Elvis Costello - Shipbuilding Lyrics

Robert Wyatt. To write a song like this takes a lifetime of hurt.

How fucking good 👏👏

checkout robert wyatt's take, backed by elvis and the crew. really highlights the mournful tone of both song and lyrics. a somewhat oblique critique of the falklands war

We used to live opposite Camel Laird ship yard and it would take about half an hour for all the workers to pour out and leave at home time. Ive seen it go from that to nothing. Everyone in Birkenhead must have worked there at sometime or other, Liverpool too. Also Elvis Costello's home town.

brilliant

imagine, if you will, a group of sentient human beings and they choose honour garth brooks with a gershwin songwriting award instead of elvis costello or kris kristofferson.

i am incredibly notalgic and cannot believe that i know so many of the lyrics 35 years later.. what a talent.

There is something brash about Costello's music, and i can never connect with it in any way. So i makes me feel like something's wrong with me because i can't see and feel what the fans are hearing. Maybe this explains why i'm totally into women's music! I'm actually a pianist and composer, and i collect songs that people mention to me, and i go back to them, and try to improvise-out the song to see if emotion will arise from the song from a place where i felt nothing to begin with. I want to understand why i can't stand Elvis Costello.

Been feeling this vibe for some reason lately.

my neck hurts

For those of us who know Elvis music. This is unknown to most . It will all be gone in a few decades. I love Elvis and will go down with the ship!!

EC has written a lot of great songs. This is one of the greatest.

Elvis doesn't do a lot of covers. When he picks someone else's song to sing, it's gotta be because it's a better song than what he himself could write (very few of those). So this . . . is that song . . . . a song worthy of one of the top 5 greatest songwriters to sing and play. Almost divine in its perfection.

Winston Guitar Elvis Costello wrote the lyrics and Clive Langer the music.

what say .. nothing just listen to and think

Poor Chet Baker, fantastic horn player, but such a troubled life with heroin. The guy had talent in spades. The junk wrecked his life so many ways, so very hard.

I was 17 when this came out, I did not understand "The Meaning" of the lyrics at the time ... a couple of years later I did!. As I am from Liverpool I sometimes use The Ferry to cross The Mersey over to Birkenhead and Wallasey, on each journey this poignant song comes into my mind.

nobody did the trumpent like like Chet

God Bless Chet

the Chet Baker trumpent makes this classic

i wonder what he audiophile means i think its a person who gets off on listening to kids who been abussed

a haunting trumpet solo that could from no other than Chet Baker

if you think this rocks get Chet Baker sings or just get anything by Chet Baker and get the Chet Baker experience

Chet Baker the James Dean of Jazz

Such an amazing song! Thanks for sharing. I just subscribed! It's so satisfying to play! I did a cover of it recently and uploaded it.

Saw Elvis Costello and The Attractions on this tour in Cardiff. Met the band before the gig, when they asked the group I was in for a directtions to a decent restaurant. Got invited back-stage after the gig....I still have one of Pete Thomas' drum-sticks. Couldn't get near Elvis....surrounded by fawning women.

I LOVE!!! 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝🇮🇹🇮🇹

Brilliant!

Wyatts vocal is better but this has Chet Baker

@UCmBIBBwA2UqFwgPZcGuCafA









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today on eddie mair lbc there was a heartbreaking interview with a 70 year old man who had been made homeless with his wife - i know that elvis would allow me to mention this - what has happened to our country - all homelessness is awful but this was truly upsetting - the wife had been a nurse and the man had worked all his life - this is a true disgrace and it s about time things were redressed - when are nurses going to be properly paid and when are we going to get out of this trap of allowing extortionate rents and rip off letting agents - when are the politicians going to truly represent their constituents - i look at someone like Grayling - has he ever caught a train in his life - he should feel ashamed at the fact that people have lost their jobs and been unable to get back in time for their families - and theresa may should feel ashamed that he s still in his job - these people have no standards or conscience and they laughing all the way to the bank on our backs

Chet Baker’s trumpet makes this tune timelessly iconic....

Amazing

Definitely his absolute best song and album. This whole album is an absolute classic, it has a perfect coherence and flow. Reminds me of the good old days of real music made on real instruments by real people. Rest in peace pop music, thanks for the great times.

I listen to this song often. One of my favorite Elvis Costello songs ever. Incredible musical, vocal, and songwriting here.

Is it worth it?

It's just a rumour that was spread around town:

" Brexit will give Britain an extra £350 million a week to spend on the NHS".

With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls


It's just a rumour that was spread around town by Boris

Amazing song, try brothers in arms by dire straits xc

Is it just me or does the end sound like something sinking?.....

One of the best songs ever. Actually prefer this version to Robert Wyatt's (but only just!)

bought this album with a load of coins as I was on the brew when it came out back in 1983 I think or was it 1893?

Thatchers anthem surely

Tramp the dirt down!

