Oliver's Army

This song simply put is about Britishpresence around the world, mostly militant. It starts in a British citizen wanting to do good and needing to find a job. "Have you got yourself an occupation" is the British government when they were trying to build up their military force and suggesting young men to go into that field. The chorus, "Olivers Army" is a reference to Oliver Cromwell, but its not specifically talking about the things he did as a person. "And I would rather be anywhere else but here today" signify's the citizen's and Costello's opinion against this militant takeover of the world. In the next verse, they make reference to a place called Checkpoint Charlie on the british wall where there was a lot of military, not british, but military presence. The murder mile can reference to a place in Ireland, OR in upper hackney in London, both fit. "Only takes one itchy trigger" obvious is talking about guns and shootings. "One more widow, one less white nigger", this is talking about their apathetic view towards the military killing, and also using such a strong word, they make reference to unacceptance of different religions and races. In the next verse, basically its talking about different types of groups of people and places. "Hong Kong is up for grabs" is reference to Hong Kong when it was under British rule. Then its talking about other places it could conquer next, such as palestine. Then, "With the boys from the mersey and the thames and the tyne" is just talking about how they could go about conquering places from 3 different major rivers in europe. Then we go back to Britain trying to convince the youth that its a good idea to join the military with "theres no danger, its a professional career." They want to make boys feel grown up. Churchill is the Prime Minister, so of course he is mentioned. Finally, "if you're out of luck, you're out of work we could send you to Johannesburg." is meaning Johannesburg, South Africa, in which the British tried to solidify by sending more and more of their people there, and eventually getting into a war with the people. Theres the long explination.