Elvis Costello is an English singer-songwriter from Paddington, London. He’s won multiple awards over the span of his career including the Grammys in 1999 and 2000, along with being twice nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Male Artist. Some popular songs of his include “Everyday I Write The Book,” “She,” “New Lace Sleeves” and “Good Year for the Roses.”
In an interview with the Telegraph, Costello revealed that he no longer wanted to play one of his biggest hits, “Oliver’s Army,” live. The song is off of his 1979 album, Armed Forces. It’s written about the Northern Ireland conflict. The reasoning for not wanting to play the song anymore is this line, “Only takes one itchy trigger / One more widow, one less white n_____.”
Costello said that,
“If I wrote that song today, maybe I’d think twice about it. That’s what my grandfather was called in the British army – it’s historically a fact – but people hear that word go off like a bell and accuse me of something that I didn’t intend.”
He goes on to mention how he wrote a censored version last tour, but quickly found it to be pointless. Costello also urges radio stations to not just bleep the song because it is “making it worse,” but to not play the song entirely.
Then, Costello says that by not playing the record “they would be doing me a favor.”
Costello just released his new single, “Farewell, OK,” song off of his new album with the Impostors, The Boy Named If. The album is scheduled to be released later on this month.
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