Elvis and Clive Langer pen a modern standard!... and say what you will about Chet baker's lifestyle but he was still getting a beautiful tone outta his horn.

Declan Patrick MacManus geen Thatcher it tight. Lyrical genius.

You know, every parent wants to buy a bicycle for the boy's birthday. So much in this song.

Absolutely love Elvis Costello
All his music is GREAT

This is great songwriting. The fact that Chet Baker is there too just kicks it off.

Elvis Costello at his best!

Chapter 24 in Costello's new memoir talks about this song. It's worth picking up the book just to read that section.

Prachtig, zo samen met Chet Baker op trompet

Most definitely... Gets me straight in the heart evey time! So beautiful...

Check out Elvis' autobiography. It'll turn you on to some great stuff.

Also check out Chet Baker's biography "Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker" by James Gavin. It's a really excellent read, fascinating throughout, and also, it will encourage you NOT to be a psychopathic junkie.

I remember 'Shipbuilding' reaching number one in UK and how the ruling Conservative Party exerted pressure on the BBC to ban the song from the airwaves. I remember, too the night that the Belgrano was sunk and Thatcher proclaiming "rejoice, rejoice" (that so many innocent people - English and Argentinian - suffered terrible deaths and mutilations. That was the night I decided to emigrate - which I did in 1985.

Ben Crowley bollocks

That line; "It's all we're skilled in". Kind of like sticking a knife in.

"Kind of like sticking a knife in"

Very much, maybe it was even his intent with that line. 50 years of a man's life at the factory or the pit or the works and if he's lucky he gets a gold-plated watch when the company gets shot of him. And within a year he's dead and the works and the pits and mills and the shipyards are all gone and with them the lives and memories of tens of thousands of "ordinary" men just like him.

This song makes me go all teary-eyed every time.

'kind of'? it's either or not.

All the lines are man x

@taxus750
Wow, that's a brilliant way to look at the meaning of that line, and I never realized it until i read your comment! I always just took it as him saying 'it's all we're skilled in' as in, building killing machines, and killing other people, is all humanity is good at- of course, knowing his music, i should have known there would be multiple meanings there! I love how this song balances between the shipbuilder's lives and a broader view of the awfulness of war and violence- Elvis is King alright!

It's not a nostalgic song although you are right about the demise of traditional industry and engineering. He wrote it about the Falklands war regenerating the shipbuilding industry in Barrow in Furness, Cumbria and the task force that was sent to recapture the islands, "the boy said dad theyr'e going to take me to task, but i'll be back by Christmas".....................Superbly constructed lyric (as ever) and a haunting arrangement.

The best anti-war song ever written? Maybe. Can't help but feel for the workers who actually build the ships. "It's all we're skilled in."

Maybe not as individuals, but those areas, historically, were set up to do one thing, which was exactly that....Building ships.
You have to allow some poetic license, surely?

No, "A bicycle for the boy's birthday" is a line that really pokes us U.K. miner families something rotten. It's amplifies the desperation of poverty suffered under a Thatcher regime. I don't understand your anti-war sentiment. Please clarify x

Bugman The Falklands.

See my post.

Yes, I'm with mate ... I have a post as well.

Chet Baker, what a tragic life.........Elvis always 'spreads his Message' in such sublime ways.......too bad Elvis C never got Art Pepper or Gerry Mulligan to 'Guest Solo' on some of his other records.............if you've read this far then try Tori Amos' "Baker Baker" (no relation to the trumpet virtuoso) ......Radiohead's "No Surprises"........The Housemartin's "Build"..........Cat Steven's "Father and Son"........ELP's "Lucky Man", Neil Young's "Old Man", Aztec Camera's "Black Lucia", The Smith's "How Soon is Now?" - Hothouse Flowers' "Sweet Marie" (better hide the Scotch) anything from The Waterboys (start with "Spirit" (I'm old School, I prefer the original/short version) or "Trumpets")..........and Tupac Shakur's "Lil Homies" for something well..........

ashman0071 EC plus Gerry Mulligan would've been brilliant

the "LL" in Costello remind me the WTC towers. In a war song. World's got this strange coincidences.

Still one of the greatest of all.

Totally brilliant. One of my abs fave songs from one of my abs fave singer/songwriters. And such a great and distinctive voice. Too, too good. Sigh.

The Music Aficionado blog entry on Elvis Costello's Shipbuilding: https://musicaficionado.wordpress.com/2016/06/22/shipbuilding-by-elvis-costello/

life on mars a bit?

Weird that you should say that.

Yes, I see what you mean....

Now you said!.......Has a similar structure and feel to LOM. Namaste.

So nice.

Love his intro's! Especially this one;

my ship just came in.

Didn't know it was Chet on the horn till reading these comments, kinda helps explains the near magical feel it has.

Same here. Have you heard Chet Baker covering Costello's "Almost Blue"?

