Chicago Reader, March 22, 1979: Difference between revisions
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---?-- collectors --?- marketing (the English and American versions of the first two albums included a handful of different tunes, and single releases invariably include unreleased B-sides), and an unrivaled antagonism toward the print-and-television end of the star-making machinery. When he performed on ''Saturday Night Live'', he gave the show's seconds-counting director a coronary by cutting of the scheduled "Less Than Zero" after one verse and brashly leading the Attractions into "Radio Radio" because he thought it more appropriate for an American audience. Music journalists long ago stopped asking for interviews (when a Columbia publicist flew cast coast writers to town for the Aragon date, she had to be sure to house them in a different hotel from the Costello entourage), | ---?-- collectors --?- marketing (the English and American versions of the first two albums included a handful of different tunes, and single releases invariably include unreleased B-sides), and an unrivaled antagonism toward the print-and-television end of the star-making machinery. When he performed on ''Saturday Night Live'', he gave the show's seconds-counting director a coronary by cutting of the scheduled "Less Than Zero" after one verse and brashly leading the Attractions into "Radio Radio" because he thought it more appropriate for an American audience. Music journalists long ago stopped asking for interviews (when a Columbia publicist flew cast coast writers to town for the Aragon date, she had to be sure to house them in a different hotel from the Costello entourage), | ||
What's so funny 'bout this purposefully abrasive approach to career-building is that it has worked in today's Bee Gees world. The difference between Costello and England's other angry New Wave pugs, of course, is that his songs arc resolutely tuneful pieces that owe great and tangible debts to the best pop-rock of the original British Invasion. Consequently, what was significant about his sold-out Aragon appearance wasn't the sheer number of fans, but that many of them were younger rockers who | What's so funny 'bout this purposefully abrasive approach to career-building is that it has worked in today's Bee Gees world. The difference between Costello and England's other angry New Wave pugs, of course, is that his songs arc resolutely tuneful pieces that owe great and tangible debts to the best pop-rock of the original British Invasion. Consequently, what was significant about his sold-out Aragon appearance wasn't the sheer number of fans, but that many of them were younger rockers who previously had tended to reject the new music as attitudizing without attendant showbiz panache. Hard to believe, but the kids still don't know that the Ramones have more intrinsic value than glam-bang bands like Angel. Costello's refusal to become the New Wave's darling has allowed him to walk the line between cult music And mass entertainment, and his recent successes have put him on the brink of combining these heretofore incompatible audiences. | ||
Revision as of 19:06, 14 October 2016
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Photo by Paul Natkin.
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