Village Voice, December 26, 1977: Difference between revisions
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{{:Village Voice index}} | {{:Village Voice index}} | ||
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<center><h3> Elvis Costello's not so angry anymore </h3></center> | <center><h3> Elvis Costello's not so angry anymore </h3></center> | ||
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But, while I admire Costello's skills, I'm uneasy about what he does with them: There's something oppressive about his music. When I first heard his album — released in Britain six months ago — I thought my tetchy response was too subjective to make critical sense: Maybe I was just jealous that such an ambitious rock intellectual had made it. But the first time I saw him perform, 15 miles from my home in England, in late October, my uneasiness grew. | But, while I admire Costello's skills, I'm uneasy about what he does with them: There's something oppressive about his music. When I first heard his album — released in Britain six months ago — I thought my tetchy response was too subjective to make critical sense: Maybe I was just jealous that such an ambitious rock intellectual had made it. But the first time I saw him perform, 15 miles from my home in England, in late October, my uneasiness grew. | ||
My immediate problem | My immediate problem was with Costello's image. His name and pose suggest a joke: Here was this week on stage, acting the star, calling himself Elvis. How ridiculous! But this was not how Costello saw himself. He took himself entirely seriously, bristled with self-righteousness. Faced with the person and not the image, my sense of the ridiculous faltered. Costello was grim: his frustrations — physical or otherwise — were no laughing matter. | ||
Costello himself has always been explicit about the role of revenge in his work, but what I find disturbing in his songs is not their anger but their fatalism. "Watching the Detectives," greeted in Britain as Costello's masterpiece and added to the U.S. LP, makes his position clear. Using the Jamaican dub mixing techniques in which instruments fade in and out to create an aural dissociation, Costello coldly describes the come-uppance of a girl who was more stuck on TV heroes than on him. In his frustrated, vengeful imagination her absorption becomes literal: She vanishes through the screen, with real detectives looking for her! For Costello her fate is neither funny nor ironic: it is deserved. Yet at the same time it's not really a fate at all, because nothing has really happened — for her, the distinction between TV and reality has dissolved. ''"She's filing her nails while they're dragging the lake"'' — trashy drama merges with trashy life, equally real, equally false. | Costello himself has always been explicit about the role of revenge in his work, but what I find disturbing in his songs is not their anger but their fatalism. "Watching the Detectives," greeted in Britain as Costello's masterpiece and added to the U.S. LP, makes his position clear. Using the Jamaican dub mixing techniques in which instruments fade in and out to create an aural dissociation, Costello coldly describes the come-uppance of a girl who was more stuck on TV heroes than on him. In his frustrated, vengeful imagination her absorption becomes literal: She vanishes through the screen, with real detectives looking for her! For Costello her fate is neither funny nor ironic: it is deserved. Yet at the same time it's not really a fate at all, because nothing has really happened — for her, the distinction between TV and reality has dissolved. ''"She's filing her nails while they're dragging the lake"'' — trashy drama merges with trashy life, equally real, equally false. | ||
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The problem is how to make music out of such loneliness, and it was this problem that Costello hadn't solved when I first saw him. He stood, stone-faced, center stage, as his band, the Attractions, played competent hard-rock backing tracks. Costello's own performance was monotonous and wearing; there was no pace to his show, no movement. The obvious comparison was with Graham Parker, musically and even emotionally similar, but pushed by the Rumour into exhilarating displays of life and faith. | The problem is how to make music out of such loneliness, and it was this problem that Costello hadn't solved when I first saw him. He stood, stone-faced, center stage, as his band, the Attractions, played competent hard-rock backing tracks. Costello's own performance was monotonous and wearing; there was no pace to his show, no movement. The obvious comparison was with Graham Parker, musically and even emotionally similar, but pushed by the Rumour into exhilarating displays of life and faith. | ||
