Later Presents... Elvis Costello in Concert

Thank you very much. Tonight's artist has written and produced

for many of the greatest names in popular music.

He has sung with the Count Basie Orchestra and written with Paul McCartney.

Tonight we celebrate his own music. He's been recording for 20 years.

He has with him The Attractions plus many musical surprises.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mr Elvis Costello.

CHEERING AND WHISTLING

# Oh, I just don't know where to begin

# Though he says he'll wait forever

# It's now or never

# But they keep him hanging on

# This silly champion

# She says she can't go home without a chaperone

# Accidents will happen

# Only hit and run

# He used to be your victim, now you're not the only one

# Accidents will happen

# We only hit and run

# I don't want to hear it

# Cos I know what I've done

# Well, there's so many fish in the sea

# That only rise up in the sweat and smoke like mercury

# But they keep you hanging on

# They say you're so young

# Your mouth is made up but your mind is undone

# Accidents will happen

# We're only hit and run

# He used to be your victim, now you're not the only one

# Accidents will happen

# We're only hit and run

# I don't want to hear it

# Cos I know what I've...

# Done

# And it's the damage that we do

# And never know

# It's the words that we don't say

# That scare me so

# There's so many people to see

# So many people you can check up on

# And add to your collection

# But they keep you hanging on

# Until you're well hung

# Your mind is made up

# Your mouth is undone

# Accidents will happen

# We're only hit and run

# He used to be your victim, now you're not the only one

# Accidents will happen

# We're only hit and run

# I don't want to hear it

# Cos I know what I've...

# I know what I've...

# I know what I've...

# Done

# I know

# I know

# I know

# I know

# I know

# I know

# I know

# I know

# I know

# I know

# I know

# I know

# Do do do, do d'n do do do do

# Do do do, do d'n do do do do do. #

Thank you.

# I arose and Marigold lay down with curious Iris

# Cherry gave to Victor

# Her prudence and her virus

# For the sake of purity

# I can recall the time and place

# Between wisdom and murder

# She gave up her immaculate face

# My poor belated chastity

# Fell foul of grown-up games

# With false and lovely modesty

# I can recall the names I'll miss

# In the particle of me

# That cares for this

# I betrayed those little atoms

# With a kiss

# Patience has her virtue still but every grace must have its price

# I, through some felicity,

# May spin a tale of constant vice

# My better nature

# I drowned it in the babbling stream

# I took the blossom of my youth

# And I blew it all to smithereens

# My poor belated chastity

# Fell foul of grown-up games

# With false and lovely modesty

# I can recall the names I'll miss

# In the particle of me

# That cares for this

# I betrayed those little atoms

# With a kiss

# And if you still don't like my song

# Then you can just go to hell

# I don't care if I'm right or wrong

# Or if my typewriter can spell

# But I cannot promise you

# I've said goodbye to childish things

# There are still some pretty insults in life

# And such sport is threatening

# My poor belated chastity fell foul of grown-up games

# With false and lovely modesty

# I can recall the names I'll miss

# In the particle of me

# That cares for this

# I betrayed those little atoms

# With a kiss

# And for the sake of clarity

# There are faith hope and charity

# In the particle of me that cares for this

# I betrayed those little atoms

# With a kiss. #

Thank you!

That was a song from my new record,

All This Useless Beauty, called Little Atoms.

We're gonna do a mixture of all kinds of songs tonight.

We'll do songs we just made up this afternoon,

and some songs we've been doing for 20 years, as has been said before.

We thought it'd be fun to play in a way we'd never played before.

We've played this song for 20 years,

and I wrote it on a fire escape in Newcastle, but don't be put off.

You all ready? Yeah?

-AUDIENCE:

-Yeah!

-Here we go!

# I've been on tenterhooks

# Ending in dirty looks

# Listening to the muzak

# Thinking 'bout this 'n' that

# She said that's that

# I don't want to chitter chat

# Turn it down a little bit

# Turn it down flat

# Pump it up

# Till you can feel it

# Pump it up

# When you don't really need it

# Down in the pleasure centre

# Hell bent or heaven sent

# Listen to the propaganda

# Listen to the latest slander

# There's nothing underhand

# But she wouldn't understand

# Pump it up

# Till you can feel it

# Pump it up

# When you don't really need it! #

Yaow!

Yeah!

