Costello, Elvis - Radio Radio Lyrics

I saw Elvis Costello on Sesame Street! He straight up killed IT!
So I look him up and I seen his jams

“Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes”
“Radio Radio”
And more!

I’m 20, I feel like EC has been in my household forever!
I’m PROUD OF IT👑👑👑❤️

Declan Patrick MacManus

I'm pretty sure Trent Reznor/NIN was heavily inspired by Costello's work when doing the video for "March Of The Pigs" years later. The scenes with the band playing in a small area with the all white background is very similar. Plus Reznor was a fan of good new wave & probably loved the cynicism too. Also NIN have the song "Bite The Hand That Feeds," probably more inspiration.

Bruce Thomas. If Elliot Easton and Tom Petty had a love child.

Faking Elvis is okay we listen to this in Boston all the time.

Seriously thinkin' 'bout hidin' that receiver when the switch broke 'cause it's old.
This is now, late 2019. Overwhelmed by indifference. Elvis C. is a voice of reason.
An RKO Radio picture, a Kodak moment. Anything my radio advise.
Take out a rotten president for treason? We're on that.

Trump 2020 Baby

The bass player looks like the late Tom Petty with shorter hair!

3:08 *despawns*

Love this song!!! Great work with The Attractions.

0:00 logo of RKO Radio Pictures in the 1930's

Always think the drummer should have been a villain in a Bond film

I have 1 of those Jazzmasters around here somewhere.

Everyone that loves this listen up. It's radio with Elvis and Blondie
at the Greek. Seriously thinkin' bout hidin' the reciever when the switch broke
'cause it's old. Shut up or get cut out, only inches on the reel to reel.
Do anything my radio advised. Sayin' things I could hardly believe.
Overwhelmed by indifference and the promise of an early death. No choice.
The show will be near the capitol records building. 70s disco parody.
Radio is cleanin' up the nation. We've all messed this up before and we'll do it
again. Dog ate my homework and the switch broke 'cause it's old.
Elvis C. makes no excuses. Here it is, union jack, California bear and all that.

He's like a great synthesis of 64 Brit Invasion and Roxy Music

I love this fucking song!!

Fantastic track and Elvis at his best

That synth riff though.

How did they get that big of a radio?!

ミスチルのシーソーゲームから来ました

Huele a ovo

I've always loved the bass line in this song

That bass player is Pete Thomas. If you can, you will find his playing is very innovative and very active on virtually every piece. Absolutely top drawer. Sadly the Attractions were left behind because of the arguing between this bassist, and Elvis’ longtime drummer.

elvis admitted they were loaded when they made these videos. still great.

Now Elvis should call it GOOGLE GOOGLE

I was buffering the feed on the Facebook Live
doing anything my internet advised
with every one of those Spotify playlists
casting songs pouring bleach in my eyes
I was seriously thinking about rebooting the receiver
when the cord snapped 'cause it's old
They're tweeting things that I can hardly believe
They really think we're posting out of control

Internet is a sharing salvation
Internet is blocking out the nation
They say like and subscribe to the channel of reason
But never show who's on the panel
'cause they think that it's treason
So you had better surf the safety net
You better connect to the internet

I wanna bite the hand that h/t's me
I wanna bite that hand so badly
I want to make them wish they'd never streamed me

Some of my friends refresh the page every evening
and they worry about the scrolls ahead
But everybody else is overwhelmed by information
and the promise of a link that's dead
You either follow or get shadow banned;
they curate all the content
It's only users on the server farm
And the internet is on the bandwidth of a lot of trolls
tryin' to anathematize the memes that spread harm

OMG internet
LOL internet
WTF internet
Internet, internet...

Ingenious

Radio Radio was the last track on the US edition of This Year's Model. In the UK it was Night Rally - too political and too British for the US audience, but a much better record IMO.

I usually listen to Metal but i heard the lyrics in a iHop at 4am and i loved it!

40年聞き返しても飽きずに心拍上げてくれる

Best song about radio ever written!

Dude singlehandedly revived that mid 60's Farfisa Tex Mex style.

why was there an ad for this video? ..

Megan Shell, why was there an ad here? Really? Because there is always an ad!

I wanna bite the hand that feeds me

Elvis at his best

Verse, Chorus, then immediately into the Bridge.
Classic Costello technique.

i found him quirky when i was a child now that i older i find myself quirky

Music industry is still telling you what you like and don't like and you have to believe it. What choice do you have? How are you ever gonna have a chance to hear a great song like this when they keep shoving garbage in your face and telling you that it's on top of the charts. There was a time when songs were works of art. Now it's just an attractive package with shit inside.

his first 5 or 6 albums were great.

