Elvis Costello - Tramp The Dirt Down

[Schmikey2]

This should have been the closing track on that new movie "Iron Lady". We cannot allow the right wing in this country to get away with deifying her the way they have Ronald Reagan in the States. There is a direct connection between what those two did during their respective times in office and the god awful mess we find ourselves in now. Dave "Tory Boy" Cameron truly is their bastard child.

[Mrmikey0909]

Rogue, It is the capitalists that have brought Britain to its knees. Gave them their freedom and they have fucked the country good and proper.

[RogueRotting360]

Long live Thatcher. The woman who temperately saved Britain, before a bunch of pussy-whipped, Wilson/Heathite moppets (Blair, Brown, Cameron) brought us down again.

Bring back freedom, deregulation, and death to socialism. The tyranny of the collective.

[ash231266]

@RogueRotting360 - fucking idiot



[MrDopey16]

compared to now, she had fuck all to complain about. Just a private war against herself, wishing she was a posher, when all she was a daughter of a grocer, just like the rest of us. Class war... she delcared it, a private battle against herself caused widespread poverty amongst a millions

[Oneboothy]

My Grandad died working for these fucks and then they wasted him cast him aside. I will never forgive!

[GLOBALREASONER]

lazarus321...The correct spelling is Capitalism...and simplistic. Personally I do relate to this track. There's more than one version of capitlism and there are other alternatives.

[rtruscott]

Thought of this reading about Berlusconi this morning; he's another who may have fallen, but looks like his hand'll keep reaching out from the grave to keep interfering, fucking things up for everyone else, corrupting the media and the justice system and keeping Italy undemocratic. Italians and the rest of the world won't be safe until the stake's been driven through his heart, the nails've been hammered into his coffin & the dirt's been tramped down on his grave!

[victoria2771]

AND NOTHING HAS CHANGED JUST NEW SUITS OF F***ALL LETS TRY AND STOP THE NEW SET BEFORE ITS TOO LATE FOR IRAQ OR AFGANISTAIN AND NOT FORGETTING OUR LADS WHO ARE DIEING TOO LINE THE POCKETS OF SAME PEOPLE

[lazarus321]

I intend to piss on her grave. Thats a solem promise. thanks Elvis, the most powerful song ever written by a brit. Compares to Dylans 'masters of war' in it's power. pure class.

[houghgree2]

@lazarus321 what exactly is Costello's gripe? I would bet the likes of him and Dylan made more money than Thatcher ever did. They've not done bad out of the Capatilist system have they? I don't believe that this song is pure. Like Dylan's "Masters Of War" it's simplisitic-not not mention hypocritical-drivel.

[gunzzel1]

Thatcher, Reagan, Bush, and our own little cheerleader of these bloodless cnts, John Winston Howard in Australia. I can't afford to fly to England to dance on Thatcher's grave when she dies, but I'll make the pilgrimage to Sydney to piss on Howard's. His policies, dog whistles and fear-mongering - not to mention his obsequious pandering to Bush The Lesser, killed off progressive politics in Australia. And Howard's wanking material was Thatcher dressed as as a storm-trooper.

[DIGIxPUNKx1996]

I predict a revival in the next few years.

[jimk47]

@DIGIxPUNKx1996 probably worse.

[DIGIxPUNKx1996]

@jimk47 Yup.

[carlisticeday]

This song kept me alive here in the States — captured perfectly my rage and disgust at living with the "Teflon President". And then again with "W". Thank's El, couldn't have said it better m'self!!

[themec]

Thatcher is a nasty piece of work, no doubt but there is too much personality politics in all this. The point is that the government that was elected in 1979 was the first to adopt the 'neo-liberal' agenda: an out and out attack on working people by the rich. In 1979 Britain had the 2nd highest wages bill in the industrialised world, by 1991 it was the lowest. But this was continued by her predecessors including Blair and Brown. The latest lot are like a pack of rabid dogs. They hate democracy.

[WorthyOfInterest]

why is this in the youtube playlist for Hadouken! ? i like it but it's about as different you can get from hadouken :P

[waterboymike]

'I never thought for a moment that human life could be so cheap'.