# She's been a bad girl

# She's like a chemical

# Though you try to stop it

# She's like a narcotic

# You want to talk to her

# You want to talk to her

# All the things you bought for her

# Putting up your temperature

# Pump it up

# Till you can feel it

# Pump it up

# When you don't really need it! Yaow!

# Out in the fashion show

# Out in the bargain bin

# You put your passion out

# Under the pressure pin

# Fall into submission

# Hit and run transmission

# No use wishing now

# For any other sin

# Pump it up

# Till you can feel it

# Pump it up

# When you don't really need it

# Pump it up

# Till you can feel it

# Pump it up

# When you don't really need it

# Pump it up

# Till you can feel it

# Pump it up

# When you don't really need it

# Don't really need it

# Don't really need it

# Don't really need it! #

Yaow!

That's the first time anyone's heard the words of that song in 15 years.

What words they are, too, you know!

Er...

This is also new - called Why Can't A Man Stand Alone?

It's about some of the things guys are taught they need in life -

they're a big burden to them, really.

So they have the world weighing them down...

Then they turn all mean and nasty,

something I wouldn't know anything about(!)

# Why can't a man

# Stand alone?

# Must he be burdened

# By all he is taught

# To consider his own?

# His skin and his station

# His kin and his crown

# His flag and his nation

# They just weigh him down

# You know pride

# Is a sin

# That we tend to forgive

# But it gets hard to live

# When you don't have the love

# In your heart to begin with

# Why can't a man

# Stand alone?

# Why can't a woman

# Be just what she seems?

# Must she be tarnished by men

# Who can only be men in their dreams?

# When beauty meets ignorance

# They shout in the street

# Repeating their offer

# To each girl they meet

# The respect

# That she needs

# It isn't a gift

# But it gets hard to lift yourself up

# When you don't have the strength to begin with

# Why can't a woman

# Stand alone?

# Why can't a baby sleep at night

# And dream of the time to come

# And never fear the world outside

# The touch of someone very near?

# Why can't a man

# Stand up?

# Why can't a man

# Stand up?

# Why can't a man

# Stand alone? #

The Attractions!

Steve Nieve on keyboards!

Bruce Thomas!

Pete Thomas on drums!

# Is it all in that pretty, little head of yours?

# What goes on in that place in the dark?

# Well, I used to know a girl and I could have sworn

# That her name was Veronica

# Well she used to have a carefree mind of her own

# And a devilish look in her eye

# These days I'm afraid she's not even sure

# If her name is Veronica

# Do you suppose that waiting hands on eyes

# Veronica has gone to hide?

# And all the time she laughs at those

# Who shout her name and steal her clothes

# Veronica

# Veronica

# Did the days drag by? Did the favours wane?

# Did he roam down the town all the while?

# Will you wake from your dream with a wolf at the door

# Reaching out for Veronica?

# Well, it was all of sixty-five years ago

# When the world was the street where she lived

# And a young man sailed on a ship in the sea

# With a picture of Veronica

# On the Empress Of India

# And as she closed her eyes upon the world

# And picked upon the bones of last week's news

# She spoke his name out loud again

# Do you suppose that waiting hands on eyes

# Veronica has gone to hide?

# And all the time she laughs at those

# Who shout her name and steal her clothes

# Veronica

# Veronica

# Veronica sits in her favourite chair

# She sits very quiet and still

# And they call her a name that they never get right

# And if they don't then nobody else will

# She used to have a carefree mind of her own

# With a devilish look in her eye

# Saying, "You can call me anything you like

# "But my name is Veronica"

# My name is Veronica

# My name is Veronica

# Do you suppose that waiting hands on eyes

# Veronica has gone to hide?

# And all the time she laughs at those

# Who shout her name and steal her clothes

# Veronica

# Veronica

# Oh-oh-oh

# Veronica! #

For those who haven't met them, let me introduce The Brodsky Quartet.

We're going to do a tricky little number now.

Paul has arranged it. Some of you may recognise it.

# They talked to the sister, the father and the mother

# With a microphone in one hand and a cheque book in the other

# And the camera noses in to the tears on her face

# The tears on her face

# The tears on her face

# You can put them back together with your paper and paste

# But you can't put them back together

# You can't put them back together

# What would you say, what would you do?

# Children and animals two by two

# Give me the needle, give me the rope

# We're gonna melt them down for pills and soap

# Four and twenty crowbars jemmy your desire

# Out of the frying pan

# Into the fire

# The king is in the counting house, some folk have all the luck

# And all we get are pictures of lord and lady muck

# They come from lovely people

# With a hard line in hypocrisy

# There are ashtrays of emotion

# For the fag ends of the aristocracy

# What would you say, what would you do?

# Children and animals two by two

# Give me the needle, give me the rope

# We're gonna melt them down for pills and soap

# Give me the needle

# Give me the rope

# The sugar coated pill is getting bitterer still

# You think your country needs you but you know it never will

# So pack up your troubles in a stolen handbag

# Don't dilly dally, boys, rally around the flag

# Give us our daily bread in individual slices

# And something in the daily rag to cancel any crisis

# What would you say, what would you do?

# Children and animals two by two

# Give me the needle

# Give me the rope

# We're gonna melt them down for pills and soap

# Give me the needle

# Give me the rope

# We're going

# To melt them down for pills and soap

# For pills

# And soap. #

This is the last song in The Juliet Letters.

