Added: 5 years ago
From: jzenman
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  • Amazing performance, but the song has nothing to do with Health and Safety! It is about the Falklands Conflict. Another perspective Robert Wyatt's version, if you have any doubts the song is anti thatcher and political, well if it wasn't Robert Wyatt would not have recorded it!

  • i love elvis costello this is awesome he went to the same secondrey school as me i stood behind him in a record shop and wanted to tell him how brilliant he was but i felt abit embarrased and did not want to invade his privacy!great voice brilliant junysaerus

  • Brillant - my family comes from Gloucester MA, Before my time my family depended on the fisihing industry - so many still do depend on it. Loved Elvis Costello before this song but this song feels personal and is so poetic that it's a personal favorite My friends and I drove many miles in the 80s to see Costello play live. Moved South since then but would travel to n recapture that adventure. Again, brillant!!

  • I love the bass on this live version. So much so that the single version sounds a bit sterile without it. But then this live version just cries out for that trumpet solo.

    I think this song is really about 'Heath and safety'. It's about how many men die unnecesarily leaving their wives and children to fend for themselves. Shipbuilding, mining and building are dangerous jobs.

    I really enjoy risk taking, For me it's one of the last things we have to difine us as men, but life moves on...

  • 2011 and we still "shipbuilding" in Afghanistan

  • I don't dislike this take but I much prefer the album version with the late Chet Baker playing trumpet.

  • The great musical genius of my generation. Makes me prouder than punch! The clock-

  • The bass in this song. <3

  • Justin who? Compare THIS 2 that passing media-manufactured, adolescent mediocrity.

  • a thing of beauty is a joy forever

  • robert wyatt for me 

  • jay leno

  • I admire Costello for his stand on refusing to play in Israel (Santana, Pink Floyd, Faithless too)

  • elvis costello + hostory repeats

  • Poor Argentinians. Poor British. The evil that men do.

  • @ArchangelBoab The evil that men do...mostly in the name of religion. Poor believer.

  • @thailandajarn Thank-you for your pity. I guess I need it. Best wishes, AB.

  • Thank you for posting this. Elvis Costello is one of the finest singer songwriters ever and will be remembered long long after the assholes who have just talked shit about him on here will be

  • @jamiewm3 Well put.

  • i went to see my dying father in Birkenhead, there was a destroyer in Camell Laird's shipyard for the first time in 15 years, the Falklands disgrace was in full swing, my dad died, many men died. Thatcher won her grubby little war, at a very high cost in human life, she got reelected and proceeded to divide British society more deeply than any other leader before or since (at least since Charles 1) And that is what this song is about, Elvis' family is from Birkenhead.

  • @2ruedas2 A song that means something and is so so beautiful.

  • Incredible performance.

  • I lurves Elvis. I have seen him live many times. He writes catchy, smart, cute, and original songs. Thats good enough for me.

  • it's about the war with argentina back in '82 of course, i prefer robert wyatt's version by a long way, but great lyrics....

  • @mtaylor848 well you might be right but it will be good night when that asshole tony tosser and brown the clown go aswell . i am born and brad labour but i have never voted for them sin . tony tosser won . i hate all MPs now they are all lying twats .

  • His voice is amazing. Sounds just as great live as it is recorded.

  • @deedee4u1 costello sucks , stupid voice , stupid everything

  • @deadsea98 who gives a fuck, dude...that's your opinion

  • @deedee4u1

    That wasn't an opinion, it was an asshole. But just the same, everywhere you go there is at least one showing itself to the world.

  • Thank you for the posting of this brilliant song and performance. I've seen Elvis in performance a few times but never had the opportunity to see this one live.

  • Very profound...human expansionalist and protectionist behaviour, always building and striving for 'bigger' and 'better'. Build until the foundations cave in..

  • @August1977 or the falkland war?

  • I wish somone would post the album version, with chet bakers beautiful solo.

  • I wish somone would post the album version, with chet bakers beautiful solo.

  • This song shows a juxtaposition between those being killed on board ship in the Falklands war and those who unwittingly gain from it. The people gaining are those involved in the shipbuilding industry. Britain's shipbuilding industry, chiefly based in the North East, at that time had no work. Building replacement warships for those destroyed in the war gave the shipbuilding industry a respite. It has nothing to do with the Middle East. It's just a superb song.

