Elvis Costello Information Service, October 1985: Difference between revisions
m (formatting) |
(add remaining transcribed text and tags) |
||
| (2 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
| Line 3: | Line 3: | ||
{{:ECIS index}} | {{:ECIS index}} | ||
{{Bibliography article header}} | {{Bibliography article header}} | ||
<center><h3> Janice Long, 15-5-1985 </h3></center> | <center><h3> Janice Long, 15-5-1985 </h3></center> | ||
---- | ---- | ||
<center> | <center> transcription by Gillian Clark </center> | ||
---- | ---- | ||
'''Part two of the Radio One programme. | '''Part two of the Radio One programme. | ||
{{Bibliography text}} | {{Bibliography text}} | ||
That's "Strange Combination" by T{{nb}}Bone Burnett. That's a … he's a man whose gates are just walking cubisms and whose conversation slips from mutilation to art school with symbolic ease – he's also related to me, he's my brother, those two remember that, who toured with me earlier, earlier in the century, twice last year in fact, in America and again in England, so some English people will have seen him and er through the discotheques of Switzerland and some other European countries. | |||
''Are you going to continue working with him? | ''Are you going to continue working with him? | ||
Er, yes, in two shapes or forms. | Er, yes, in two shapes or forms. There's a shadowy duo who are putting out a record in, I think at the end of June, or maybe earlier that that, called the Coward Brothers, a song called "The People's Limousine" which is either the next Imp release or The Men They Couldn't Hang's "Ironmasters" is the next Imp release, it's just a question of erm whether we can afford enough plastic for both records, er, and then there is some vague possibility of recording the next album in Paraguay with him at the end of the year – or no with a Parakeet, sorry it's just a (laughs). | ||
''Are you a great Sam Cooke fan Mr. Costello? | ''Are you a great Sam Cooke fan Mr. Costello? | ||
Yeah, yeah I am. Again I had another of these wonderful things where people slip tapes into your hands in dark alleys and say listen to this and sometimes though there are people crooning, | Yeah, yeah I am. Again I had another of these wonderful things where people slip tapes into your hands in dark alleys and say listen to this and sometimes though there are people crooning, y'know, saying things like, I'm sorry I would have made this demo better but I couldn't afford a microphone – which has always confused me because how did they get the words on the tape …. y'know. Sometimes I get really good songs and sometimes, as I said before, I get, y'know, tapes that people have made up because they think you're going to be interested in them, which is a really nice thought y'know. Somebody maybe reads somewhere you have an interest in a certain artist and they have a record you may not have heard, and it's really generous, and this is such a record this is the sugar free Sam Cooke and a song called "Lost and Looking." | ||
''The Pogues and | ''The Pogues and "Muirshin Durkin" and before that it was Sam Cooke and "Lost And Looking." How do you find time to listen to music when you're working all of the time? | ||
I | I don't very much actually no. Like I say, I get given tapes a lot when I'm touring and since I haven't been touring I seem to have found enough to occupy my time with working on one thing or another that I'm involved usually with that y'know. I mean that's, that Pogues track was the B-side of 'Brown Eyes' which I produced earlier in the year, that was actually produced by Phil Chevron, so there's a kind of Imp connection there as well – getting it in everywhere! And, y'know, I really don't have that much time. I try to listen, I don't even have time to listen to all the records that come out on Demon, y'know, which is the label I'm associated with. I don't really have any dealing with, y'know, the decisions there but I get all these records mount up in my office and I rarely get time to play through all of them, y'know, just the one, I try, I sort of sit down and listen .. and tapes, I do listen to tapes that are sent to me, I don't just throw them away or anything so between that there isn't a lot of time for listening to records that you actually like yourself. A question of getting up in the morning and sticking on a tape or a record while you're actually doing all the other things that you just do at the start of the day. | ||
''What were the Pogues like, or what are the Pogues like to work with? | [[image:1985-10-00 ECIS pages 28-29.jpg|140px|right]] | ||
''What were the Pogues like, or what are the Pogues like to work with? | |||
