Elvis Costello and the Attractions fought their way into the hearts and minds of the new wave with the pugilistic personal politics of this potent pop pièce de résistance. Costello's debut 'My Aim is True' had established him as a singular musical voice, while working with the Attractions on the follow-up 'This Year's Model' had brought an intense energy to his caustic humor.
Once again, 'Armed Forces' features Elvis Costello on guitar and vocals; with the Attractions: Steve Nieve on piano, organ, and synthesizer; Bruce Thomas on bass; and Pete Thomas on drums. The album has a more polished and accessible sound that sugarcoats the bitter pill of the lyrics which use war as a metaphor for interpersonal relationships. Costello reveals in the liner notes: "This album was originally to be called 'Emotional Fascism'. Two or three half-formed notions collided uneasily in that title, although I never would have admitted to having anything as self-conscious as a "theme" running through the songs. Any patterns that have emerged did so as the record was completed or with the benefit of hindsight. Personal and global matters are spoken about with the same vocabulary; maybe this was a mistake. Betrayal and murder are not the same thing. The first of them only deadens the soul. Some of the highly charged language may now seem a little naive; it is full of gimmicks and almost overpowers some songs with paradoxes and subverted clichés piling up into private and secret meanings. I was not quite 24 and thought I knew it all...This was the first record that I had written with an acute awareness of an "audience". More particularly, there was the matter of the personal attention that I was receiving and the unpleasant character that I felt I was becoming. I had left my family home and was living a totally willful life with little sense of gravity. I surrendered to temptation, committed selfish acts of betrayal, and destroyed any possibility of trust and reconciliation in my marriage. Now whispered persuasions, ultimatums, and the closing time seductions passed for an emotional life. I was looking to discourage admiration and flirting with a sort of controlled fall from grace ... Much of the credit for keeping the heart and pop soul of this record should go to Nick Lowe, who produced the album with Roger Bechirian engineering. The recording venue was once again Eden Studios in London, and the sessions were booked for what seemed like an extravagant six weeks. At the time, it seemed as if we were making an impossibly sophisticated leap from the sound of 'This Year's Model', but listening now there are very few production devices that sit between the listener and the songs. The confidence and cohesion of The Attractions' playing is the product of 12 months of intense touring. The sessions were not without dissent and tension, but we probably never had quite this level of consistent musical agreement again."
'Armed Forces' became the biggest success of Costello's career, storming its way to number thirteen in the Netherlands, twelve in Norway, eleven in Sweden, ten in the US, nine in Australia and New Zealand, and number two in the UK. It has been certified platinum in Canada and the UK, and gold in the US.
http://www.elviscostello.com
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6VJme_L98wLDc2KRrbo6FvLGs3cFHn3n
https://myspace.com/elviscostello/music/album/armed-forces-9286
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6VJme_L98wLDc2KRrbo6FvLGs3cFHn3n
http://www.last.fm/music/Elvis+Costello+&+The+Attractions/Armed+Forces
"Accidents Will Happen" found its way to number twenty-eight in the UK.
And it's the damage that we do
And never know
It's the words that we don't say
That scare me so
"Senior Service"
Senior service
Junior dissatisfaction
It's a breath you took too late
It's a death that's worse than fate
"Oliver's Army"
went to number two in the UK, becoming his biggest hit single. It also charted at twenty-five in Australia, twenty-four in New Zealand, and number four in Ireland. Costello says:
"I made my first trip to Belfast in 1978 and saw mere boys walking around in battle dress with automatic weapons. They were no longer just on the evening news. These snapshot experiences exploded into visions of mercenaries and imperial armies marauding around the world. The song was based on the premise: 'they always get a working class boy to do the killing'. I don't know who said that; maybe it was me, but it seems true nonetheless. I pretty much had the song sketched out on the plane back to London."
Don't start me talking
I could talk all night
My mind goes sleepwalking
While I'm putting the world to right
Called careers information
Have you got yourself an occupation?
Oliver's army is here to stay
Oliver's army are on their way
And I would rather be anywhere else
But here today
There was a checkpoint Charlie
He didn't crack a smile
But it's no laughing party
When you've been on the murder mile
Only takes one itchy trigger
One more widow, one less white nigger
(Chorus)
Hong Kong is up for grabs
London is full of Arabs
We could be in Palestine
Overrun by a Chinese line
With the boys from the Mersey and the Thames and the Tyne
But there's no danger
It's a professional career
Though it could be arranged
With just a word in Mr. Churchill's ear
If you're out of luck or out of work
We could send you to Johannesburg
"Big Boys"
"Green Shirt"
"Party Girl"
"Written for an art student that I barely knew. I found our meeting reported in the tatty gossip of a Mid-Western newspaper. I was handed the improbable role of 'rock star' and certain assumptions were made about the character of the girl in the title. Some small kindness and tenderness passed between us, I could do no more than resent the portrayal and offer this apology. The song is not so much 'hopelessly romantic' as simultaneously romantic and without hope."
"Goon Squad"
"Busy Bodies"
"Sunday's Best"
"Moods for Moderns"
"Chemistry Class"
"A reaction to the complacency of some of the university campuses that we visited on those first trips to America. As a teenager I'd grown up reading magazine articles about radical student politics in the '60s. At times we seemed only to encounter uncomprehending hedonism or braying superficiality. I could only imagine such people sliding blithely into some repressive future. Either that or they might find an excellent career in advertising. I wasn't feeling very reasonable or reasoned in my arguments. I was as normal as any young idiot suddenly thrust into the charts and onto the cover of periodicals while being spoken about with exaggerated awe. If I seemed a little self-absorbed at the time, then I have to say that much duller songs have been written on the subject."
"Two Little Hitlers"
"About a loveless egotistical couple. It paints an unflattering picture of the whole courtship dance. The bridge makes passing reference to a speech from Charlie Chaplin's 'The Great Dictator' ("He's an unnatural man"), but other than that had nothing to do with 20th Century history. Musically, I think the clicking guitar part came from listening to early Talking Heads records."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1trgIWENOdQ
"(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?"
"Although the track was recorded during these sessions, it was not originally intended for inclusion on the album. It was first released under the name "Nick Lowe & His Sound" on the B-side of Nick's single "American Squirm". The producer was mysteriously pictured at the mixing desk in a pair of my horn-rimmed sunglasses, clutching a Jazzmaster with my name inlaid into the fingerboard of the guitar. I believe that Nick wrote the song as an affectionate parody of various pious '60s peace anthems. We certainly attacked the song with little sense of irony and as if it were obvious that no one knew the answer to the question that the song posed."
Elvis Costello - (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace Love and Understanding from nuno pereira on Vimeo.
bonus tracks
"My Funny Valentine" (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart)
"Tiny Steps"
"Clean Money"
"Talking in the Dark"
"Wednesday Week" – 2:01
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ylf9EmqQJA&list=PLB3B68FEC7BA52208
http://www.last.fm/music/Elvis+Costello/_/Wednesday+Week
https://myspace.com/elviscostello/music/song/wednesday-week-100462-109573
Copies of the 'Live at Hollywood High' three song EP were included in the first pressings of the album.
https://myspace.com/elviscostello/music/album/live-at-hollywood-high-14700598
"Accidents Will Happen" (Live at Hollywood High) – 3:18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bky8NzhQmKA
"Alison" (Live at Hollywood High) – 3:08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N9CTYjDyKI
"Watching the Detectives" (Live at Hollywood High) – 5:51
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eguGPwePZII
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