There was something about the moody, romantic idea of this song that I absolutely identified with, as ludicrous as that notion is when you read the lyrics: “I need a good woman” sounds like very wishful thinking for a teenager. I was the youngest in my class at school, and I didn’t have a girlfriend at that age. “Man of the World” is a dream that I had of what I might be if I ever plucked up the courage to talk to a girl.

This is the song that specifically made me pick up a guitar. It was a weird song to learn because it’s very complicated, but it fascinated me. I had a guitar that just sat in the corner of my room. It was a Spanish guitar bought in Spain on a holiday that my folks and I had taken, and I must have had it for five years by that point. It was just gathering dust with old toys, and then I picked it up and learned how to tune it. Somebody gave me pictures of what the chords looked like in diagrams, and I very painstakingly taught myself to play just that one song. That’s all I could play. I had a one-song repertoire, but it was a hell of a good song.[Costello i et interview med musiksiden Pitchfork]