  • @navanski Your right this song was actually about the sad fact that british shipyards would only make a come back when the country was at war

  • just amazing...What I supposed say? It is Elvis Costello...

  • simply one of the best and most important songs written in the last 40 years

    and SO relevant in 2010

  • Sometimes really Mr Perfect !

  • Oh, i just love HIS VOICE and THE PERFECTION of the BAND. All i read here is about the Falklands, the Jews or Palestine. Could U silly "political people just shut your mouths when great MUSIC is on BOARD. My goodness !

  • its about the falklands you thick cunt,and britains inability to get a fleet together to fight a war,because we stopped SHIPBUILDING. As for palestine ,they were there for centuries,its only after the holocaust that the jews created the state of israel on ARAB land.

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  • Elvis is great as usual, but this version just can't compare to the original with late great Chet Baker's haunting trumpet back up!

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  • @robina777 you idiot- the media is in support isreal- the usa funds isreal around $30 mil per year- isreal was only created at the end of ww2 and only cos the usa wanted a puppet state in the east- i.e the palestinians were there first and.. 'they havnt got their own language'... well in that case neither does the usa or australia or most of canada, or south america or most of africa - stop playing the victim- the fact is that isreal is illegally occupying palestine

  • Beautiful anti-war song. Much appreciated at the time when the press and hatcher were so keen to send young men to their deaths.

    the Robert Wyatt version is worth a listen as well.

  • this was about the falklands war,and our lack of having a navy to address the situation.Thatcher comindered foreign ships to fight it.We had a royal navy,but no merchant navy or british merchant navy crews to fight it.W ha t the fuck has this got to do with isreal

  • LOVE LOVE LOVE Elvis! He is perfection!

  • @jzenman you're asking why the Palestinians don't move out of their OWN country? It was the Jews that were given the country after WW2. They were mostly European. So you really should be asking why they don't go back home? I don't need the history channel, dude, I read. And just because there are less Jews on the planet than Muslims does not give them the right to enforce apartheid upon arabs in Israel, to firebomb them, to shoot aid workers from Turkey. Get real. Israel is a facist racist state

  • this guy can't do his own song justice!

  • @twistedspanner ---twat

    

  • why are you arguing online? it doesnt achieve anything. just enjoy the music and its message

  • @louis27195 well said !!!

  • Elvis, I regret your decision to cancel your show in my country, Israel. I share your concern for the occupied Palestinians and believe they deserve a better fate. I understand your decision and respect it. I wish a future arises which enables you to make it good to us and come here for more than a single performance.

  • fuck Israel. people are NOT places.

  • @jzenman . We're not moving anywhere. You go back to Khazaria from where you came. You have no moral rights to the Holy Land. The Holy Land is Jewish, Christian and Muslim but definitely not Ashkenazi. What don't you go to Texas? Soon interplanetary travel will allow you to live on Mars. Bon Voyage and fvck off forever

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  • @jzenman The Palestinians already moved somewhere else; what they want is to move back. 

  • @jzenman then why didnt the jews move to texas, instead of stealing land in the middle east...whats that? oh right yeaaah the USA wanted a puppet state in the middel east rightt

  • @jzenman I beg to differ.....I live in Tx and I'd just as soon not have this guy/girl here, thx.

    This song has nothing to do with the Middle East. How about taking your political platform to a more appropriate venue?

  • Funny how life works. I was never an Elvis fan...just wasn't into him I actually know the man personally now. Life is strange.

  • @Trexx1944 How do you know him?

  • @spiderkiss Well I have been a professional chauffeur in Vancouver for near 20 years. I got to meet Elvis and Diana many times in that capacity. They are both awesome people and have wonderful families.

  • Elvis Rules and all else drools!!!!

  • @KarnafZone

    Do you even know what this song is about? Maybe you should listen to the lyrics...

  • @KarnafZone

    you know karnafzone I wouldn't care if Elvis performed in the so called( state of Israel) he would be the same musician to me.

    But he proved that he's more than just a musician, he's an artist standing up for a noble cause.

    so you're right he doesn't deserve to perform in Israel, he's too ethical to do it.