They're really good, a lot of this, I think one of the things, one of the traps of a group with a lively, with lively personalities such as they have in the group is that you tend to get a reputation for being outrageous or drunken, y'know. I mean, certainly there's a few of them definitely like a drink, y'know, but it's not the only string to their bow by any means and I wouldn't be working with them if, y'know …I can go and get drunk with anybody if that's what I want to do. I wouldn't be working with them unless I thought they could, they would make really good records, the songs are really good and I think anybody that's got a copy of the "Brown Eyes" record and has read the lyric, it's a really incredible lyric, er, and sometimes people just overlook that, they only see the thing that immediately strikes the eye – which is this kind of lively thing. The minute people hear an accordion and a kind of 2:4 beat like that they start jumping around and doing some sort of hybrid Highland Fling, they imagine it's what they're supposed to do to that kind of music and really, of course that's part of it, the excitement and everything that they generate, but there is a sort of heart to it, y'know, and really good songs inside those, inside – on their first record as well and certainly the record that we're working on at the moment. I never like to talk too much about what's contained on that record but I can assure their listeners and their fans that it's, they have songs that are tough to the core. There's a toughness that you don't, when you don't have to try and nearly everybody that, er, that we've played today has got that quality, no matter how quiet the music is, Sam Cooke's got it, y'know, Aaron Neville's got it – they don't have to try and it's tough to the core and that's what's important, y'know, and we have at least one song, er, that we're working on at, in current, next few weeks and hoping to finish the record in the next few weeks, the second album, which makes 'Brown Eyes', which is a very tough song, sound like 'How Much Is That Doggy In The Window' by comparison, y'know. So they've got some very strong songs that are, I hope that people actually listen to them and still enjoy their kind of wilder side of it – don't get. I'm not saying we're going to make a serious record, it's got the humour and the, everything that's good, y'know. You just go to one of their gigs and you see what's good about them. | |||
''What are you like to work with?'' | ''What are you like to work with?'' | ||
Horrible, | Horrible, I'm an absolute tartar. No, I ….. | ||
''Are you very strict?'' | ''Are you very strict?'' | ||
Well, I just, I | Well, I just, I don't erm. The job is there to be done, er, it's all very well having a party in the studio, but, er, if the next day you get up and the record sounds horrendous, then there's no point in doing it. | ||
''I would imagine that you | ''I would imagine that you don't suffer fools gladly.'' | ||
Well, I | Well, I don't work with any so that's, y'know, either in my own records or in the things that I do. I don't produce many records and er, y'know, I wouldn't work on other people's records unless I have some degree of respect for them. You don't have to think they're the be all and end all to work with people but you've obviously got to have something, some sort of empathy, y'know. | ||
''Ray Charles, brilliant.'' | ''Ray Charles, brilliant.'' | ||
Yeah, well this comes off a record, which is a, was a very influential record I think on a lot of people. I think | Yeah, well this comes off a record, which is a, was a very influential record I think on a lot of people. I think it's from ''The Modern Sounds Of Country Music'' which was a kind of bold step when Ray Charles recorded it, probably nearly twenty five years ago now, or twenty years ago certainly, er, because, y'know, coming from R & B he suddenly did all these country songs or country based songs. This is called "It Makes No Difference Now." | ||
''Wonderful stuff. That's Ray Charles and "It Makes No Difference Now." Before we get on to Agnes Bernelle, erm, do you have any plans to act again, after your Scully appearance?'' | |||
Er, well, I’m in a small role in a film which is just being completed, but I don’t think it’s really my place to mention it too much, but I will say that it involves a skill that nobody thought I had – and it’s not a blue movie. | |||
''Oh, I wondered! You did have me thinking. Can you not even tell us what sort of character it is?'' | |||
No, I think it would be giving away too much. | |||
''Right, and when can we expect to see that?'' | |||
I think it’s going to be this year, but I wouldn’t promise. It’s not, by no means a starring role, but I very much enjoyed doing it and I do say a little bit more than I do in Scully. | |||
''What about theatre, would you like to work in theatre?'' | |||