This is one written by somebody to their lover after they've passed on,

to give them kind of hope to go on...with life.

# Summertime withers as the sun

# Descends

# He wants to kiss you

# Will you condescend?

# Before you wake and find a chill

# Within your bones

# Under a fine canopy of lover's dust

# And humorous bones

# Banish all dismay

# Extinguish every sorrow

# Eternity stinks, my darling

# That's no joke

# Don't waste your precious time

# Pretending you're heartbroken

# There will be tears and candles

# Pretty words to say

# Spare me the lily-white lily

# With the awful perfume of decay

# Banish all dismay

# Extinguish every sorrow

# If I'm lost or I'm forgiven

# The birds will still be singing

# It's so hard to

# Tear myself away

# Even when you know it's over

# It's too much to say

# Banish all dismay

# Extinguish every sorrow

# If I'm lost or I'm forgiven

# The birds will still be singing. #

Thank you!

Thank you very much.

Last year, I arranged a music festival and got lots of people to come and play at it.

We put together a big band, as you can see, with The Brodsky Quartet.

We asked different people to write arrangements.

I wrote a few and invited some other musicians to write arrangements of songs I'd written.

This song we're going to do now was originally composed for the blues singer Charles Brown.

# Upon a veil

# Of midnight blue

# They hung a crescent moon

# To light the view

# But you didn't whisper the words

# When the moment arose

# I wonder how she knows

# Your words escape and hide

# You find your tongue is tied

# But she's so patient and kind

# She's prepared to read your mind

# That's all very well till you find

# Because of the wine you drank

# Your mind is just a blank

# You find your tongue is tied

# Your words escape and hide

# But she's so patient and kind

# She's prepared to read your mind

# That's all very well till you find

# Because of the wine you drank

# Your mind is just a blank

# I wonder how she knows

# I guess she will wonder until

# You pluck up the courage to tell her

# How you feel

# So close you can feel her heart trembling

# You look in her eyes as they close

# I wonder how

# She knows

# I wonder how

# She knows. #

This song is the title track of the new record, All This Useless Beauty.

I wrote it in Italy.

I saw a woman in a picture gallery looking at all these beautiful pictures of classical antiquity.

Her eyes left the wall and came down to her late-20th-century lover.

She had this look in her eyes, like "Where did we go wrong?"

The song is about other things, but that's where it starts.

# It's at times such as this

# She would be tempted to spit

# If she wasn't so ladylike

# She imagines how she might have lived

# Back when legends and history collide

# So she looks to her prince

# Finding since he's so charmingly slumped at her side

# Those days are recalled on the gallery wall

# And she's waiting for passion or humour to strike

# What shall we do?

# What shall we do

# With all this useless beauty?

# All this useless beauty

# Good Friday arrived

# The sky darkened on time

# Till he almost began to negotiate

# She held his head like a baby and said

# "It's OK if you cry"

# Now he wants her to dress

# As if you couldn't guess

# He desires to impress his associates

# But he's part ugly beast

# And Hellenic deceased

# So she finds that the mixture is hard to deny

# What shall we do?

# What shall we do

# With all this useless beauty?

# All this useless beauty

# She won't practise the looks

# From the great tragic books

# That were later disgraced to face celluloid

# She won't even make sense

# But you can bet

# If she isn't a sweetheart, a plaything or pet

# The film turns her into

# An unveiled threat

# Nonsense prevails

# Modesty fails

# Grace and virtue turn into stupidity

# While the calendar fades

# Almost all barricades

# To a pale compromise

# And our leaders have feasts

# On the backsides of beasts

# They still think they're the gods of antiquity

# If something you missed

# Didn't even exist

# It was just an ideal

# Is it such a surprise?

# What shall we do?

# What shall we do

# With all this useless beauty?

# All this useless beauty

# What shall we do?

# What shall we do

# With all this useless beauty?

# All this useless beauty. #

The Brodsky Quartet!

The ladies and gentlemen of the orchestra and The Attractions!

Thank you!