  • Get an education and oops read about the falklands war while you at it @KarnafZone

  • @KarnafZone Go fuck yourself you stupid ignorant muslim prick.

  • @IamGonePostal Dude, he's Jewish, not Muslim. Hence his anger at Elvis cancelling his show in Israel.

  • @KarnafZone fuck islam anyway

  • @deadsea98 is an idiot

  • Well played Elvis for pulling the plug and choosing not perform in IsraHell.

  • @1udacri5 Trust me living in the Mid-West America is a form of Flabber Hell!!! I'd rather live in a bomb shelter sometimes.

  • Piano has some riffs like David Bowie's sound, and Elton in the early years.... ...superb song this.

  • fantastic.

  • makes me want to cry and so it should

  • How we miss Chet baker's silky, creamy, perfect trumpet, though...

  • fantastic song, but didn't Robert Wyatt write it?

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  • @kateycon

    Nope. Clive Langer insists that he wrote song for Wyatt to sing but Langer wasn't satisfied with the lyrics so Costello wrote new lyrics and he also insist that he wrote the whole song.

  • such a fantastic version..

  • I don't know much about the character of Bruce, but I sure wish the man would pick up playing bass again.

  • I wish I had his voice <_<

  • While being a putz Bruce Thomas can play the shit out of the bass!

  • A very fine songwriter, literate from the start.

  • wow its rare to see him without a guitar

  • With all the will in the world

    Diving for dear life

    When we could be

    diving for Pearls

  • he's not much of a looker is he?!

  • I don't know what your talking about he's a sexy beast, just look at those glasses!

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  • buzztop... do you know who his wife is??

  • When I was a young man, my father used to take me to this old lounge near our home, order me a 7 up with a cherry in a martini glass and listen to the house band. This song was one that the used to play often, every time I hear it reminds me of my father.

  • My favourite song of all time, from the album Punch the clock. It changed my life, I was only 14, Thanks Elvis.

    I met him in 2002, just before he went on stage at V2002 and asked him to do this track, but apologised and said he couldn't fit in - I was gutted. s\aying that it would have been wasted on that festival crowd who were waiting for some pop act or shit

  • My hopes were 2 hear chet baker with him on this song

  • If anyone can find a version of the album version with Chet Baker please let me know, as great as this and Wyatts versions are, they seem to be missing something, and that something is the haunting trumpet.

  • Yeah,makes ,me think.......

  • wonderful

  • This is jazz and very sharp lyrics he writes. He plays blues, country, jazz

    at the same venue. And his sountracks,

    so many, but especially "She" in Notting

    Hill in the beginning roll credits. He is a genius. He has sat in with so many famous musicians as well, plus he is

    married to Diana Krall and they have

    twins. I love her music.

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  • Absolutely Fantastic :´)

  • i remember seeing this live a few years ago, it was amazing. powerful voice.

  • can't we all just get along???? this song is great......B

  • This is a great version of this song truly amazing.

  • Amazing! One of the best songs ever written!

  • Thanks for sharing this beautiful music!

  • this song always reminds me of my grandfather and uncle, who worked for British Shipyards...

  • Just beautiful, despite the missing horn. I have loved this song from the very first time I heard it. EC has a way of always choosing the very finest material to perform, whether his own or that of others, and then delivering sensitive, well-honed and finely crafted arrangements that add depth, colour and his unique slant every time. And then he goes and marries Diana Krall. What a guy. Great post jzenman, thanks.

  • It's about the Falklands war period. And the contradiction of the middle class having to send their sons to fight it, and having jobs building the same ships their sons could die on. They should be diving for pearls, instead of survival.

  • Thanks for that insight. A hauntingly beautiful melody and song made even more powerful but a typically poignant EC lyric.

  • i thought it was about the Great War and the Toll it took on the working class

  • Right on.

  • Earthly, gritty track written about a north-western shipbuilding town in the early 80's after a CND meet up.

  • A worthy rendition and hats off to him for this arrangement ,but the trumpet in the original really adds an ethereal element that this version fails to capture.

  • This is just brilliant. I came to love this song through 'Hue & Cry's' cover version.

  • Aye - but Hue and Cry are total SHITE!!!

  • A loyalist with an infant's thesaurus? How unusual!

