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This is a scathing attack on Oswald Mosley, a politician who was popular in England at the time. Mosley was the leader of the British Union of Fascists. He died in 1980.
This was Costello's first single. At the time, he had a day job working on a computer at Elizabeth Arden cosmetics.
There is a popular book and a movie with the same title, but this song has nothing to do with it.
American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis named his first novel, the nihilistic, drug-fuelled Less Than Zero after this song. He told the NME August 7, 2010: "Why did I name my first book after an Elvis Costello song? Who knows? I was working on this project starting when I was 16 and it was the Less Than Zero project. I was like most white, upper-class educated boys: I was obsessed with Elvis Costello. That was his main audience in the US. That title seemed very evocative to me. It had various other titles, but Less Than Zero ultimately seemed like the best title for the book, even though I had this much older professor who really loved the book but tried to dissuade me from using that title because he thought it was lame. He suggested Winter Vacation. Elvis Costello became the man for me for very many years. And then he didn't. Which happens, it happens to a lot of people, it's just the nature of things. Very few people sustain massive careers for a long time."
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While her husband rides a bumper in the president's procession.
She's sees him on the screen as she looks up from giving head.
When he's had enough of that her lover throws her on the bed
To teach her she's alive and suddenly he's dead.
Turn up the tv. no one listening will suspect,
Even your mother won't detect it,
No your father won't know.
They think that i've got no respect
But everything means less than zero.
Hey, ooh hey, hey, ooh hey.
Calling mister oswald, calling anyone at the scene,
If you were taking home movies there's a chance you might have seen him.
They've got a thousand variations, every witness in a file.
Jenny puts on some coffee and she comes back with a smile.
She says, "i hear that south america is coming into style."
Chorus
A pistol was still smoking, a man lay on the floor.
Mister oswald thought he had an understanding with the law.
She's got rubies on her fingers, jenny turns and looks away.
Her mind upon a basement out of the usa.
She says, "let's talk about the future now we've put the past away."
I have often heard of it but never found the lyrics anywhere.
On a side note, Oswalds son Max has recently been in the press a lot in the UK as a result of a seedy newspaper "sting" that filmed him roleplaying with prostitutes.
Obviously the title makes sense anyway, but as far as the Elvis Costello song he does mention Elvis Costello a couple of times in the book, if I remember correctly. At least on of the times he mentions a large Elvis poster over the main character's bed...just thought I'd share my view on that