[royhobbs78]

Stunning. Remember seeing this when it was broadcast. Raw, gut wrenching and sad, as well as angry.

[MIDMarcus]

Don't forget her US counterparts. She couldn't have done it without Reagan.

[Sami7685]

Fucking Margaret Thatcher.

[HeathenLoveGod]

Till the end of my life I will make it my priority to visit her grave every month, so I can spit on it for what she did and her legacy!

[lazarus321]

and i'll piss on her grave as well, mind you the current batch of tory cunts look like they will be even worse. I remember an old debate about who did more damage to britain - Thatcher or the Lufwaffe and clearly the answer was thatcher. why is the bitch still alive...

[theeye44]

Elvis is a legend. The iron lady must be getting very rusty by now. She was no friend of the Irish and has bloodied hands.

[DutchStar001]

Wow the venom in his eyes and voice is frightening !

[logixish]

Been listening to this a lot lately. It's bite has been sharpened cos it's all back..Thatcher's Child etc. This song is so beautifully melodic and a feat of songwriting. Cheers.

[theNifflefoot]

In the name of the hunger strikers and the Catholics in Northern Ireland, may I say how very sorry I am the IRA didn't put a bullet in you.

[MIDMarcus]

@theNifflefoot In the name of Bobby and the rest--they did put a bullet in her. No one like her or her people could ever do what the strikers did. Enough said and enough done. They are cunts in comparison and that is obvious to the world. It's still just a matter of time.

[MrKaos58]

Thatcher destroyed most of what i hold dear..she called the miners the "enemy within"..my Grandfather died of a mining illness before his time..when her time comes i hope it is painful...if they grant the bitch a state funeral i,along with thousands of others,will risk arrest to disrupt it..hate her?..hate doesn't come close.

[trifelgeputinage]

And now just as relevant as ever...

[69waveydavey]

Can I reserve my place in the queue now? It's going to be a big one. Run an economy by buying and selling commodities, yeah that'll work.

[jzenman]

Oh man I wanted to post this. I just found it on Demonoid. It looks like it's really hard to get something on YouTube that's not already here. Back in the day when YouTube first started. Me and one other guy were the only one posting stuff.

[Tussiejen]

This is a classic song, one of my all time favs and the sentiment and anger in the words is spot on. Thank you for posting this.

[brodftw]

That's the most intense stare & hateful sneer I've ever seen.

Great song.

[lee2749]

Amen. X 

[paltalkdevil]

oh forgot to say, superb tune

[paltalkdevil]

thatcher is a bastard cunt, sooner her and her family die the better.... same applies to Cameron..

[inkooh8]

The studio/album version is great too. There is a point in the song where his voice breaks. I always imagine that he is fighting back tears of anger as I do.

[italiamia1000]

I love Elvis and feel that he is one of the most under-appreciated artists of his generation. I pay to see my favorite artists for their music, not for their social commentary in light of their political philosophy.

[LAWMinLancaster]

why isn't she fucking dead yet?

[FellingPX]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARGARET - NOT LONG NOW!

[Witchboy07]

@FellingPX ILL BE FUCKIN CELEBRATING THE DAY SHE OFFS IT

[73337kev]

Bitterly twisted nobody does it better.

[73337kev]

Bitterly twisted nobody does it better

[KimB1960]

Unbelievably fine.

[ste6666666]

My apologies I'm an idiot, thanks for getting back

[ambassador7]

@ste6666666 Cool mate, no worries. Just listened to this again, what a performance - he's literally spitting the words out!

[TerrySleeper]

It's a good song, and a powerful performance, but Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" got there a lot earlier.

Good, though.

[neillconnor]

I`ll be there to join him, along with about 5 million others

[neillconnor]

I`ll be there to join him,

[tomcatvmp]

spike is the body of elvis's best work. its a spectacular album. missed in the times.

[ste6666666]

Yes this was a great song starts with defiance then disbelief and before the end surrender and more subtle forms of defiance rather like the dirt stamping had become a mental meditation. thanks for posting

[ste6666666]

unfortunately another leader with no soul was soon to replace. and so the cycle continues. only non compliance will have any effect.

