Melody Maker, June 24, 1989

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Melody Maker

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Glastonbury Festival


Simon Reynolds and Paul Lester

Last weekend, an estimated 100,000 people endured sunburn, fast food and bad drugs to attend Glastonbury's annual CND Festival featuring Elvis Costello, Van Morrison, The Waterboys, All About Eve, Suzanne Vega, Hothouse Flowers, The Wonder Stuff, Throwing Muses, The Pixies and ... uh ... Donovan. Simon Reynolds and Paul Lester report from Patchouli Heaven.


Extract:

What can Elvis Costello possibly do to shake himself and us up, these days? He's been through the mill: he's gone country, done soul, done orchestration, done Dylan, done folk, mixed 'em all up. His research for unlikely scissions, unprecedented grafts, new turns to the art of trad songcraft, is resulting in some desperately minor tinkerings ("Chewing Gum" on the new album, has a tuba playing the role of funk bass). Lyrically, his fave topics — bread and circuses ("Pills And Soap," "Chewing Gum"), infidelity ("I Want You," "Baby Plays Around"), the waste of war ("Shipbuilding," "Any King's Shilling"), have been run into the ground. Every vocal inflection and lyrical trope, cadence or pun feels deja vu.

Tonight, Costello's gambit in the self-renewal stakes is stripping away the embellishments to get of the bare soul and acoustic bones of his songbook. "Just me and you," he tells the crowd. And yes, yes, he plays with a frightening sense of self-belief, displays a rare sanity and candour, the audience were in the palm of his hand... But somehow the sheer span of his work and enormity of his presence have become oppressive; the clotted, coagulated, garrulous lyrics reflect in miniature the broader problem of Elvis Costello's busy-ness, his attempt to comprehend all aspects of pop (and non-pop) music, leave no stone unturned and his mark on everything.

Even his attempts at "simplicity" just seem like another facet to his damnable, all-accounting versatility. Am I alone in feeling nauseous not just at the prospect of another 30 years of Costello albums, but at the thought of the 50 or so songs he writes for each LP that never make it onto vinyl; songs that, unheard as they are, still somehow add subliminally to the indigestible bulk of his oeuvre, just by being alluded to. Is there to be no end to Costello?

It's been three years, but it still feels like a premature return. What Elvis Costello should do is impose a 10 year moratorium on himself, wait until maybe the next century before unstopping the floodgates of his fecundity.

And while we're on this totalitarian train of thought, have you spotted the common denominator behind the Festival's pantheon of crap. Got it? I suppose a 10 year period in which anyone with more than a quarter Irish or Gaelic blood in their veins be barred from making pop music, as a reprisal for the Celtic sins of vagary, hoarse bluster and sentiment.

— Simon Reynolds


Tags: Glastonbury FestivalWorthy FarmPiltonVan MorrisonThe WaterboysSuzanne VegaBob DylanChewing GumPills And SoapI Want YouBaby Plays AroundShipbuildingAny King's Shilling

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Melody Maker, June 24, 1989


Simon Reynolds and Paul Lester report on the Glastonbury Festival, June 17, 1989, Worthy Farm, Pilton, England.

Images

1989-06-24 Melody Maker page 29.jpg 1989-06-24 Melody Maker page 30.jpg 1989-06-24 Melody Maker page 31.jpg
Page scans.

Photo by Stephen Sweet.
1989-06-24 Melody Maker photo 01 ss.jpg


Cover.
1989-06-24 Melody Maker cover.jpg

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