Shipbuilding

Written during the Falklands War of 1982, the lyric points to the irony of war bringing prosperity back to shipbuilding areas such as Clydeside, Merseyside, the North East and Belfast, which built replacement ships while sending their sons to fight in them. Langer had written the tune for Robert Wyatt and played it to Costello at a party hosted by Nick Lowe. Within days Costello produced what he called the best lyrics he had ever written. The working title was "Ten to Nine".

Wyatt's version came out on Rough Trade on 20 August 1982, with Costello producing and singing backing vocals, Mark Bedford of Madness on double bass, Nieve on piano and Langer on organ. It failed to chart at first, then reached number 35 in the UK when reissued on 22 April 1983, the first UK top 40 entry for Rough Trade. Costello recorded his own version for Punch the Clock in early 1983, with Chet Baker on trumpet. NME writers voted the Wyatt single their third favorite song of 1982. Trouser Press called it as subtle and insightful an anti-war song as anyone had written.

Live and covers

Setlist.fm logs 260 performances. Suede, Tasmin Archer, Graham Coxon, June Tabor, the Unthanks, Hue and Cry and the Bad Shepherds have recorded it, and Archer's version was a UK top 40 hit in 1994. In September 2013 Costello and the Roots released "Cinco Minutos con Vos", an answer song told from the Argentinian side of the conflict.