[wdrayr]

Thank you for this posting. This really captures what is so elemental Elvis; that sheer brilliance, that unvarnished honesty, that emotional power.

This performance is so powerful.

[BELZA999]

Alexredcloud is the offer of the ISO image still valid, I know you made it 11 months ago. I had this on VHS also and played it to death. Would love to own it again. The music was fantastic but the bit I enjoyed the most was hearing him talk about the songs. Spike remains one of my all time favourite albums and to watch the show again would be special.

Cheers for the upload.

[icklefig]

hairlikespaghetti...your so right that we never recovered from it. We are still paying the price.

[Percy1916]

This guy is one of the very greatest. Shipbuilding is a masterpiece, as is this. I wish I'd been a plumber in Brighton...

[lawd2715]

What year is this? Where was he playing live?

[alexredcloud]

@lawd2715

It was a BBC2 programme (studio based), made to 'promote' the album Spike when in came out, it's either 1989 or 1990.

[sIr3nn3]

@lawd2715 :) he says he was 35. do the math :P

[sitcomtrials]

Why I will be voting Labour on May 6th

[jinkedful]

@sitcomtrials ahahahahahah fuckwit

[bigbuirk]

luv the song but i also luv maggie, a woman with balls

[wallybird99]

There will be a queue to follow Elvis in tramping the dirt down

[ivanovitch57]

i'll be in the queue to dance on her grave and tramp the dirt down a bit more!

[Bangwhistle]

Dangerously close to Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely".

[frankkalani]

whats so bad about margaret thatcher? could someone explain why shes hated so much?

[ivanovitch57]

@frankkalani

she wrecked this country in so many ways, that's why! read a history book!

[amstertom]

@frankkalani where to start...falkland war, poll tax, the miners strike, her utter contempt for anyone different to her...she is an evil, evil woman and there is a special place in hell reserved for her

[MikeyTSH]

I've never understood it. I believe she was one of the best prime ministers this country has ever had.

[ImYourSuperhero01]

doesn't mean she was well liked.

[hairlikespaghetti]

It would be hard to know where to start. She used Scotland like a laboratory, inflictied the poll tax on us as an experiment before rolling out a watered down version nationwide. She destroyed British industry and the union movement, sold off council housing stock to the point where people cannot afford to live in their home towns, destroyed family values, created false wealth leading people into financial disaster....Christ. She ripped the soul out of Britain and we have never recovered.

[Percy1916]

And that rodent she spawned, Mark, tagging along flogging arms. It was an era of shame and its stench is still in our nostrils

[Michaelmc352]

British society has never recovered from what she did. Odious woman.

[DeniablyCorrect]

When that bitch drops dead I will laugh.

[pykkervots]

Be still friends. Patience. Not long to wait now. I can hear the Downbound Express calling in the distance, and the delicious thing is that so can she.

[hoodus61]

inside the bitch is already dead,hell will welcome her with open arms

[Percy1916]

There was a joke going round in her day that she had died and gone to hell. The Devil appears at the Pearly Gates imploring Saint Peter to take her into heaven because, in hell, "she's only been there a week and she's closed four pits and three furnaces".

[Hill16Dub]

Republic of Ireland 2009

Maggie Thatcher = Mary Harney.

We hadn't privatised human rights until recently, but we've made up for lost time.

[voodoocan4]

Belfast was on his mind,to be sure. She was the curse of the falls

[bridgetjanejones]

Says it all in one fantastic song.

[jackHNv]

All round to mine for a party on the great day!

Let's all have a disco on her grave.

[popadees7]

Hope she lives for another 40 years in mortal decay and suffers physical pain and mental anguish every second of the way.

I hope I am still alive to party when she goes.

Well said Declan McManus.

[versace66613]

Can't be long now..........PLEASE die Thatch I HATE YOU Sooooo much

[DRONGOBILLY]

We had the chance to vote the whore out of office and didnt have the balls to turn her out, instead we turned on each other... the unions,the vulnerable.

