Released in 1988
...This Town...
Written by Declan MacManus / Elvis Costello
Last updated on May 4, 2019
Released in 1988
Written by Declan MacManus / Elvis Costello
Last updated on May 4, 2019
Album This song officially appears on the Spike Official album.
Timeline This song was officially released in 1988
Officially appears on Spike
“…This Town…” is a song from Elvis Costello which Paul McCartney plays his Rickenbacker bass on. It appears on the 1989 album “Spike” from Elvis Costello, which also contains Veronica & Pads, Paws and Claws, two songs co-written by Elvis Costello & Paul. It was also released as a single but missed both of the main singles chart in UK & US.
That Charlie Sedarka was a-playing the piano like he was pawing a dirty book
He bit a hole in his big bottom lip and gave his very best little boy look
It was a song with a topical verse which I’m afraid he then proceeded to sing
Something about the moody doomed love of the Fish-Finger King
You’re nobody in this town
You’re nobody in this crowd
You’re nobody till everybody in this town knows you’re poison
Got your number, knows it must be avoided
You’re nobody till everybody in this town thinks you’re a bastard
Mr. Getgood moved up to Self-Made Man Row
Though he swears that he’s the salt of the earth
He’s so proud of the “kick-me-hard” sign that they hung on his back at birth
He said “I appreciate beauty, if I have one, then it’s my fault”
“Beauty is on my pillow, beauty is there in my vault”
The girl with the eternity rock went down on her bookie to buy some stock
Now all the signs in the shopping arcades
Say “The corporation thief is the new Jesse James”
Her clothes and her attention were scant
Her eyes were everywhere, her eyes were like absinthe
The little green figures that dance on your screen
Say everything you want to hear and nothing they mean
They made love while she was changing her dress
She wiped him off, she wiped him out and then she made him confess
A little amused by the belief in her power
You must remember this it was the fetish of the hour
You’re nobody in this town…
Official album • Released in 1989
4:31 • Studio version • A
Paul McCartney : Rickenbacker bass Elvis Costello : Acoustic guitar, Gretch, Melodica, Organ, Piano, Producer, Rickenbacker 6-string, Spider guitar, Tambourine, Vocals Jim Keltner : Extra snare drum Kevin Killen : Producer T Bone Burnett : Acoustic guitar, Producer Ralph Forbes : Electric drums Michael Blair : Bells, Glockenspiel Cait O'Riordan : Lunge maracas Roger McGuinn : Rickenbacker 12-string guitar
Recording : 1988 • Studio Ocean Way, Los Angeles & AIR Studios, London
Official album • Released in 1989
3:50 • Demo • B
Elvis Costello : Guitars, Percussion, Piano, Vocals
Recording : Feb 16, 1988 • Studio Eden Studios, London
Paul McCartney has never played this song in concert.
Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989
With 25 albums of pop music, 5 of classical – a total of around 500 songs – released over the course of more than half a century, Paul McCartney's career, on his own and with Wings, boasts an incredible catalogue that's always striving to free itself from the shadow of The Beatles. The stories behind the songs, demos and studio recordings, unreleased tracks, recording dates, musicians, live performances and tours, covers, events: Music Is Ideas Volume 1 traces McCartney's post-Beatles output from 1970 to 1989 in the form of 346 song sheets, filled with details of the recordings and stories behind the sessions. Accompanied by photos, and drawing on interviews and contemporary reviews, this reference book draws the portrait of a musical craftsman who has elevated popular song to an art-form.
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