Album This song officially appears on the Flowers In The Dirt - Archive Collection Official album.
Timeline This song was officially released in 2017
This song was recorded during the following studio sessions:
Demo Sessions with Elvis Costello
September - October 1987
Officially appears on Flowers In The Dirt - Archive Collection
Officially appears on Flowers In The Dirt - Archive Collection
“I Don’t Want To Confess” is one of the three songs (the other ones being “Twenty Fine Fingers” and “Tommy’s Coming Home“) written by McCartney and Costello that haven’t been officially released until 2017, and their appearance on the Flower In The Dirt reissue. It’s also the most confidential song of their collaboration, as it hadn’t been bootlegged before its official release; its existence had only been mentioned by Elvis Costello during a November 1994 interview on BBC Radio.
Did you have to confess
Why'd you drag up that old mess
Did you have to be so indiscreet
What happened to keeping them guessing
Why shout our deepest secrets
To the tide comes rolling back again
And cast in the direction of the sky
All I ever see is people who can't wait to say their piece
So they issue their unmerciful release
And you're the latest name to grace that celebrated list
You think they'd make love letters won't be missed
They're worth their weight in gold
You and that small black dress
Won't have to look so old
Now the story is sold
I don't want to confess
Why'd you have to share these things with everyone
I don't want to confess
Everybody knows by now the word is out
But after you've gone
I won't need to
I won't have to
I don't want to confess
I don't want to confess
Why'd you drag up that old mess
Did you have to be so indiscreet
I'm determined to keep them guessing