London Guardian, June 23, 1979: Difference between revisions
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His criterion for a good song is not that it is original but that it moves the listener — if only to disgust. More and more of what he hears nowadays fails even to do that. Happy to resort to cliche, he complains that they don't write 'em like they used to — certainly not like Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers, who were as great in their own way as Cole Porter was in his. His own taste is for simplicity — strong melodies with the ragged edges showing. "So many records now sound as if they were made by machines, they're so polished. I like records where you can just see the joins — that sound like human beings have been in there making the noise. And it's convenient. I do like records like that because I am so lazy basically that I can't be bothered to do take after take when I'm recording myself; I can only play or hear anything two or three times before I'm sick of it." | His criterion for a good song is not that it is original but that it moves the listener — if only to disgust. More and more of what he hears nowadays fails even to do that. Happy to resort to cliche, he complains that they don't write 'em like they used to — certainly not like Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers, who were as great in their own way as Cole Porter was in his. His own taste is for simplicity — strong melodies with the ragged edges showing. "So many records now sound as if they were made by machines, they're so polished. I like records where you can just see the joins — that sound like human beings have been in there making the noise. And it's convenient. I do like records like that because I am so lazy basically that I can't be bothered to do take after take when I'm recording myself; I can only play or hear anything two or three times before I'm sick of it." | ||
His | His new album, ''Labour of Lust'', is as uncomplicated as one could wish — a straight-forward collection of rock and roll and country songs, different from the last in both its greater sense of musical continuity and its absence of what Lowe calls "in-crowd clever-dickery" — typified on ''Jesus of Cool'' by a song about a Hollywood actress being devoured by her pet dog. Lowe received all manner of letters about people losing limbs and being decapitated by railway trains as a result of that, which he thought a bit much, not to mention being rather old hat. "I wanted to get away from all that sort of thing." he explains. "just be a dull old fart again, simply because no one was expecting it. I do like being out of phase, for my own pride if nothing else. | ||
The jokey cleverness which Stiff were responsible for injecting into the music business has now become a tiresome cliche, be says. Worse, the new generation of rock musicians have started believing their own publicity, taking themselves seriously and raising the spectre of Art — a word Lowe actually cringes when he uses. "Really, when I hear people trotting out all that 'genius is pain' stuff it makes me sick, because they all started in the village hall whacking away at the top-10. Patti Smith and all these people just need a good clip round the ear basically. | The jokey cleverness which Stiff were responsible for injecting into the music business has now become a tiresome cliche, be says. Worse, the new generation of rock musicians have started believing their own publicity, taking themselves seriously and raising the spectre of Art — a word Lowe actually cringes when he uses. "Really, when I hear people trotting out all that 'genius is pain' stuff it makes me sick, because they all started in the village hall whacking away at the top-10. Patti Smith and all these people just need a good clip round the ear basically. | ||
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<br><small>Photo by [[Frank Martin]].</small> | <br><small>Photo by [[Frank Martin]].</small> | ||
<small>Page scan.</small><br> | |||
[[image:1979-06-23 London Guardian page 10.jpg|x120px|border]] | [[image:1979-06-23 London Guardian page 10.jpg|x120px|border]] | ||
{{Bibliography notes footer}} | {{Bibliography notes footer}} | ||
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*[http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2013/jan/09/elvis-costello-album-review-1979-archive Guardian.co.uk] | *[http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2013/jan/09/elvis-costello-album-review-1979-archive Guardian.co.uk] | ||
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Guardian Wikipedia: London Guardian] | *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Guardian Wikipedia: London Guardian] | ||
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick_Brown_(journalist) Wikipedia: Mick Brown (journalist)] | |||
{{DEFAULTSORT:London Guardian 1979-06-23}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:London Guardian 1979-06-23}} |
Revision as of 18:38, 14 January 2020
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