‘Shipbuilding’ – Robert Wyatt

Jane writes:

I’m doing some study at the moment and during a recent session I was confronted by a picture of a huge superyacht travelling through the dutch canals on its way to seaworthiness testing. I was immediately taken to two places. The North East where ships were built. Ships so big they blocked the sky and light from the terraced houses made tiny in comparison, and of course this track: Shipbuilding.

The song itself was written by Elvis Costello and there are many stories about who and how it might be recorded BUT once Robert had been brought in to sing it seemingly there was no other option. It’s a really understated spell-binding performance and this is the one I first saw on the OGWT (Old Grey Whistle Test) as a teen.

Written in response to the conflict in the Falklands, the song sets out the ever-complex conundrum of the economic benefit of war – replacing the ships lost and the employment that brings – versus the loss of the many men from the same kinds of towns and cities. Men who can never be replaced.

By now you know how much I love an opening line and this song has an absolute corker that sums it all up.

Is it worth it?

It’s not lost on me that it’s around now that we offer our heartfelt respect to all those whose lives have been lost in war. Real men and women, not just numbers. I know, from the stories told within my own family of loss, the pain and agony that war can bring. The young often bearing the brunt. The young taken to task and expecting to be back by Christmas.

It is fair to say then, that the anger I carry about our continued economic reliance on the creation of armaments for others to use to kill, is pretty much off the scale. Our compliance as a society in the death of thousands of people – military and civilian – just by turning a blind eye to where our money is invested, to where our jobs come from, and even who owns the teams in our hallowed game, is indeed a matter of deep, deep pain. Our willingness to throw our metaphorical weight around in international matters to make us look good and putting our own at risk, a distress-causer extraordinaire.

Micah and Isaiah both have passages that foresee a world where swords are turned to ploughshares and spears to pruning hooks. Oh, how that resonates here. Why aren’t we building ships to rescue the desperate and fleeing rather than new fleets of “weapons bearing” ocean-going vessels? Why aren’t we using our economic wealth to support countries in developing stable economies and ensuring people have enough to eat and drink, rather than using it to woo wealthy regimes and persuading them to buy missiles from us. Why aren’t we prepared to do the hard work of negotiation and reconciliation rather than thrive from the spoils of discontent? Why aren’t we giving our surplus medical supplies to the global south rather than stockpiling? (Oh, and while we’re on stockpiling, why do we have 125 operational nuclear warheads when 1 is enough to devastate the planet?).

I’m sure the subtleties could be thrashed out in the pub of an evening or even a chapel bible study group, but for me it boils down to this: EVERY life is precious to God. Every single one. Everyone deserves to live in a world where no-one is

Diving for dear life

When they could be diving for pearls

You can find out more about Robert Wyatt here – https://www.strongcomet.com/wyatt/