Regarding the line in Elvis Costellos Classic song......

"One more widow, one less white nigger"

Whats that all about then? and does the word nigger get beeped when played in this this day and age?

I guess not because he's referring to a whitey, I suppose.

Talking of the n-word, The Dambusters was on one of the US fillum channels here ... and it wasn't bleeped out.

And I know Elvis and probably lots more are ardent fans, but Elvis Costello didn't/still doesn't do it for me. I tried watching Spectacle the other night, and switched over. Sorry.

Ironic really as Costello once got thumped in an American bar for referring to Ray Charles as a blind drunken n****r.

Yeah it was Stevie Wonder he was talking to at the time.

EAD might know better but I think he was making the point that the sort of white working class lads who join up are/were bottom of the social heap in the same way that black americans are/were. He got a bit of flak for it at the time but, as he was playing ANL gigs etc, most people accepted it was well meant.

If I remember rightly he argued that his comments on Ray Charles were a pissed up joke taken out of context. Not as easy to accept but I've never seen anything similar from him and he's been around a very long time.

PS King of America- great album and great gigs with The Confederates.

He was also just plain wrong. As has always been and always will be, soldiers come from all levels of the social spectrum.

The line I recall is from Oliver's Army- hence the comparision between the situation with Cromwell's army & the poor bastards ending up in Northern Ireland straight out of school.
The song is a general anti-military statement.
Costello was making the point that as with Cromwell's New Model Army many of the cannon fodder joining up with the Britsh Army because of a lack of economic opportunities was like the status of a "nigger" in some of the American states.


The song, I think I recall was written on tour in Belfast & shortly after Costello had visited the Deep South in the States hence some of the comparisions.

With the boys from the Mersey, The Thames & the Tyne -also a line in the song reflects the army's major recruiting grounds when Costello wrote the song.

Hope that helps fellas.

Not racist at all- more of a comparision of bleak times.

Think the song is probably as relevant today as it was in 1978 when he wrote it.

How many poor buggers have yet to die in Iraq/Afghanistan

These aren't 'poor buggers' going into war with their eyes closed.

They're young men who fancy their chances and are brave enough to have a go.

There shouldn't be such a thing as war but there is so well done them for sorting out the world's nasties while I'm sat on me fat arse watching Countdown.

Might be going a bit mental but wasn't there a mercenary leader/recruiter called Oliver Churchill about in the late '70s? Can't find him on google but I'm sure I remember him and I'd always thought the song was about him among other things.

If he did exist it means that all the Americans going on about Cromwell and Churchill on songmeanings are talking shyte and I'd love to point that out! Any help would be much appreciated.

You sure you don't mean Oliver North? He was a US Marine Corps, colonel not a mercenary, his big gig was the Iran contra thing. Either way the song pre-dates Oliie's time in the spotlight.

We've got quite a few body bags to fill unfortunately, the Russians lost 14'000 in an identical war.

No, I'm not mixing him up with Oliver North. Might have just conjured him up out of the mists of time though, or maybe somebody bullshitted me in 1978 and its taken til now to realise!

Has EAD retired? Noticed he'd not been posting much but I'd assumed he was busy.

I didnt know he had retired! What caused it this time?

Fair enough

Always thought it referred to Churchill's grandson, Winston (top marks for originality) who's just popped his clogs; who voted against the application sanctions for apartheid regimes in Rhodesia in the late 70s

Well said, it's a poignant song.

My impression was that it was always written about the bloke who joined the army and then found himself in the last place he imagined he'd be sent. 'I'd rather be anywhere else than here today...' and as it was the time of Northern Ireland's worst troubles, it was easy to believe that.

Army blerks do tend to marry young, and we were the 'niggers' in Northern Ireland purely due to our accents.

Our socialism lecturer from Stoke Poly told us before we went that they hate niggers, Jocks and Para's, so if you're a black, Jock, Para.....