Three misses. Just watched 'Jazz' by Ken Burns. Had to fill in gaping holes around Coltrane, Brubeck, McCann . . . Picked up Sonny Rollins, Duke Ellington & Miles. This song broke thorough in my memory for good reason. That trumpet, my god. Cheers = )

The cornet (can't be trumpet) with echo is sublime...

+homerbloodysimpson it's Chet Baker playing trumpet

this album is so underrated. for some reason typical costello fans refuse to appreciate it and i have no idea why. if any of his albums are unworthy, its mighty like a rose.

+no avail I must admit that back in the day this album had a suspect smell to it. At least according to my nose. Too smooth, too commercial. In hindsight one can say it contains 2 of his finest songs and that there is an optimistic, almost cheerfull, atmosphere to it. In spite of some of the lyrics and what actually was going on.

In his book he admits that on this album he needed it to get him back in the Rock passing lane. Not a quote a paraphrase.

are you crazy?!? take a deep listen to Hurry Down Doomsday (the bugs are taking over), and The Other Side of Summer, those are right here with Shipbuilding in terms of critical prose set to music...Wake Up Zombie Kick Up a Big Stink!

I don't agree. This song is absolutely magical though. Mighty Like a Rose is similar - one fantastic song (So Like Candy) but overall mediocre.

Humans. So much wealth wasted on weapons and war. So much destruction and loss instead of conflict resolution. Pain instead of pearls.

Great song.

+wpl -- that is such bullshit. that is not human nature...we are being manipulated.

+no avail are you kidding? You're ready to go to war because you disagree.

Thanks a lot for uploading and sharing this masterpiece in optimal quality ! <3

With all the wealth in the world
Diving for dear life...
War, it just dosn't make any sense, really.
How many times do we have to learn that before we start believing it.
We killed 50 million of ourselves in the last insane planetary thing called WW2.
How much flesh do we need to heap on that altar?
How much more? How many more? 
Storm clouds are gathering, lightness is fighting back, 
Please oh please let us not start ship building...

takes all sides to stop the fighting. turning the cheek to die is hard
sigh

It's all we're skilled in

this is a great song...he wrote it as a protest against the british government sending troops to fight in the falkland islands war in the early 80's.

+cwmiller2006 Yes, he did. A great song, an all-time classic really-- and written for the wrong reasons.

robert wyatt wrote this, no?

Nope only sang it

This song..sung by elvis Costello ..is sooo fing beautiful ....thank you elvis & the attractions

Another classic EC/Attractions LP. Nothing could else could attempt to be a follow up to Imperial Bedroom.

Timeless

Only reason to buy the record was for this song

@Aldous Smith i'm with you there 

+rande stuart Nonsense. His best album.

+Tom Allen There were no good albums released during 1983? Rubbish.

shocked by this statement !!! I love this album to the core, every song is a gem for me... well not only for me - it was an album of the year in NME end of year poll

pills and soap est pas mal

"I'm a secret lemonade drinker...®Whites....®Whites...."  etc..

Elvis IS God but his Dad's performance in the commercials is worthy of note.

Best horn ever

Chet baker? Wether you knew that or not, it goes without saying. But Chet Baker is on this x

Far from it. Chet Baker did much much better than this in his career - by the time he did this he was a beat up drug addled wreck and he still had five years to slither down even lower. He took the money, ran and later complained to all that would listen how he had been forced to "slum it" on this record to make cash for a score.

Is it worth it?

Much prefer this to the Robert Wyatt version (good though that is).  Having Chet Baker on board obviously helps... 

@malthuswasright I much prefer this version. Each to their own I guess...

I'm an old folkie I guess and I love Baker's solo (who wouldn't) but I think it's quite a complicated pov for a pop song and so I prefer a voice only (with piano or guitar, or bass/drums/piano as in the Wyatt version) so I don't get distracted. I feel the same way about the Fairports' versions of song by Buckley, Dylan etc. But yeah, no arguing about taste of course.

Steely Dan - Third World Man - HQ Audio

Hope more people, more times "Shipbuilding" might be listened all around the world. For your beautiful life and your family.

俺が虹だった頃、このアルバムの担当A&Rだった。

One of the greatest songs ever written.

Yup, beautiful cover by Elvis. 

@Mowogjones Elvis wrote the song lyric wise, and Langer also collaborated with Costello, so it wasn't so much a cover. Just Wyatt and Costello had two different takes on the same tune. 

Agreed. One of my favorites, altering my mood considerably, giving me "the feels".

Mom got drunk and slapped Engelbert Humperdinck on a cabinet-style turntable vinyl stack, leaning into red fabric speakers, singing; I throw Elvis on digitally.

wonderful song

Costello legend

Elvis Costello always touches a nerve within me that is a conglomerate of diversity with music and lyrics that strikes achord of genius within me everytime I hear him "Shipbuilding" is one of those songs. Yeah!

a background guitarist made good  lol