Summary
Written by Elvis Costello and Clive Langer for Robert Wyatt, Shipbuilding was recorded in several versions by Elvis Costello himself, Suede, June Tabor, Hue and Cry, Tamsin Archer and The Unthanks.
The blend of subtle lyrics and extraordinary music makes this a political song like no other. It transcends the particular circumstances of its writing: the Falklands War and the decline of British heavy industry, especially ship-building.
Clive and Elvis describe how the song was written in 1982 and how legendary jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player, Chet Baker, came to perform on Costello's version.
Philosopher Richard Ashcroft wants the song, which he sees as a kind of secular hymn, played at his funeral because it gives a perfect expression of how he believes we should think about life. Not being able to feel the emotion of the song would, he feels, be like being morally tone-deaf. If you don't like this song, he'd find it hard to be your friend.
The song's achingly beautiful final couplet about "diving for pearls" makes former MP Alan Johnson cry. It's also inspired an oral history and migrant integration project in Glasgow. Chris Gourley describes how the participants found a way to overcome their lack of English and communicate through a shared understanding of ship-building practice.
Other contributors include Hopi Sen, a political blogger who was an unusually political child, and the Mercury Prize winning folk group The Unthanks. They toured their version to towns with ship-building connections as part of a live performance of a film tracing the history of British ship-building using archive footage.
Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact
Producer: Natalie Steed
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2013.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to quickly tell you about some others. |
| 0:05.1 | My name's Andy Martin and I'm the editor of a team of podcast producers at the BBC in Northern Ireland. |
| 0:11.3 | It's a job I really love because we get to tell the stories that really matter to people here, |
| 0:16.2 | but which also resonate and apply to listeners around the world. |
| 0:19.6 | And because the team has such a diverse |
| 0:21.1 | range of skills and strengths, we have trained journalists, people who love digging through |
| 0:25.9 | archives, we've got drama and even comedy experts. We really can do those stories justice. So if |
| 0:31.8 | you like this podcast, head to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories |
| 0:37.0 | from all around the UK. |
| 0:57.5 | Is it worth it? |
| 1:04.6 | A new winter coat and shoes for the wife And a bicycle on the boy's birthday. |
| 1:12.0 | It's just a rumor that was spread around town. |
| 1:17.3 | By the women and children, soon will be shipbuilding. |
| 1:26.6 | I think one of the things about shipbuilding as a song is it's such a tender song. |
| 1:30.9 | It's a caress of a song. It's a lullaby, almost. |
| 1:34.8 | And that soothing nature of it, I think, it's a really big part of what makes the song so powerful. |
| 1:39.5 | It's angry, but it's reflectively angry and inwardly asking and searching. |
| 1:44.9 | It's just a rumour that was spread around town. |
| 1:49.6 | Somebody said that someone got filled in for saying that people get killed in the result of the shipbuilding. |
| 2:05.6 | Political songs, I guess, often are quite angry, whether it's in the delivery or in the lyrics themselves. |
| 2:12.6 | But that's what I think is so beautiful about this song. |
| 2:22.3 | It conveys the subject matter that's talking about pretty clearly, |
... |
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