It never appealed to me really, I only. I did a piece sort of Gala Night thing a couple of years ago where I had just a walk on role playing Susannah York’s sexual fantasy, which was something lots of people would like to do I’m sure! I had to hide in a cupboard and burst out dressed as a Prussian Guardsman. | |||
''Oh yeah!'' | |||
And if you can imagine me in a Prussian Guardsman’s uniform you can imagine how ridiculous that looked! And erm, just the nerves of the people when we were waiting to go on, I think that would be contagious, I don’t think I could stand it. I think I would be on Valium or something by the end of the week, y’know, so it’s never appealed. | |||
''And yet you can do what you do ….'' | |||
I like live shows yeah. But then again when I did acting things such as they are, albeit very briefly, they’re obviously quite, y’know, you still let other people down if you get it wrong. I have no experience of anything like that, I don’t have the same technical control, like I know if I can hit a note on any given night, it it’s a high note I know if my voice is in the shape to hit it, but if I were to be acting I don’t have the training, I don’t know how, how loud my voice is going to get, if I get loud, it could get loud, y’know. I don’t have the same technique down and that takes a lot of learning and you can’t just waltz in there and just do it off the top of your head, it’s really presumptuous and so many musicians make awful fools of themselves trying to do just that, even taking starring roles in films – not mentioning any sort of members of the Rolling Stones or red-headed kind of former R & B singers and spacemen. | |||
''(laughs) Subtle. Erm, from Theatre to Cabaret and Agnes Bernelle.'' | |||
Or from Theatre to Theatre. | |||
''And how did the ….'' | |||
Well back to the top if anybody still with (laughs), if anybody’s still listening out there, from the first thing we played. | |||
''We started ages ago with ‘Chansonette’ by Agnes Bernelle.'' | |||
From ‘''Father’s Lying Dead On The Ironing Board''’ which is, I’m quite obviously proud of this record because it’s the first Imp long-playing release, y’know, so, and erm, it was the kind of project that really couldn’t be done just to, on just a single. ‘Chansonette’ and the single, which is the B-side in fact of the single ‘Tootsies’ er, would just give you an idea of the songs. I mean, really it would take another hour to tell Agnes Bernelle’s story in, to do it justice. She came from Berlin just before the war where her father was an entre not an entrepreneur, an impresario, er, in the theatre, and erm, because she was exiled because of her parentage, being half Jewish, she worked in the sort of exile satiric cabaret during the war and in propaganda radio and then went on to a very varied career in the theatre and in cabaret in the Sixties and then lived in Ireland working at The Abbey and doing radio. Doing one woman shows, doing theatrical roles and also doing one woman shows based around Brechtian material. But she also in the late Fifties, early Sixties translated, or should I say really adapted, strictly speaking re-wrote the lyrics in English of songs by a man named Joachim Ringelnatz and some other songs which became her almost personal repertoire which together with a man named Michael Dress, who wrote the music, created this, y’know, this whole repertoire of her own and she’s continued to do these things. There’ve been, er there was a film made about her in Ireland, she’s done radio shows and so forth, but up until now there had been no proper record of them, no, y’know, sort of where the budget allowed the proper kind of settings to bring the songs to life. They’re very unusual and in the time we have now there isn’t really enough time to tell you all the background, but I do urge people to try and give it a listen. It’s not a happy go lucky, er mindless stuff, it’s, but then on the other hand it’s not pompous, self-important, pious music either. It’s, it comes from a time where the kind of humour and satire was perhaps more subtle and didn’t always have an obvious political point, but I’m sure people will find things in it which they’ll understand today and love, hopefully. And Philip Chevron produced the record, he was the one that brought the record to my attention, working again in his unofficial capacity as the Imp A & R man, and we. Following up the idea of doing Philip’s record ‘Captains And The Kings’ with an orchestra, or with a small string ensemble, we used every kind – well he used every kind – of musical group to bring the songs to life, y’know, in an appropriate way, and on the track we’re going to play in fact we have the 3 Mustaphas 3 who back Agnes on this. | |||