# Forever

# Doesn't mean forever any more

# I said forever

# But it doesn't look like

# I'm going to be around much any more

# When the heat gets subtropical

# And the talk gets so topical

# Riot act

# You can read me the riot act

# You can make me a matter of fact

# Or a villain in a million

# A slip of the tongue is gonna keep me civilian

# Why do you talk such stupid nonsense

# When my mind could rest much easier

# Instead of all this dumb, dumb insolence

# I would be happier with amnesia

# They say

# Forget her

# Now it looks like you're either gonna be

# Before me or against me

# I got

# Your letter

# Now they say I don't care

# For the colour that it paints me

# Trying to be so bad is bad enough

# Don't make me laugh by talking tough

# Don't put your heart out on your sleeve

# When your remarks are off the cuff

# Riot act

# You can read me the riot act

# You can make me a matter of fact

# Or a villain in a million

# A slip of the tongue is gonna keep me civilian

# Riot act

# You can read me the riot act

# You can make me

# Riot act

# You can read me the riot act

# You can read me the riot act

# You can read me the riot act

# You can read me the riot act

# You can read me the riot act! #

Yea-ea-eah!

# Well, you know your time has come

# And you're sorry for what you've done

# You should've never been playing with a gun

# In those complicated shadows

# Well, there's a line that you must toe

# And it'll soon be time to go

# But it's darker than you know

# In those complicated shadows

# All you gangsters and rude clowns

# Who were shooting up the town

# When you should have found

# Someone to put the blame on

# Though the fury's hot and hard

# I still see that cold graveyard

# There's a solitary stone

# That's got your name on

# You don't have to take it from me

# But I know of what I spake

# You think you're like iron and steel

# Iron and steel will bend and break

# In those complicated shadows. #

GOD!

# Sometimes justice you will find

# Is just dumb not colour-blind

# And your poor shattered mind

# Can't take it all in

# All those phantoms and their shades

# Should jump up on Judgement Day

# And say to the Almighty

# "I'm still stinking of sin"

# But the jury was dismissed

# They took his neck and gave it a twist

# So you see you won't be missed

# In those complicated shadows

# You can say just what you like

# In a voice like John Ford Finn

# But take the law into your hands

# You will soon get tired of killing

# In those complicated shadows

# Complicated shadows

# Complicated shadows

# Complicated shadows. #

Aiii!

# Nice girls not one with a defect

# Cellophane shrink-wrapped so correct

# Red dogs under illegal legs

# She looks so good that he gets down and begs

# She is watching the detectives

# Ooh, he's so cute

# She is watching the detectives

# Oh, then they shoot

# Shoot

# Shoot

# Shoot

# They beat him up until the teardrops start

# But he can't be wounded when he's got no heart

# When he's got no heart

# Long shot of that jumping sign

# Visible shivers running down my spine

# Cut to the baby taking off her clothes

# Close-up of the sign that says We Never Close

# You snatch a tune and match your cigarette

# She pulls the eyes out with a face like a magnet

# Don't know how much more of this I can take

# She's filing her nails while they're dragging the lake

# She is watching the detectives

# Ooh, he's so cute

# She is watching the detectives

# Ooh, and they shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot

# They beat him up until the teardrops start

# But he can't be wounded when he's got no heart

# He's got no heart

# You think you're alone until you realise you're in it

# Now fear is here to stay, love is here for a visit

# They call it instant justice

# When it's past the legal limit

# Someone's scratching at the window

# I wonder who is it

# The detectives come to check if you belong to the parents

# Who are ready to hear the worst about their daughter's disappearance

# It nearly took a miracle to get you to stay

# It only took my little fingers to blow you away

# Just like watching the detectives

# Ooh, he's so cute

# Just like watching the detectives

# I get so angry when the teardrops start

# But he can't be wounded when he's got no heart

# He's got no heart

# Just like watching the detectives

# Just like watching the detectives

# Just like watching the detectives. #

# I want to vanish

# This is my fondest wish

# To go where I cannot be captured

# Laid on a decorated dish

# Even in splendour

# This curious fate

# Is more than I care to surrender

# Now it's too late

# Whether in wonder

# Or indecent haste

# You arrange the mirrors and the spools

# To snare the rare and precious jewels

# That were only made of paste

# If you should stumble

# Upon my last remark

# I'm crying in the wilderness

# I'm trying my best to make it dark

# How can I tell you

# I'm rarer than most

# I'm certain as a lost dog

# Pondering a signpost

# Whether in wonder

# Or indecent haste

# You arrange the mirrors and the spools

# To snare the rare and precious jewels

# That were only made of paste

# I want to vanish

# This is my last request

# I've given you the awful truth

# Now give me my rest. #

Subtitles by BBC Subtitling 1996