The second of the political songs on Elvis Costello’s Punch the Clock is a strange track toward the end of the album.

Costello has said that he got the inspiration for the sound of ‘Pills and Soap’ from the rap song ‘The Message’ by Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel. He says of that single, “It was the first rap record that I had encountered that was anymore than an invitation to dance. It spoke about ugly life.”

Now it would have been interesting had Costello been inspired to actually rap on his own record, but alas, we were deprived of (or spared) that experience.

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