''Agnes Bernelle and ‘Half Knieper’. So what’s next for you because we saw you performing about, what, it must be about three weeks ago now, at [[Concert 1985-04-25 London|The Portland]].'' | |||
Yeah, that was … well that wasn’t me, that was the Pope of Pop. | |||
'' | ''Pope of Pop, sorry''. | ||
It was my other incarnation. | |||
''Yeah.'' | |||
Erm, Cardinal Sin and the Pope of Pop. That’s why my album’s going to be called ‘''The Pope of Pop and His Cardinal Sins''’! I’ve been doing a few … | |||
''How much time do you have to devote to yourself, I mean when you’re looking after so many people, or it seems as though you are?'' | |||
Well, I’m not really. That makes it sound really kind of pompous, y’know. I’m not really looking after anybody, but I’m just doing these things, I mean. I’m just employed to do them but you’ve got to do them with some love and you have to want to do them in the first place to do a good job, y’know. So, erm, for myself, having only made like three appearances, very fleeting appearances, live. I mean this has been a good time for me to get my breath back from the rigours of touring, y’know, and reconsider how I might reappear, butterfly-like, later in the year. The main thing I’m doing in the next, for my own career, is that I’ll be going on a tour of Australia. Well the Coward Brothers will be going on a tour of Australia and will re-emerge , hopefully, unscathed from that experience. It’s in a sense I – Australia being the only place left, English-speaking – or sort of English-speaking – where I can play new material and people hopefully will be able to understand me first time off, provided I sing half the songs in Australian, that, y’know, it’s a good. The reason for doing [[Concert 1985-04-25 London|the Pope of Pop gig]] was really it was a great opportunity for me to just play fourteen brand new songs. You see, I don’t often get the opportunity because if I bill it as Elvis Costello and the Attractions we go up there and people expect to hear certain songs. Well perhaps in the future they might be disappointed by expecting certain songs, y’know., I’m going to maybe, y’know. I have no idea what I’ll do next in terms of live performance except I’m going to do this one tour – which, because I want to play Australia solo as I enjoy doing it and I learn a tremendous amount playing solo as I enjoy doing it and I learn a tremendous amount playing solo and particularly with new material. You learn the strengths and weaknesses and you can re-write stuff before going into the studio in the summer and doing an album, and also people should look out for T. Bone Burnett who will be in town in early July and you never know what might happen when he gets here, so er … | |||
''Who knows? Final track Elvis, Mose Allison.'' | |||
I think this is the most appropriate song I could have possibly picked considering the amount I’ve been talking, and I think some of the things I’ve been saying. So we won’t dedicate this to any of the people that are on the radio during the day. It’s called ‘Your Mind Is On Vacation, But Your Mouth Is Working Overtime’. | |||
''It’s been a pleasure.'' | |||
{{cx}} | {{cx}} | ||
{{tags}}[[T | |||
{{tags}}[[T Bone Burnett]] {{-}} [[The Coward Brothers]] {{-}} [[The People's Limousine]] {{-}} [[Sam Cooke]] {{-}} [[The Pogues]] {{-}} [[A Pair Of Brown Eyes]] {{-}} [[Philip Chevron|Phil Chevron]] {{-}} [[Demon|Demon Records]] {{-}} [[Ray Charles]] {{-}} [[Agnes Bernelle]] {{-}} [[Scully]] {{-}} [[The Rolling Stones]] {{-}} [[Choka-Doobie Club|Portlands]] {{-}} [[The Pope Of Pop]] {{-}} [[:Category:1985 Australia-New Zealand Tour|Australian Tour]] {{-}} [[The Attractions]] {{-}} [[Mose Allison]] {{-}} [[Your Mind Is On Vacation]] | |||
{{cx}} | {{cx}} | ||
| Line 67: | Line 114: | ||
}} | }} | ||
'''ECIS, No. 23, October 1985 | '''ECIS, No. 23, October 1985 | ||
---- | ---- | ||
[[Gillian Clark]] transcribes Elvis Costello's ''Janice Long Show'' interview, Wednesday, [[Radio 1985-05-15 Janice Long|May 15, 1985]], BBC Radio 1, London (part two). | [[Gillian Clark]] transcribes Elvis Costello's ''Janice Long Show'' interview, Wednesday, [[Radio 1985-05-15 Janice Long|May 15, 1985]], BBC Radio 1, London (part two). | ||
| Line 74: | Line 119: | ||
{{Bibliography images}} | {{Bibliography images}} | ||
[[image:1985-10-00 ECIS cover.jpg|320px | [[image:1985-10-00 ECIS cover.jpg|320px]] | ||
<br><small>Cover.</small> | <br><small>Cover.</small> | ||
[[image:1985-10-00 ECIS page 27.jpg| | |||
[[image:1985-10-00 ECIS page 27.jpg|380px]] | |||
<br><small>Page scans.</small> | |||
[[image:1985-10-00 ECIS pages 28-29.jpg|380px]] | |||
[[image:1985-10-00 ECIS pages 30-31.jpg|380px]] | |||
[[image:1985-10-00 ECIS page 32.jpg|380px]] | |||
<br><small>Page scans.</small> | |||
{{Bibliography notes footer}} | {{Bibliography notes footer}} | ||
Latest revision as of 20:50, 28 December 2021
|
