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"Oliver's Army" is a song written by Elvis Costello, originally performed by Elvis Costello and The Attractions, and appearing on the album ''Armed Forces'' in 1979. It remains his most successful single, spending four weeks at number 2 in the UK Singles chart.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=UK Top 40 Hit Database )〕 ==Overview== Some music critics, such as Simon Frith and others,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Freaky Trigger Top 100 Tracks of All Time: No. 57 ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS – "Oliver’s Army" at freakytrigger.co.uk )〕 have suggested that the title refers to Oliver Cromwell whose New Model Army was a forerunner to the modern British Army. A reference in the lyrics to "a word in Mister Churchill's ear" suggests, however, that the Oliver in question is Oliver Lyttelton, Churchill's President of the Board of Trade in the early stages of the Second World War. The Protected Occupations Act meant that any man not compelled to join the forces due to critically required trade skills was dubbed to be part of "Oliver's Army". Of the song's meaning, Costello himself has stated: "I made my first trip to Belfast in 1978 and saw mere boys walking around in battle dress with automatic weapons. They were no longer just on the evening news. These snapshot experiences exploded into visions of mercenaries and imperial armies around the world. The song was based on the premise 'they always get a working class boy to do the killing'. I don't know who said that; maybe it was me, but it seems to be true nonetheless. I pretty much had the song sketched out on the plane back to London." As well as the Troubles the song alludes to several other "trouble spots" around the world at the time including South Africa, Palestine, and "Checkpoint Charlie". It has been suggested that the events in Belfast prompted Costello to write this "anti-occupation anthem". The music video for "Oliver's Army" was aired on MTV's first US broadcast day, . The song lyrics contain the phrase "white nigger", a racial slur historically used by the English toward Irish people, which usually remains uncensored on radio stations. In March 2013, the radio station BBC Radio 6 Music played the song with the word removed despite BBC radio stations having played the song uncensored for over 30 years. Their move attracted public criticism given the intended anti-racist and anti-British colonialism theme of the single.〔http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9940194/BBC-criticised-for-censoring-Elvis-Costello-lyrics.html〕 Costello performed the song at the 2013 Glastonbury Festival, which was broadcast by the BBC, with the phrase uncensored. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Oliver's Army」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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