Fresh, March 1989

Bibliography   72 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 UK & Ireland weeklies UK & Ireland magazines UK & Ireland newspapers US newspapers US rock magazines US music magazines US magazines US alternative weeklies European magazines European newspapers Canada  •  Mexico  •  Asia Australia  •  New Zealand South America  •  Africa Blogs  •  Fanzines  •  Books Online publications — Elvis Costello Dave Fanning He's returned to the front line with an album that's been critically acclaimed as the highest musical point in the year to date. Dave Fanning talks to 'a happier man'. "To some extent you plan things in advance and you pretty much have a good idea how your plans are going to work out. Some things disappoint you slightly but, in the main, I was very lucky with this new record — most of the people's contributions bring the songs to life even more. With "Stalin Malone," I was still working on the words and, as you can see from just looking at them, they're not in a very even meter. It wouldn't be the easiest way to sing it 'cos it's a very broken up story. And really what it came down to was that I was going to recite it. But I wasn't happy with my delivery of the recitation — I thought it was distracting from my music — and I wasn't sure that people would play the track more than once. So I figured that I liked the story, I liked the words well enough— maybe it's just a piece of words. It's sorta one of those cases where the words are inspired by the track; I just couldn't make them coexist so I just printed them on the sleeve. Whereas most things are worked out in advance, that was kinda like a workshop aspect of the studio actually coming to my advantage 'cos I've ended up with a piece of music I really love and the story is not going to be remembered as something that intrudes upon this great piece of music. It's just there, two for the price of one. On the question of singing it live, I dunno — I just haven't thought about going out with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band or anybody like that I could conceivably improvise another piece of music that might be more compatible. Maybe that music and those words weren't as compatible as I originally thought and maybe at some future time I'll write another melody that would be compatible. It'll need a very rambling sort of melody for one thing. I thought that the nature of the main figure of "Stalin Malone" would suit a very uneven metered piece like "Stalin Malone." But it didn't actually work out. And particularly since the music part is so strong and I really love the music part of it. In the past people have accused me of having too many words in songs and on albums." Elvis's new album Spike will do nothing to quell the accusations. It's packed with words. So is Elvis. After years of steering clear of the press he's happier than ever to talk, explain and offer opinions on just about anything. In the same hotel where he wrote much of Spike — Dublin's Gresham — we go through 1989's most critically praised album so far, track-by-track. That opening salvo was a description of a song Fresh, March 1989 Dave Fanning interviews Elvis Costello. Images Cover.   Page scans. Page 15 photo. Page 16 photo.