Først og Sist
An affable, relaxed and very witty Elvis appeared on the talk-show; "First and Last" on Norwegian TV last night. Hosted by Fredrik Skavlan, the weekly show is the singular most popular TV program in Norway, usually watched by 1 million viewers. Mainly because Skavlan tends to invite a mixture of celebs and people who actually has something worthwhile to say.He also lets people finish a sentence, which is not always that common in talk-shows.
Elvis was joined by 40 Norwegian artists who´s releasing a Tsunami-Aid album this Monday, a professor of sociology, a couple of actresses and another professor who´s the new "guru" in child-raising. As I said, a mixed bunch.
The first guest was the professor of sociology, which a newspaper recently deemed one of the most important Norwegian intellectuals in recent times. Skavlan started off by asking him if he regarded some of the other guest on tonight´s show as intellectuals, to which the professor replied; "I don´t know any of the other guests that well, but I´ve always regarded Elvis Costello as a very intellectual artist, because he´s got original ideas and concepts, seems totally unafraid of taking chances, is highly unpredictable and curious. To me, that´s an intellectual person".
They showed brief segment of the "Monkey to man" video, then Skavlan introduced Elvis by saying; "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome THE Elvis Costello" and our boy received a thunderous applause from the studio audience. He started off by quipping that "No primate was harmed while shooting the video...although a couple of bass players might´ve been...."
Skavlan asked him of any Norweigan roots and/or links (sic) and Elvis revealed that his cousin is married to a Norwegian named.. ahem... Sverre. Who is 83 and still runs marathons. He also said that he got a couple of Norwegian friends; "One of whom is a very talented young man named Sondre Lerche, who is going to tour with me in the US later this year", and that his wife is a close friend of Norwgian singer Sissel, who he met backstage, as she´s part of the Tsunami- artists. At this comment, Skavlan says; "Oh, yes, you´re married to that famous Jazz musician/singer Diana Krall", to which Elvis quipped: "Is THAT what she is.. .I´ve been wondering what she did every time she leaves the house..."
Skavlan congratulated him on being nominated for the Grammies and Elvis said that one of the nominations is for a foxtrot. "I´m doing a song in the bio-movie of Cole Porter, called De-Lovely and the song I sing is a foxtrot. So forget the Lambada and the Maccarena....I´m here to bring back the Foxtrot !" He revealed that wearing period-piece clothes in the movie made him look like: "A cross between Herman Göring and a pimp"
He commented on the Tsunami disaster and all the charity gigs that have
followed by stating that he applauded every effort, but he thought the
main thing was following it through, and not just do a concert of a song
and then drop it. He used Band Aid/Live Aid as a case in point where they
actually have done some good over the years by staying with the project.
He seemed a bit ambivalent towards appearing at Live Aid; "The biggest
names doing their hits...." and that he would find it difficult writing
a song to about such disasters. He said that he´d been watching FOX
News and was appalled by people who said that it was an "Act of God....God´s
wrath", and if he would write a song it would probably have been about
challenging these blasphemous views.
He talked a bit about the current tour and the fact that he´s doing lots of his old songs mixed in with the new ones, and used the "Spinning-songbook" tour as a description. "Tonight´s audience at Rockefeller are lucky. We used to have someone from the audience come up and spin a wheel with songs, and then we´d play the song which the wheel stopped at...then we put him or her inside a cage, poking them with hot irons. We stopped doing that..."
The sosciology professor repeated that he regarded Elvis as an intellectual
and Elvis seemed a bit embarrassed about this,but handled it very
elegantly by stating that "There´s not a big race to be the biggest
intellectual in my business...People tend to use descriptions like : A Work
Of Genius, to make things sound exiting, but there are very few people who
I would call genius in pop-music. There are a lot of hard working people,
like myself, though". When you hear the term Concept Album, it conjures
up images of dry-ice, and men in capes singing songs about goblins. But
a concept is just an idea, and of course there are ideas behind my songs"
The conversations drifted towards men and women having mid-life crisis,
and Skavlan asked Elvis if he had gone through such a crisis, but
apparently he hasn´t. "You mean the red sports-car type ? No
I haven´t. Fact is, I´m in better shape than I´ve ever
been"
He then urged the viewers to turn off their TV´s ("After this show, of course....") come on down to Rockefeller and have a good time !!