I used to have this friend who was just like the Jack Black character in High Fidelity. We were having an argument about this song, and he insisted that “everything” about Elvis Costello indicated this song was a powerful indictment of hippies and their childlike belief in love and peace. We went back and forth like this for a while, and then I threw down my ace: “Elvis Costello didn’t write it. Nick Lowe did.”
He insisted I was wrong. I wasn’t. (We’re not friends anymore, but from what I hear, he voted for Trump. No big surprise, considering.)
The Kent State Massacre was probably a war crime.
At the very least it was a flagrant violation of the people’s 1st Amendment right to peacefully assemble.