Thats my biggest sadness.

To me, theres another party I`d like to attend, and thats when Derek "me first" Hatton is put under... he was one of Thatcher biggest allies, and he seems to have made off just nicely.

[voodoocan4]

Well said."me first" was a first class piece of dog shite. Hell awaits...with margie in tow.

[poneil69]

I'm having a party when this bitch fuck pig bastard dies,all are invited.

[movement26]

Tony Banks............."She behaves with all the sensitivity of a sex - starved Boa Constrictor".........Nice one Elvis. she divided families, ruined entire communities and was the most repulsive thing I have ever seen or heard.....in the end even her own cabinet could stand her no more, and twisted the knife.

[cilldroichid]

still waiting for the ould bitch to die

[cilldroichid]

one word brilliant

[despairtonohair]

Come the glorius day people we should all tramp the dirt down!!!

[desfisher72]

i know where there a party on the day the cunt get burried

[alexredcloud]

If anyone wants to download an ISO Image of this let me know :o)

[OscarLimaMike]

@alexredcloud yes please, this is one of my favourite Elvis Costello songs. I bought the album when it came out and fell in love with this one. Righteous anger. My Sentiments exactly Elvis!

[alexredcloud]

@OscarLimaMike

The whole programme file is over 3.6GB so it's a pain hosting it online, however if you let me know a postal address then I'd be more than happy to post you a DVD copy of the whole programme.

You can contact me via my user name @gmail.com

[writer33uk]

How about the day we dies becomes a new national holiday? St Maggie's Day has a certain ring to it...

[ccbuster16]

how its only voices in your head and elvis is fucking sick of it lets do something about it for him niggas

[micmac09]

A great song for a merveilleux moment.

Thanks.

[nimroach]

Thanks for sharing this. History seems to have been kind to Thatcher. Let us not forget the millions of lives she destroyed, the communities killed and the country she sold.

[Beechy2201]

I agree with your comments come the day we can all tramp the dirt down

[paddy2youse]

Oh,did anyone mention that she is also responsible for murder in the north of Ireland of the IRA Hunger Strikers (and God knows how many others )just to make an unconscionable political point?

Cunt indeed.

[Percy1916]

And three on Gibraltar in very dubious circumstances. The charnel house reek about that obnoxious woman must be fell indeed.

[cdc42N17]

Finbarbarfin, I'm with you, let's hope we can soon tramp the dirt,,,

[Finbarbarfin]

I grew up in the Thatcher years. I know it was a long time ago and we should maybe put it all into context. But, rightly or wrongly, I still hate the cunt for what she did to Britain. Her legacy resounds to this day, shamefully.

[3k8k8k8]

@Finbarbarfin Me too Fin, it makes me the socialist I am today!

[ste6666666]

@Finbarbarfin Blair was worse

[ambassador7]

@ste6666666 Let's not compare pish with shite. They both stink.

[ste6666666]

@ambassador7 i wonder what you got out of this. Obviously people here like Elvis Costello, why are you here. Maybe you secretly like him and want to be like him and so need to ne near him. Why listen to this song if you don't like it, You don't need to swear it doesn't offend me if you don't like Elvis Costello.

[ambassador7]

@ste6666666 I think you have misunderstood me. My comment made was made with reference to your previous post on Tony Blair. I am a fan of neither Thatcher or Blair. In my admittedly crass comment old Maggie was the "shite" and Blair was the "pish". Or vice-versa if you fancy.

This is a great song, which is why I am watching it when I should be working!

[meccaturbo]

@Finbarbarfin And we hate fucking pigs like you too.

[Witchboy07]

@Finbarbarfin that woman brought britain down to its knees, she is a rare case where i refuse to forgive or forget

[billius]

Curious isn't it? As one who lived through the Thatcher years, I was in general agreement with the song (but imaginative enough to intuit that it wouldn't stand the test of time). You have to give her her due: she was ideologically driven and actually probably thought what she was doing was in the British interest. She reinvented political dicourse, and created Blair and Brown, who are peons by comparison. Notwithstanding the present crisis, Margaret Thatcher was a remarkable leader.