But what I hadn't realized then, what only became clear at Costello's far more satisfying show at the [[Concert 1977-12-13 New York (early)|Bottom Line]] last Tuesday, was that the pub-rock/ Parker analogy was wrong. The Attractions are a teenage rock band. By the time they reached New York the simple-minded organ (courtesy of | But what I hadn't realized then, what only became clear at Costello's far more satisfying show at the [[Concert 1977-12-13 New York (early)|Bottom Line]] last Tuesday, was that the pub-rock/ Parker analogy was wrong. The Attractions are a teenage rock band. By the time they reached New York the simple-minded organ (courtesy of Question Mark & The Mysterians) was out front, Costello had switched from muttered rhythmic strummings to an aggressive punk lead, and the band whipped through their set with no fuss, Ramones-style. | ||
Costello still didn't smile but, for the first time, I heard his anger as a positive as well as a negative emotion — "Alison," for example, was sung with real sensuality, and in a new song, "Radio Radio," he seemed to be attacking specific people rather than the human condition, acknowledging that things may be changeable after all. Costello's individualism is still intense, the audience still doesn't sing along, but he has, pop fan to the last, learned lessons from his punk peers. In any other year, Costello would have remained another clever, selfish, bitter singer/songwriter. But in 1977 musical power in Britain is drawn from collective energy, and Costello, whether he likes it or not, is part of a new rock 'n' roll utopianism. He's going to have to start having some fun soon. | Costello still didn't smile but, for the first time, I heard his anger as a positive as well as a negative emotion — "Alison," for example, was sung with real sensuality, and in a new song, "Radio, Radio," he seemed to be attacking specific people rather than the human condition, acknowledging that things may be changeable after all. Costello's individualism is still intense, the audience still doesn't sing along, but he has, pop fan to the last, learned lessons from his punk peers. In any other year, Costello would have remained another clever, selfish, bitter singer/ songwriter. But in 1977 musical power in Britain is drawn from collective energy, and Costello, whether he likes it or not, is part of a new rock 'n' roll utopianism. He's going to have to start having some fun soon. | ||
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{{tags}}[[Nick Lowe]] {{-}} [[Watching The Detectives]] {{-}} [[Pay It Back]] {{-}} [[Less Than Zero]] {{-}} [[Oswald Mosley]] {{-}} [[I'm Not Angry]] {{-}} [[Blame It On Cain]] {{-}} [[(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes]] {{-}} [[The Attractions]] {{-}} [[Graham Parker]] {{-}} [[The Rumour]] {{-}} [[Bottom Line]] {{-}} [[Question Mark & the Mysterians]] {{-}} [[Alison]] {{-}} [[Radio, Radio]] | |||
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{{Bibliography notes}} | {{Bibliography notes}} | ||
{{Bibliography next | {{Bibliography next | ||
|prev = Village Voice, | |prev = Village Voice, December 12, 1977 | ||
|next = Village Voice, January 23, 1978 | |next = Village Voice, January 23, 1978 | ||
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{{Bibliography images}} | {{Bibliography images}} | ||
[[image:1977-12-26 Village Voice page 55 clipping.jpg| | [[image:1977-12-26 Village Voice page 55 clipping.jpg|380px]] | ||
<br><small>Clipping.</small> | <br><small>Clipping.</small> | ||
<small>Photo by [[Stephanie Chernikowski]].</small><br> | <small>Photo by [[Stephanie Chernikowski]].</small><br> | ||
[[image:1977-12-26 Village Voice photo 01 sc.jpg| | [[image:1977-12-26 Village Voice photo 01 sc.jpg|380px]] | ||
<small>Cover photo by [[Stephanie Chernikowski]].</small><br> | |||
[[image:1977-12-26 Village Voice photo 02 sc.jpg|380px]] | |||
<small>Cover and page scan.</small><br> | |||
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[[image:1977-12-26 Village Voice page 55.jpg|x120px|border]] | [[image:1977-12-26 Village Voice page 55.jpg|x120px|border]] | ||
{{Bibliography notes footer}} | {{Bibliography notes footer}} |
Latest revision as of 20:52, 4 January 2020
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