Elvis Costello retires ‘Oliver’s Army’-“White n****r” lyric
ASPartOfMe
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Elvis Costello won’t play this song live anymore over a racial slur ‘I didn’t intend’
“That’s what my grandfather was called in the British army — it’s historically a fact,” Costello told the U.K.'s Telegraph over the weekend. “But people hear that word [and] go off like a bell and accuse me of something that I didn’t intend.”
“If I wrote that song today, maybe I’d think twice about it,” Costello added.
Oliver’s Army” dates itself with other references to Britain’s waning influence in the world as it was at the time
Costello said he wrote a new verse about censorship for the song on his last tour but ultimately didn’t see the point.
Radio stations that bleep out the offensive word are making “a mistake,” he said. “They’re making it worse by bleeping it for sure. Because they’re highlighting it then. Just don’t play the record!”
The “Watching the Detectives” singer is likely a little sensitive after decades of dealing with an accusation of racism he earned in a drunken 1979 bar spat in Ohio. Sparring with members of the Stephen Stills Band after both had played gigs, Costello threw around that same racist slur, and he definitely wasn’t talking about his grandfather.
Rather, the way Ultimate Classic Rock tells it, he used the N-word to describe legends James Brown and Ray Charles, prompting a backhanded slap from one of Stills’ backup singers, Bonnie Bramlett, who went to the media with her story after the spat devolved into a brawl.
Costello wound up holding his own press conference to defend himself against charges of racism. He explained he had been drunk and tired from touring. But he did not say he was sorry.
An apology finally came years later, during a chat with collaborator Questlove in 2013.
“I thought I was being ironic,” Costello said of that night in 1979, remarking on his arrogant youthfulness at the time. The Londoner of English-Irish descent said he presumed that the white American musicians he was arguing with didn’t appreciate the same R&B music that had influenced him.
“It’s upsetting,” Costello continued, “because I can’t explain how I even got to think you could be funny about something like that.”
He noted in that discussion that the racist label stuck with him over the years and has been revived periodically on social media, despite his repeated attempts to clear the air.
“I’m sorry. You know? It’s about time I said it out loud,” he said.
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Actually, the term was used in Great Britain to insult the Irish. In the context of the song it had no racist intent, although it's obviously a very offensive term.
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Exactly.
And thats what Costello's song was referring to.
The Irish being occupied by British forces in Northern Ireland.
"One pull of the trigger...one more widow...one less White n****r".
Costello was expressing sympathy for the Irish, and (though born in London) he is part Irish himself. So you could argue that he has the same right to call himself a "White n****r" as Black American rappers have - to call themselves "Niggas".
ASPartOfMe
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It is an anti imperialism song.
At the time it came out I had not heard of the expression “white n****r” and it was shocking both to hear both “n****r” and “white” attached to it on the radio. Even then I understood the song was anti imperialistic and thought those lyrics were his attempt at being “edgy” and “punk”. The man was banned from SNL for years because he stopped singing in the middle of “Less than Zero” a song against a racist British politician because it was irrelevant to the American audience(The replacement song ‘Radio Radio’ was and is relevant). I do not remember him getting flack over the lyrics in question then or now. Perhaps it is because the “offense archivists” have not heard of this over four decade old song or perhaps they have not gotten around to it.
As mentioned in the article this has not been his only use of the N-word. The fight in the bar mentioned in the OP was big news at the time. He was not in anyway canceled in the modern sense. His follow up albums got played. Today he is considered a rock elder statesmen. I do believe at the time would he have become a much bigger star had Bonnie Bramlett not told the media about it. His use of the N-Word was a big part of it but not the only part. Bonnie Bromlett when she apparently knocked Costello on his ass, put a young upstart Brit who had insulted American music royalty in his place.
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Actually, the term was used in Great Britain to insult the Irish. In the context of the song it had no racist intent, although it's obviously a very offensive term.
There's a book about the Quebecois that uses that phrase, but it's quite inappropriate there too. It's not intended to be offensive but it's not easily defended from accusations that it's obviously offensive. While various European immigrant communities and Quebecois did face significant issues, they also were able to assimilate whereas people who were colour-coded as different couldn't.
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I have discussed this a number of times but when "New wave" first came out it was a revelation to see people with even more "nerdy" personas than me such as David Byrne and Costello having some success it was a revelation. It was reflected in the "jumpy" way the music sounded.
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It is Autism Acceptance Month
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
I have discussed this a number of times but when "New wave" first came out it was a revelation to see people with even more "nerdy" personas than me such as David Byrne and Costello having some success it was a revelation. It was reflected in the "jumpy" way the music sounded.
Not just "nerdy" but also broad minded. David Byrne experimented with Afro-punk which heavily influenced the music of "Talking Heads".
Getting back to the UK, almost all British style punk and new wave music stemmed from Jamaican "rude-boy" music which means it wasn't just the Irish, virtually all young brits were behaving like "white n_____s". Not to mention fans of Elvis Presley, Beatles, Clapton and the Rolling Stones. People pretend they don't know the origin of popular music today.
"
Oh and David Byrne's "kooky" dancing in Talking Heads was his version of head bobbing in Afro-punk which is similar to Elvis copying leg shaking of early rockers like chuck berry and Little richard. The Elvis leg-shaking became his trade mark move.
Famously Eminem did the same for rap music to expand its popularity with white teenage girls.
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These are from prior to 'Remain in Light'
Elvis Costello
XTC
And of course Gary Numan
What all these performances have in common is that the singers look all wound up, stiff, uncomfortable in their own bodies. This was the complete opposite of the stadium/arena rock and the casual, anything goes disco popular at the time.
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