Song · Robert Wyatt
“Shipbuilding” by Robert Wyatt
Released 1982
“Shipbuilding” by Robert Wyatt appears on 2 radio countdowns from 1 station between 1982 and 2000. It was first released in 1982. Its best result is #2 on the John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1982. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #8 alternative song of 1982, #4,501 alternative song of all time and #459 of the '80s.
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"Shipbuilding" is an Elvis Costello lyric set to music by Clive Langer, and Robert Wyatt's single, released on Rough Trade in August 1982, gave it the voice it needed. Costello wrote the words during the Falklands War that year, and they cut both ways: the fighting brings work back to the old shipbuilding towns of Clydeside, Merseyside, the North East and Belfast, building new vessels to replace the ones going down, while the same towns send their sons off to crew them and maybe die in them.
Wyatt's fragile, unshowy reading made that bitter irony land. The record went nowhere at first, and only became a hit when it was put out again eight months on, timed to the first anniversary of the war. The critic Robert Sandall reckoned Wyatt's the finest of all the versions.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | 2 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1982 | 50 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 11 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (2000) | 50 |
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