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| Elvis Costello - Less Than Zero |
Elvis Costello - Less Than Zero Lyrics and Youtube Music VideosAlbum:
My Aim Is True Released:
1977 Calling Mr. Oswald with the swastika tattoo
There is a vacancy waiting in the English voodoo
Carving "V" for "vandal" on the guilty boy's head
When he's had enough of that, maybe you'll take him to bed
To teach him he's alive before he wishes he was dead
[Chorus:]
Turn up the TV, no one listening will suspect
Even your mother won't detect it, so your father won't know
They think that I've got no respect but
Everything is
Less Than ZeroHey, oo hey-ey
Hey, oo hey-ey
Oswald and his sister are doing it again
They've got the finest home movies that you have ever seen
They've got a thousand variations, every service with a smile
They're gonna take a little break and they'll be back after a while
Well, I hear that South America is coming into style
[Chorus:]
A pistol was still smoking, a man lay on the floor
Mr. Oswald said he had an understanding with the law
He said he heard about a couple living in the USA
He said they traded in their baby for a Chevrolet
Let's talk about the future, now we've put the past away
[Chorus:]
Hey, oo hey-ey
Hey, oo hey-ey...
Writer/s: COSTELLO, ELVIS
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by
LyricFindLess Than Zero Song Chart This is a scathing attack on Oswald Mosley, a politician who was popular in England at the time. Mosley, who died in 1980, was the leader of the British Union of Fascists. This was Costello's first single - it was only issued in Europe. At the time, he had a day job working on a computer at Elizabeth Arden cosmetics. According to Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock and Soul, The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever , the song is about a young couple making out in one of their parents' houses, while 1930s British fascist leader Oswald Moseley and his sister babble poison on TV, angling for a comeback in the era of the National Front. American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis named his first novel, the nihilistic, drug-fuelled Less Than Zero after this song. He told the NME August 7, 2010: "Why did I name my first book after an Elvis Costello song? Who knows? I was working on this project starting when I was 16 and it was the Less Than Zero project. I was like most white, upper-class educated boys: I was obsessed with Elvis Costello. That was his main audience in the US. That title seemed very evocative to me. It had various other titles, but Less Than Zero ultimately seemed like the best title for the book, even though I had this much older professor who really loved the book but tried to dissuade me from using that title because he thought it was lame. He suggested Winter Vacation. Elvis Costello became the man for me for very many years. And then he didn't. Which happens, it happens to a lot of people, it's just the nature of things. Very few people sustain massive careers for a long time." When he recorded the My Aim Is True album, Costello had not yet formed his backing band The Attractions, so he used members of an American group called Clover as his musicians:
John McFee - guitar
Sean Hopper - keyboards
Johnny Ciambotti - bass
Mickey Shine - drums
Stan Shaw - organ
Clover disbanded in 1978; McFee joined The Doobie Brothers and Hopper formed Huey Lewis and the News. When Costello appeared on Saturday Night Live in 1977 (filling in for the Sex Pistols, who were denied entry into the US), it was decided that he would perform this song. Elvis, however, had other ideas. After playing some of "Less Than Zero," he halted the performance and played the unreleased "Radio Radio" instead, earning him a ban from the show that lasted until 1989, when he returned as musical guest.
Costello had no interest in playing "Less Than Zero" for an American audience (especially on a late-night comedy show), since its subject matter was decidedly English. Like "Watching The Detectives," this song has reggae overtones. Costello was influenced by the first Clash album, which used a lot of reggae sounds.