Live 25 Sep 2009 version
[Elvis Costello (spoken, with music):] Take it down fellas! In 1975 I wrote a song called "Radio Soul". I mean it was about as shameless of a knockoff of a Bruce Springsteen song as you would ever have the misfortune to hear. I thought you actually had to celebrate the music that you loved even though I rarely had it on me in this radio. A couple of years later I got my blood up and reworked the message. The song was now called "Radio Radio"! It got in me in a whole world of trouble. Now this one awful invention is under a sort of ??? front screen and slammed as an insult. This ??? song is not about what station you have dialled in heavy rotation. This is your life! A song won't change your mind, a song can change your heart, your heart can change your mind if you can get over the ???
| Elvis Costello: | Signal fading, listen to what I'm saying |
| Testing, testing | |
| This better be worth all of the breath I'm wasting | |
| Maintaining radio silence from now on | |
| Bruce Springsteen: | One, two, three! |
| Bruce Springsteen: | I was trying to find my way home |
| All I heard was a drone | |
| Bouncing off a satellite | |
| Crushing the last lone American night | |
| Bruce Springsteen: | This is radio nowhere, is there anybody alive out there? |
| This is radio nowhere, is there anybody alive out there? | |
| Bruce Springsteen: | I was spinning 'round a dead dial |
| Just another lost number in a file | |
| Dancing down a dark hole | |
| Just searching for a world with some soul | |
| Springsteen, Costello, and Lofgren: | This is radio nowhere, is there anybody alive out there? |
| This is radio nowhere, is there anybody alive out there? | |
| Is there anybody alive out there? | |
| Bruce Springsteen: | I was driving through the misty rain |
| Searching for a mystery train | |
| Bopping through the wild blue | |
| Trying to make a connection with you | |
| Springsteen, Costello, and Lofgren: | This is radio nowhere, is there anybody alive out there? |
| This is radio nowhere, is there anybody alive out there? | |
| Is there anybody alive out there? | |
| Bruce Springsteen: | I just want to feel some rhythm |
| Elvis Costello: | I just want to feel some rhythm |
| Bruce Springsteen: | I just want to feel your rhythm |
| Elvis Costello: | I just want |
| Nils Lofgren: | I just want |
| Bruce Springsteen: | One, two! |
| Elvis Costello: | Radio is a sound salvation, cleaning up the nation, ??? |
| You better listen to the voice of reason | |
| But they don't give you any choice 'cause they think it's treason | |
| So you better do as you are told | |
| You better listen to the radio | |
| Elvis Costello: | Radio, radio |
| Springsteen and Costello: | Marvellous radio |
| We got Radio | |
| Springsteen, Costello, and Lofgren: | Radio, radio |
| Radio, radio | |
| Radio, radio | |
| Radio, radio |
The above lyrics are for the live 25 Sep 2009 performance of RADIO NOWHERE at Apollo Theater in New York City, NY, during the taping of "Spectacle: Elvis Costello With Bruce Springsteen". The song was played in a full-band arrangement, with Bruce Springsteen, Roy Bittan, Nils Lofgren, and Elvis Costello & The Imposters. RADIO NOWHERE was not performed in full; it was part of a medley that included RADIO SILENCE (snippet, sung by Elvis Costello), followed by RADIO NOWHERE (partial, sung by Bruce Springsteen), followed by RADIO RADIO (snippet, sung by Elvis Costello). The 25 Sep 2009 show was released on the Spectacle: Elvis Costello With... season 2 DVD and Blu-ray in 2011 (read below).
Spectacle: Elvis Costello With... was a television series shown on Sundance Channel in the United States, CTV in Canada, and Channel 4 (season 1) and Sky Arts (season 2) in the UK. The show features intimate interviews between the host, Elvis Costello, and various musical guests intertwined with performances by Costello, the guests, and duets between the two. Its first season consisted of 13 one-hour parts and was screened in 2008-2009. The second season consisted of 7 one-hour parts and was screened in 2009-2010.
Springsteen's episode was broadcast in two segments: the fifth and sixth in the seven-parts-long season 2. The taping took place on 25 Sep 2009 at Apollo Theater in New York City, NY, over the course of a nearly four hours. The first part of Springsteen's episode was aired on 20 Jan 2010 in the United States, 24 Apr 2010 in Canada, and 05 Sep 2011 in the UK. The second aired on 27 Jan 2010 in the United States, 01 May 2010 in Canada, and 06 Sep 2011 in the UK.
Springsteen and Costello were backed by The Imposters, and were joined onstage by Nils Lofgren on acoustic guitar and Roy Bittan on accordion.
Spectacle: Elvis Costello With... (Season 2) was released from Video Services Corp on DVD and Blu-ray on 07 Jun 2011 in the USA and Canada and on 25 Jul 2011 in the UK.
Elvis Costello has been a fan of Springsteen since very early in his career. When asked about some demos of his early seventies band Flip City sounding like early Bruce Springsteen, the English singer-songwriter told Rolling Stone in 2004: "That's who we were copying. When Bruce came to London for 'the future of rock and roll' gigs in 1975, we were like, 'Who are these johnny-come- latelies?' We'd been digging him for years." When in 2000 Vanity Fair asked Costello to name 500 essential albums, he listed four Springsteen albums: The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle, The River, Tunnel Of Love, and The Ghost Of Tom Joad. He also covered Springsteen's BRILLIANT DISGUISE in 1996 and released it as a B-side.
Costello and Springsteen have shared the stage on several occasions. The two first played together in 1987 when they took part in the filming of the TV special Roy Orbison And Friends - A Black And White Night. Springsteen invited Costello to be part of the last of his five 2001 Asbury Park holiday shows. Then the two played The Clash's LONDON CALLING together in 2003 at the 45th Grammy Awards ceremony and Costello made a guest appearance at Springsteen's 07 Nov 2009 concert at Madison Square Garden. Springsteen was Costello's guest on a two-part episode of Spectacle: Elvis Costello With... in 2009.
The above lyrics are not 100% complete or accurate. If you have any corrections, additions, or comments, please contact me via the below form or by email: .
List of available versions of RADIO NOWHERE on this website:
RADIO NOWHERE [Album version]
