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DJ: Hello Elvis Costello.
EC: Hello, how are you?
DJ: I'm fine. I'm so happy to have you here you have no idea and what we want to do like I said to you before we opened up the microphones is rather than do a regular kind of interview I would love to let you be DJ for an hour. Would you like that?
EC: That's fine by me, yes.
DJ: That's fine by you. How's everything going?
EC: Going really well. Tour's been going very well.
DJ: How many months has it been that you've been on tour now?
EC: Well, we had a bit of a break. We played in Australia and then we had a few weeks off before we came here and I think we're into the 6th week, 7th week of the tour.
DJ: When water goes down the drain in Australia, does it really go the other way?
EC: It does, (laughter) and the moon is upside down, yeah.
DJ: Well, we're going to start off with something from Almost Blue which was actually your request here at NEW-FM. Would you like to introduce the record and maybe we'll talk about it a little later?
EC: Yeah, this is a Gram Parsons song, it's "How Much I Lied"
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DJ: 'That's a hit' is right... and let Elvis tell the story of it. (feedback noise and laughing) Ooh... you can put them on, go ahead I'll turn them down for a sec. Go ahead, put them on, we may as well adjust them now, see we ride the headphones so hot at this station we get feedback. How does that sound?
EC: That sounds fine. Yeah, that was Jerry Lee Lewis on Sun Records. Somebody told me that when they checked with the publisher about the words of that song, they denied all knowledge of his version of the song. They said, 'they weren't the words, he was just making them up!'
DJ: Very risque, the man. Well, he claimed that he knew he was gonna go to hell for playing what he was playing and he was proud of it.
EC: He was having a good go at it, anyway.
DJ: That's right
EC: And uh, before that, "Snatchin' it Back" by Clarence Carter on Atlantic.
DJ: That's excellent, I've got to thank you for bringing that one up. Because I knew that not originally from Clarence Carter but originally from Southside Johnny covering it a couple of years ago on one of his live records and what a hot tune! especially the original.
EC: Yeah, it's a great song, maybe we'll have time to play another Clarence Carter later on.
DJ: Yeah, you're the boos
EC: All right. What happens now?
DJ: Well, what else did we do? e did something from Almost flue and I watched you the other night on David Letterman and I remember, I didn't catch everything you said 'cause you were kind of leaning forward and I didn't catch everything form the microphone, but you said something about - at one point when you were recording the Almost Blue record how people were taking .nit guns and playing with them.
EC: Yeah, they were just playing with them... you know, I think that's part of the thing down there... they have a lot more people carrying guns, and it's a regular kind of thing. And uh, they just got them out one day and said, 'Oh yeah, look at my gun' you know, and it's a bit unnerving... it's just a very different way of life. It was a few things like that that brought home how different it was down there. I got kind of used to life here, you know, and in California, from being here more often than certainly down South, it's a little bit different down there.
DJ: Right...I'll tell you what we have to do. We have to keep paying the bills so we'll run a few commercials and you can pick out the next thing you want to play.
We've switched Elvis's headphones. Sounds a lot better. I know it's redundant, but it's real nice to have you up here. Elvis Costello on NEW-FM - guest DJ for the evening because I know as well as you do that he can do the job better than me even though I do it every day... and he's too shy to admit it! What have you got up next here on the turntable?
EC: Little Willie John - I don't know when this came out, it came out... I think it's got the dates... Ah! I can he real... sort of one of those guys who tell you when it came out. This came out in 1960. In fact, on the 5th of the 6th in 1960 and it got to number 12 in the charts...
DJ: Listen to him!
EC: And it's called "Heartbreak, it's Hurting Me"
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EC: That's the fabulous Impressions. This is Elvis Costello on WNEW. That's the Impressions with "You Must Believe Me" and before that, "Show Me" from the Lexicon of Love album by ABC which has been, until recently, Number 1 forever and ever in England.
DJ: Is that right?
EC: It's been just knocked off the top by Dexy's Midnight Runners new album which is another excellent record I hope you'll be getting over here soon. I really love that ABC record. It's one of my favorites of the year.
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