We all thought he was shit, but we were so wrong, i even used SHE in my wedding ceremony, he was brilliant, :)

he didnt note that is 100% punk

Back in the day, some reviewers criticized Costello for being pretentious, too serious or too clever. As if any of those things were bad. Compare his work to the superficial crap of the late 1970s or of today and then tell me Elvis can be criticized for anything he's done.

Mike Phalen I’m a huge fan but it should be noted that Elvis himself later said - when he started doing country - that in his earlier music he was sometimes guilty of being clever just to be clever, and that even he didn’t know what some of his songs were trying to say ;)

like hovis ,as good as its always been...elvis costelloe is better.!.proper mugged off all those people in
authority .quality! they didn't have a clue!

Mr.ChildrenのシーソーゲームのPVの元らしいですね

とある高校生 pump it upもそうだぜい

Trouser Press called him the King Kong of modern music. Agree 1000%

Checkout those moves 2:25

"...and the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools trying to anesthetize the way that you feel!"

I can remember at the time..Armed Forces came out and it caused a sensation as it should and I believe went to no.15, and it looked like it might go top ten,but the powers that be always do the predictable and knew they couldn;t sell Product to someone this brilliant and honest. So,it was back to Foreigner and Eddie Rabbit.

Josh Barrett still true!

I can't wait till we have bands like this again.

it won't ever happen again. it was a product of a simpler time, ANALOG baby! artists were forced to rely on their own creativity using basic amplification & gadgetry. Everyone was SUPER EXCITED to be able to make music their own way..hence the New Wave.

The Fauves brought me here.

Done him dirty with that thumbnail didn't ya

Am I the 1 who hears him soundin' like Bob Geldoff here? ))

Elvis Costello has been around for much longer than Bob Geldoff, maybe Bob Geldoff sounds like Elvis.

@Chris Davies both appeared around 1977, not sure what their background was but I'd generally say they came around at the same time, enough that neither seriously influenced the other.

i have the exact same bass

we went to h/s in the late 60s we had a guy that looked just like elvis with the same glasses and his last name was the same.

Warren Blum Damn you're old

ahhh Elvis   Costello the guy who made nerdy geeky soooo kewl.. and this is one the best tracks in a long career that still is producing..

メインストリートいこーぜ

Funny that he's been around this long, albeit only (relatively) recently discovered by David Chase for the Sopranos (Complicated Shadows)

this is such a bad video but like that doesn't mean i won't keep watching it for another hour

One of EC's best..

Elvis Costello's videos are so bad, they're good.

It is around 40 years old.  This was really cool back in the day.

i download these videos cause i miss them.

Went to see Elivis Costello in my youth days, he's was amazing then and still is amazing now...timeless artist !!!

Seeing him in early November, can't wait!

the thumbnail to this video saved my life

I was tuning in the shine on the light night dial
doing anything my radio advised
with every one of those late night stations
playing songs bringing tears to me eyes
I was seriously thinking about hiding the receiver
when the switch broke 'cause it's old
They're saying things that I can hardly believe.
They really think we're getting out of control.

[Chorus:]
Radio is a sound salvation
Radio is cleaning up the nation
They say you better listen to the voice of reason
But they don't give you any choice
'cause they think that it's treason.
So you had better do as you are told.
You better listen to the radio.

I wanna bite the hand that feeds me.
I wanna bite that hand so badly.
I want to make them wish they'd never seen me.

Some of my friends sit around every evening
and they worry about the times ahead
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference
and the promise of an early bed
You either shut up or get cut up;
they don't wanna hear about it.
It's only inches on the reel-to-reel.
And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools
tryin' to anaesthetise the way that you feel

[Chorus]

Wonderful radio
Marvelous radio
Wonderful radio
Radio, radio...

Ah yes, Elvis Costello and his British teeth. Great artist - brings back memories of the 80s!

Seventies.

He well and truly sucked by the eighties.

I dunno..I saw Elvis Costello & the Attractions play Austin TX mid 80's must have been 1985 and they were FKing Amazing! the energy! so tight too- that show was everything I hoped it would be~

Bubba Subbitz everything sucked in the 80's. Appalling decade bereft of any nostalgia from me. The 80's ended in 1983 if I am feeling generous. 😉

Who from Billie Joe and Elvis Costello live? :D

Andre What does billie joe armstrong have to be brought up with elvis costello? I don't see the resemblance

mobilesuitjesse pop punk

How does this only have like 700 likes

Just love early EC, just rocks so hard.

Still immense.

Still the best SNL moment - "Sorry, there's no reason for this song...."

I was 13 when I saw the original airing of this episode. I always remember that interrupting the first song and at the time I thought it was so bizarre!! It must have been the first spontaneous thing I saw on TV.

