Addicted To Noise, April 1, 1997: Difference between revisions
(start page) |
(+archive.org wayback link) |
||
(5 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
Line 2: | Line 2: | ||
{{:Bibliography index}} | {{:Bibliography index}} | ||
{{:Addicted To Noise index}} | {{:Addicted To Noise index}} | ||
{{:US online publications index}} | |||
{{:US publications by state index}} | |||
{{Bibliography article header}} | {{Bibliography article header}} | ||
<center><h3> Warmth | <center><h3> Warmth in cold places </h3></center> | ||
---- | ---- | ||
<center> Greil Marcus </center> | <center> Greil Marcus </center> | ||
---- | ---- | ||
{{Bibliography text}} | {{Bibliography text}} | ||
It was Scott who brought glamour out of the Scottish Vulgate and into fashionable, literary language. The word was a corruption of grammar (itself derived from the medieval gramarye); it meant "a spell." In Elvis Costello's ''Costello & Nieve'' (Warner Bros.) — a box of five short CDs drawn from radio broadcasts of concerts that Costello and longtime collaborator Steve Nieve played in the U.S. in May 1996 — that spell comes down again and again. Songs familiar and obscure, from the very beginning of Costello's career in 1977 to last year's overlooked ''All This Useless Beauty'', take on new faces and new flesh. Between numbers, Costello's stage talk is funny and casual, but nearly all of the performances seem to exist in at least two dimensions simultaneously; they are at once pristine and explosive, reserved and inviting, private and common. | It was Sir Walter Scott who brought glamour out of the Scottish Vulgate and into fashionable, literary language. The word was a corruption of grammar (itself derived from the medieval ''gramarye''); it meant "a spell." In Elvis Costello's ''Costello & Nieve'' (Warner Bros.) — a box of five short CDs drawn from radio broadcasts of concerts that Costello and longtime collaborator Steve Nieve played in the U.S. in May 1996 — that spell comes down again and again. Songs familiar and obscure, from the very beginning of Costello's career in 1977 to last year's overlooked ''All This Useless Beauty'', take on new faces and new flesh. Between numbers, Costello's stage talk is funny and casual, but nearly all of the performances seem to exist in at least two dimensions simultaneously; they are at once pristine and explosive, reserved and inviting, private and common. | ||
Often a performance begins with the feeling that something crucial is being held back. Then it breaks open with a full-throatedness, a cry, or a bet on drama that pays off so completely that only the vaguest sense remains that though what was held back was revealed, it somehow went right over your head. | Often a performance begins with the feeling that something crucial is being held back. Then it breaks open with a full-throatedness, a cry, or a bet on drama that pays off so completely that only the vaguest sense remains that though what was held back was revealed, it somehow went right over your head. | ||
Certainly that's what happens with "Temptation," from Los Angeles, "The Other End of the Telescope," from Chicago, "The Long Honeymoon," from Boston, and "I Want to Vanish," from New York. But this spell, this displacement — this experience of being taken from one place to another, and of both places being made into nowheres — is the whole story of "My Dark Life," from San Francisco. | Certainly that's what happens with "Temptation," from [[Concert 1996-05-14 Los Angeles|Los Angeles]], "The Other End of the Telescope," from [[Concert 1996-05-18 Chicago|Chicago]], "The Long Honeymoon," from [[Concert 1996-05-20 Boston|Boston]], and "I Want to Vanish," from [[Concert 1996-05-22 New York (early)|New York]]. But this spell, this displacement — this experience of being taken from one place to another, and of both places being made into nowheres — is the whole story of "My Dark Life," from [[Concert 1996-05-15 San Francisco|San Francisco]]. | ||
It's seven minutes, thirteen seconds of the twenty-six-minute, fifty-one-second San Francisco disc — typical for the set, one disc for each city — but the song sucks you into it and then gets you lost so quickly it might be describing not an incident but a lifetime. It's like a map of miasma. "My Dark Life" (a studio version was released last year on the suitably weird and inspired ''X-Files'' tribute album, ''Songs in the Key of X'') is here sung and played so slowly — sometimes so slowly that the song and its unclear but disturbing story seem to almost unravel, sometimes so slowly that each word and pause can signify the whole of what's being said — that you lose your sense of place or time. Yet the way Costello sings the title phrase, "My dark life..." which always slides away from the listener, the words have a strange lilt in them, a bounce that doesn't return to the ground of music, that stays in the air, and that lilt always calls the listener back to something he or she would probably just as soon not know about. There's an echo of Costello's little horror movie of a song "I Want You" in "My Dark Life," but the threat is far less obvious: It doesn't stab, it floats. | It's seven minutes, thirteen seconds of the twenty-six-minute, fifty-one-second San Francisco disc — typical for the set, one disc for each city — but the song sucks you into it and then gets you lost so quickly it might be describing not an incident but a lifetime. It's like a map of miasma. "My Dark Life" (a studio version was released last year on the suitably weird and inspired ''X-Files'' tribute album, ''Songs in the Key of X'') is here sung and played so slowly — sometimes so slowly that the song and its unclear but disturbing story seem to almost unravel, sometimes so slowly that each word and pause can signify the whole of what's being said — that you lose your sense of place or time. Yet the way Costello sings the title phrase, "My dark life..." which always slides away from the listener, the words have a strange lilt in them, a bounce that doesn't return to the ground of music, that stays in the air, and that lilt always calls the listener back to something he or she would probably just as soon not know about. There's an echo of Costello's little horror movie of a song "I Want You" in "My Dark Life," but the threat is far less obvious: It doesn't stab, it floats. | ||
Line 24: | Line 26: | ||
{{cx}} | {{cx}} | ||
This column, originally published in ''Interview'', is reprinted courtesy of that publication. | This column, originally published in ''[[Interview magazine, March 1997|Interview]]'', is reprinted courtesy of that publication. | ||
{{Bibliography notes header}} | {{Bibliography notes header}} | ||
Line 31: | Line 33: | ||
'''Addicted To Noise, April 1, 1997 | '''Addicted To Noise, April 1, 1997 | ||
---- | ---- | ||
[[Greil Marcus]] reviews ''[[Costello & Nieve]]'' | [[Greil Marcus]] reviews ''[[Costello & Nieve]]''. <br><span style="font-size:92%"> (reprinted from ''[[Interview magazine, March 1997|''Interview'']]''; also reprinted in the [[:File:1999 Japan tour program 15.jpg|1999 Japan tour program]]) </span> | ||
{{Bibliography | {{Bibliography images}} | ||
[[image:Costello & Nieve album cover.jpg|180px|border|link=Costello & Nieve]] | |||
<br><small></small> | |||
{{Bibliography notes footer}} | {{Bibliography notes footer}} | ||
Line 40: | Line 45: | ||
==External links== | ==External links== | ||
*[https://web.archive.org/web/19991001112625/http://www.addict.com/html/lofi/Columns/Days_Between_Stations/304/ archive.org] | |||
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addicted_To_Noise Wikipedia: Addicted To Noise] | *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addicted_To_Noise Wikipedia: Addicted To Noise] | ||
*[http://www.elviscostello.info/articles/a-c/addicted_to_noise.970401a.html elviscostello.info] | *[http://www.elviscostello.info/articles/a-c/addicted_to_noise.970401a.html elviscostello.info] |
Latest revision as of 09:34, 26 July 2019
|