  • Is it perfect?  of course--it's elvis.

  • I can almost hear , chet Baker .

  • Missed.....it's not the smae son without him...

  • He sings this song really good love it.

  • simple is good sometimes, i believe its your ignorance that's the issue here...

  • Tomaito tomato...

    Whoo gifs a feck.....

  • Like you and your girlfriend, eh?

  • You Tosser

  • wanker !

  • brilliant interpreation...exactly how i saw it...

  • mercury 107......come in...what planet are you on

  • Ahh is this what it comes to. I have provided education that would scare you mercury107, as I fear I, a mere grammar school boy, has now finds himself amongst the officer classes with a MA LLB and BSc. But then it was Thatcher who taught me to spell so what can you expect?

  • You're a cunt, shut up.

  • Replied to the wrong person, excellent hand-eye coordination you uneducated tosser.

  • The irony.

    Coordination is the correct spelling, Einstein. Open up a dictionary and see for yourself. It would have been so fucking easy for to have just typed "coordination" into google, looked at any of the numerous online dictionaries and saved yourself from looking like an absolute dipshit.

    If I was you, I'd follow your own advice.

    Oh and another tip, calling me left wing with every comment isn't insulting. Thatcher was a fucking awful PM, get over it.

  • @Aardvarked88 nice 1 kidda,dont know what isreal and palestine have to do with,your guess is as good as mine ha ha be safe

  • @Aardvarked88 haha i love that- as if being a lefty is a bad thing- sorry we believe in some kind of social equality eh

  • If you are talking about Proper grammer Then why do leave a space before you put a full-stop. Have you not learnt mercury107 that they not used like that, you left wing peice of trash. And It is coordination, Muppet!

  • Idiot comment from mercury107. I'm left wing trash and I have served in HM Forces for 15 years. I was brought up to fight facism where you find it, be it at home or abroard. This song remains a check to my actions, along with many other parts of the the arts. Without tese to check our souls we would blunder in like the thugs the right wing would have us be.

  • What the hell? Bad grammar and a personality that is even worse to boot. Just enjoy the performance and keep your singular and awful attempt of an insult to yourself. I'm not usually like this but your comments are just not called for- as far as content and grammar.

  • I still haven't heard this "performance". I mute the speakers when woody is on.

  • this video reminds me of my videos!!1

    omfg lol that's so funny!!! OR

  • chumbawamba (under THE PASSION KILLERS)did a brilliant version of this

  • Where's the trumpet?

  • One hell of a monster of a song!!!!

  • Brilliant as Costello is, its much harder for a listener to appreciate a world-class bass player. Bruce Thomas really and truly made whole much greater that the sum of the parts in the Attractions. Sure, he spoke out when he felt Elvis was an arrogant jerk; many boss-artists were and are. And the relationship couldnt bear the friction. But Elvis, much as we admire you, and you did have to separate... you will probably never again sound as good as you did with this guy.

  • Yes I'm sure Elvis Costello ran out of magic the day he parted with .. um .. what's that hack's name again?

  • to call bruce thomas a hack, is like calling you a slowpoke.

  • You are so right. Costello's songs have really suffered from the absence of Bruce Thomas, both on record and live. Really a "B" list act now days.

  • Aahhh Clover. The best backing band in the World :-)

  • Elvis, like many good singer/songwriters, they are made better by a great backing band though seldom does history provide due credit to groups like the Attractions. Elvis' early success owes as much to the group as it does his

    songs.

  • Elvis is the man, but the band is just magnificent here too. I love all the atmospheric touches the each instrument adds. Man, how does Steve get that shimmering effect on the keyboards?!

  • Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful - It has always been one of my favorites, and it is so nice to see a live version of it. His voice is so sweet, so sad...

  • well noted flame it has a deep rooted satire at our pathetic attemps to become an imperialistic country.and our embarraseing pocket fag boy nature in following americas act of inflicting their ideas of democracy on the people of this world that dont want it

  • Great song, my favorite of Elvis's.

  • A classic song with so much meaning at the time regarding closure of local dockyards and unemployment - one of my favourites

  • been following elvis since 77 heard him do this song many times and he has never failed to impress me . gets me every time like tramp the dirt down . be much appreciated if someone has got some live footage . go elv