His story several years ago was that they were getting annoyed because they were shoved into a corner while the show was in prep and decided to "do a Lulu". (Lulu famously did the same thing back in the 60s on a UK TV show). They got into deep trouble for it because the lyrics for the song had not been cleared by NBC censors, and I think NBC banned them for years.

@Wayne Heyward It was Jimi Hendrix on the live BBC show "Happening for Lulu," in early 1969, who did the Lulu. Jimi, Mitch & Noel were supposed to do Hey Joe, with Lulu joining them onstage for a duet - imagine that! They got through the first verse and a solo when Jimi abruptly called for the band to stop playing "this rubbish," and they launched into Sunshine of Your Love, as a tribute to the recently deceased Cream. It got them banned from the BBC.

Martin Fuller He eventually got back on there so I think he had the last word.

@IWillSurviveTheHighFive CauseIAmResilient For anyone interested in the story, the original song to be played was "Less Than Zero". The problem was that "Less Than Zero", while it was their current hit, didn't really make any sense in the American context - the Oswald in the song was Oswald Mosley, a British Fascist leader, who the American fans seemed to have confused somehow with Lee Harvey Oswald. Now, one can argue that choosing "Radio Radio" in particular was making a bit of a statement about the position they'd been put in on SNL - having to play what the record execs wanted sold - but the ongoing wrath of Lorne Michaels had more to do with the tight scheduling involved (with commercials and so forth) on a live broadcast.

New sum41 bonus track of the new album 13 voices

I prefer "Wireless, wireless!"

Alan DeGenerous did you not get it..?

Harry Coles Radio is a type of wireless frequency.

@Alan -DeGenerous I know

#justMrBurnsthings

Radio was free.

Those punks in suits eh? It was never about clothes or hair it was always about hatred of the BBC as the establishment. Turns out we were correct, and no pleasure in being so. The BBC are scum.

i do remember on one top of the pops. tony blackburn hated punk so elvis did some finger pointing.at the dj in question

Only 406 likes?

It's all here.

I wrote a paper in college about the political significance of this song. My prof loved it and ran out to buy this album.

@Karl Schuppner he wrote a song called Lip Service and loosely used the harmony from Deep Dark Truthful Mirror to write a song that got to #6 in UK chart in 1989. Among many more.

Colin Millar what’s his name?

Shortly after this album came out, we were studying Journalism at junior college. The student radio station announced a change in programming, not the normal cutting edge music those students tended to play, but more middle-of-the-road crap that would appeal to the entire student body.


My friend and classmate wrote a letter to the editor of the school newspaper, excoriating those who made the decision to change the programming. In his letter, he quoted "It's only inches on the reel-to-reel. And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools trying to anesthetize the way that you feel." (And even today, I cans still quote those lines from memory.)


Anyway, I'm glad you could teach your prof something.

@Woodrow Bowling Go watch the movie "Pirate Radio."

How am I just now learning of this guy!

Luke Martinez In the intervening months, I hope you've discovered Oliver's Army and many of Elvis C's other great tunes. The man is an international treasure.

We claim him as our own-The King Of America." I wanna bite the hand that feeds me..I want to bite that hand so badly"

Bc you do as you're told and listen to the 📻

Luke Martinez you think that’s bad, I’m just now listening to him

You’re a lucky dog – check out “brilliant mistake”

First fav song of his just sad I've known him and his music only around 2013. But I will still explore his music.

There's a LOT to explore. His best tends to be early on IMHO.

He's incredible. I agree his early stuff has the bite-the intellect-passion-use of language- sense of melody that no one has been able to top since.

radio verses TV...a no brainer:)

One of the pioneers of New Wave music!

Leader!

I enjoyed looking at the lovely old radio more than the dreadful song!

RKO outta nowhere

Elvis comes on geeky hard. Radio. Sad salvation.

I wonder if the writers at SNL got the idea for "Tiny Elvis" from watching this video. I'm thinking they did.

This has gotta be the worst video for a classic song ever.

I thought it perfectly represented the sound and feel of that era. Eh.

There's nothing inherently bad about this video. Sure, the chroma key isn't very convincing, but it's got a quaint charm all its own.

It was 1978 and music videos were still in their infancy. Pretty good for its time, and still is today.

...you better listen to the radi-O! ;-)

Elvis Costello's sound is very unique !

+Harold Salch He cannot be " very unique". He is either unique or not unique. "We don't need no education". Tony Robson

It’s only inches on the reel to reel.

Anyone else brought here by Fall Out Boy???...

he is a fucking legend. I knew before pete's better part ran down his mom's leg. Stump is actually a good musician.

Not here because of FOB but, I know he sings on What a Catch Donnie, doesn't he? That is a nice song.

thats a bit harsh mate

No not me anyway kid

I know this was only uploaded 5 weeks ago, but Jesus Christ less than 1K views? Come on!

4 years* hehe