Lyrics to
Oliver’s Army

This version of Oliver’S Army was released by Elvis Costello in 1979.

Our Elvis Costello Songs profile has Oliver’S Army lyrics from 1979 and most if not all of the lyrics by Elvis Costello that we have here at Decade Lyrics.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Elvis Costello or about the 1970s in general.

Don’t start me talking
I could talk all night
My mind goes sleepwalking
While I’m putting the world to right
Called careers information
Have you got yourself an occupation?

Oliver’s army is here to stay
Oliver’s army are on their way
And I would rather be anywhere else
But here today

There was a checkpoint Charlie
He didn’t crack a smile
But it’s no laughing party
When you’ve been on the murder mile

Only takes one itchy trigger
One more widow, one less white nigger

Hong Kong is up for grabs
London is full of Arabs
We could be in Palestine
Overrun by a Chinese line
With the boys from the Mersey and the Thames and the Tyne

But there’s no danger
It’s a professional career
Though it could be arranged
With just a word in Mr. Churchill’s ear

If you’re out of luck or out of work
We could send you to Johannesburg

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Elvis Costello has released many songs over the years besides Oliver’S Army. Elvis Costello released songs from 1977 to 2004 spanning across albums like My Aim Is True, This Year's Model, Armed Forces, Get Happy!!, Trust, Almost Blue, Imperial Bedroom, Punch The Clock, Goodbye Cruel World, Blood And Chocolate, King Of America, Spike, Mighty Like A Rose, The Juliet Letters, Brutal Youth, Kojak Variety, Deep Dead Blue, All This Useless Beauty, Painted From Memory, For The Stars, When I Was Cruel, North, and The Delivery Man. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Elvis Costello.

If you're a fan of 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1979 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Oliver’S Army by Elvis Costello

The lyrics for Oliver’S Army are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1979 song by Elvis Costello. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Oliver’S Army have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for Oliver’S Army - Elvis Costello and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to Oliver’S Army by Elvis Costello in multiple ways. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Oliver’S Army" means the words set to the music of Oliver’S Army, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Elvis Costello. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Oliver’S Army and the lyrics to Oliver’S Army are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Elvis Costello who came here looking just for the lyrics to Oliver’S Army, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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