[21gramsofsoul]

ideologically driven? lol!! yeah, so was fuckin' Hitler!

[XbabyfacedassassinX]

Nicely said.

[lance1408]

Remarkable? Tell me you're being sarcastic. The bitch destroyed England, she killed the mining communities, sold our country down the fucking river and stopped my free milk. Bitch. But alas I digress, if you think she was a remarkable leader then you, my uneducated friend, are blind. She royally fucked this country and when she dies I for one will be fucking ecstatic

[inchwormrocker]

i cannot wait till she dies

[jonnyjaywick]

@tribble - totally agree about the tender, £3million quid of public money to bury that witch, scandalous. if it was down to me the binmen would take her away.

[Readingcoops]

And with your permission Elvis I will be behind you in the queue.

Tramp the dirt down, that bitch should never be allowed to rest in peace.

[mancman4bkk]

@Readingcoops  bloody long queue my friend

[imyahya]

thank you. to see his expression singing it was chilling. the tune is transcendant -not just about maggie. i'm in the states & this song has been playing in my head nonstop since the cheney show began- during regan & bushI too. when i caught sarah palin at the rnc & heard her spew (speaking of whores of the world)the tune came back. mini-skirt & fuckmepumps playing the camera & crowd w/mcain cheerleading "fight" & pumping his stumps. the worst is yet to come my friends. keep your voices raised.

[tribble97]

A stunning, moving and sincere performance. The suggestion that Thatcher be given a state funeral is ironic given that she was so determined to dismantle so many aspects of `the state`, especially those intended to protect the poor and the powerless from exploitation. Surely, following her doctrine, her funeral should be put out to public tender with the lowest bidder getting the job.

[MaddJackMcMadd]

Fantastic - I had almost forgotten how much I hated the cow. So sad it looks like her lot may get back in.....

[ezekialjazz]

Can't wait to party on Maggie's grave - an evil, evil bitch.

[mugsynixon]

personally I think this is his finest moment. Saw elvis play this at Edinburgh Playhouse in 1991 and he added a few verses at the end. It was during the period of anti-poll tax demos in Scotland and he really got the audience wound up. would love to hear a recording of this as it really sent shivers down my spine...

[rondoc1]

Imagine Elvis playing this at the bitch's " state funeral" i'd certainly pay to watch that.Long may she rot in hell.

[oisinparis]

Passion and completely justified contempt and hatred mixed into one, expressed so eloquently by Elvis.

I'll be one of the first in the in the long queue.

[edenchristman]

First, THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS! You can know that even if nobody else ever watched, there was one person whose life was altered by this. This song is EXACTLY what we now need.

I saw Elvis in the third row for an opening show for the Police recently, I yelled "Tramp the Dirt Down!" Knowing he's playing quick sets of hits, I thought "it's a long shot." He didn't play it--but he smiled at me with an understanding of pride that I'm so glad to have seen!

Steven C. Dreyer

[poneil69]

Thanks for this video.I am from Glasgow,come what may,I am going to this bastards funeral.They will have to bury this nasty piece of shite on a secret fucking Island to keep me away.

[kady7869]

Have been looking for this song on youtube for ages. Thx for posting!!

[mikeg2258]

Just great!

[alexredcloud]

Like audiotheaudio I watched this on VHS over and over again - I found the tape whilst I was having a clear out recently so thought I'd upload it here for others to enjoy.

What I love the most is the sheer passion and belief he sings with, it never fails to send a tingle up & down my spine!

It's worth checking out the pre-song interview (also on Youtube now) for an insight into why he wrote the song.

Roll on the day we can all get together to Tramp on Thatcher's grave!

[audiotheaudio]

My brother and I watched our VHS copy of the program over and over again everyday for at least 6 months. He posted God's Comic a few weeks ago. No one can match Elvis when his poetry is so fueled by contempt, cliche as it may be to say.

[suepurrrr]

thanks so much for this been looking for such a long time i only had memories of seeing him do this live