Once in awhile an album or song you’ve owned for awhile winds up surprising you. Maybe you never really gave it a proper listen in the first place or maybe something in you changed in the meantime and you’re somehow hearing it with fresh ears.
Such was the case for me with today’s song, ‘Two Little Hitlers.’ I’ve always considered Elvis Costello’s third album, Armed Forces, among his weakest efforts. Apart from strong singles ‘Oliver’s Army’ and ‘Accidents Will Happen’ and nifty, disturbing little pop song ‘Green Shirt,’ I just haven’t found much to like on the record.
But awhile back in a “best of Costello” forum thread somewhere, I saw a number of references to ‘Two Little Hitlers,’ a track that pops up toward the end of Armed Forces. So I made a point to check it out again, and I’ll be damned, it’s turned into one of my favorite Elvis tracks.
Here’s a song that makes beautiful use of the splendid wordplay for which Costello is known. Just look at some of these lines:
“You have your reservations / I’m bought and sold”
“She’s my soft touch typewriter / And I’m the great dictator”
“You call selective dating / For some effective mating / I thought I’d let you down, dear / But you were just deflating”
Of all the reasons to love Elvis Costello — his melodies, his passion, his versatility, his virtuosity — reason number one for me is the words.
I’m up late pacing the floor
I won’t be told
You have your reservations
I’m bought and sold
I’ll face the music
I’ll face the facts
Even when we walk in polka dots and chequer slacks
Bowing and squawking
Running after titbits
Bobbing and squinting
Just like a nitwit
Two little Hitlers will fight it out until
One little Hitler does the other one’s will
I will return
I will not burn
Down in the basement
I need my head examined
I need my eyes excited
I’d like to join the party
But I was not invited
You make a member of me
I’ll be delighted
I wouldn’t cry for lost souls, you might drown
Dirty words for dirty minds
Written in a toilet town
Dial me a Valentine
She’s a smooth operator
It’s all so calculated
She’s got a calculator
She’s my soft touch typewriter
And I’m the great dictator
A simple game of self-respect
You flick a switch and the world goes off
Nobody jumps as you expect
I would have thought you would have had enough by now
You call selective dating
For some effective mating
I thought I’d let you down, dear
But you were just deflating
I knew right from the start
We’d end up hating
Pictures of the merchandise
Plastered on the wall
We can look so long as we don’t have to talk at all
You say you’ll never know him
He’s an unnatural man
He doesn’t want your pleasure
He wants as no one can
He wants to know the names of
All those he’s better than
I will return
I will not burn
Meet Me In Montauk 
I find it fascinating that your number one reason for loving Costello is the very aspect of his work that most confounds you 🙂 It seems that many of your discussions about his songs include a confession that you’re not sure what he means (and though you don’t say so today, I have no idea what the hell this song is about 🙂
Don’t get me wrong. I agree with you. I love not just Costello’s use of words, but his clear love and admiration of them, He’s like Paul Simon and Sting in that regard. They’re all artists who are unafraid to write about complex ideas, using 25 cent vocabulary words, playing with the figurative possibilities of language and creating lyrical poems time and again. It’s just that I find a some of his lyric poems more obscure than others.
Also, I would add, though this is probably obvious, that it’s the marriage of Costello’s words to his music – sometimes in the most unexpected or surprising ways – that most delights me.
I think there’s a distinction between meaning in the literal sense and the experience great lyrics convey. As I said about one of the songs this week, I don’t know what some of his phrases literally mean, but I feel like I know exactly what he’s saying.
And yes, that experience does owe a lot to the music accompanying the words. But in looking at lyrics alone, apart from the songs as performed, I don’t know that anybody stacks up to Costello.
Another fine Costello selection. I find Armed Forces signficant because it marks the further evolution of Costello from “punk” (which, as we discussed, he never entirely was anyway) to maturing rock/pop artist. I have always put Accidents Will Happen up there with hsi finest songs so, for that one alone, Armed Forces deserves our attention. Oliver’s Army has also been one of my favorites. But some of the lesser known songs foreshadow the Imperial bedroom/King of America type sound that I truly adore–songs like Green Shirt, Party Girl and Chemistry Class.
If I’m not mistaken, this song is about Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe