Mojo, May 2002: Difference between revisions
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'''A:''' I'd sung a lot of ballads and I was in a mood to make a noise. It probably is the antithesis. It was a lot of fun to do the pop star thing around She, but that song isn't really close to my heart. I was very fond of the record I did with Burt Bacharach, but the concentration of doing those very elaborate compositions only makes the 'free' way of playing seem more attractive. That's why I thrive on the variety of things that I work on. Some people think they're an aside to what I should be doing. That's just people being over-sentimental about the late '70s. | '''A:''' I'd sung a lot of ballads and I was in a mood to make a noise. It probably is the antithesis. It was a lot of fun to do the pop star thing around She, but that song isn't really close to my heart. I was very fond of the record I did with Burt Bacharach, but the concentration of doing those very elaborate compositions only makes the 'free' way of playing seem more attractive. That's why I thrive on the variety of things that I work on. Some people think they're an aside to what I should be doing. That's just people being over-sentimental about the late '70s. | ||
'''Q:''' In the first song on the album, 45, are you the nine-year-old boy, born in 1954? | '''Q:''' In the first song on the album, "45," are you the nine-year-old boy, born in 1954? | ||
'''A:''' I am. I wrote that on my 45th birthday. It was kind of like, Well, I've got this far! I always liked the sound of 45. It's a mythic number, isn't it? The 45 record. The 45 revolver. And the year '45 was pretty momentous: the end of hostility, the beginning of the Welfare State and the Utopian outlook. It was written with quite a light heart, that song, and it was really just about the measuring of your life in musical signposts and landmarks. Which we all do, I believe. | '''A:''' I am. I wrote that on my 45th birthday. It was kind of like, Well, I've got this far! I always liked the sound of 45. It's a mythic number, isn't it? The 45 record. The 45 revolver. And the year '45 was pretty momentous: the end of hostility, the beginning of the Welfare State and the Utopian outlook. It was written with quite a light heart, that song, and it was really just about the measuring of your life in musical signposts and landmarks. Which we all do, I believe. | ||
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'''Q:''' There's currently another reissue campaign of your old albums, with new sleevenotes and extra tracks. Why? Are you unhappy with the way your back catalogue has been packaged in the past? | '''Q:''' There's currently another reissue campaign of your old albums, with new sleevenotes and extra tracks. Why? Are you unhappy with the way your back catalogue has been packaged in the past? | ||
'''A:''' My feelings about it change all the time. Somebody would no doubt remind you that I once said I was thinking of burying it all in a landfill and starting again. One of the main reasons for going ahead [with the current reissue programme] is that we did a very good job with the [1994] reissues while we still controlled Demon, but Rykodisc got a lot of credit in America for all the work that was basically done in Brentford. Ryko never did a lick. And they really gave up on trying to present those records to the public after the three easiest-to-sell ones came out. So when I signed a deal with Rhino, we decided to do the job in America properly, and also wrest back some control over the Warner Bros records [from Spike onwards]. I got very demoralised with Warners at the time of ''All This Useless Beauty''. I don't like making a record I care about and finding that nobody even knows it exists because people are too scared to take an advert in a paper in case they get fired for doing it. | '''A:''' My feelings about it change all the time. Somebody would no doubt remind you that I once said I was thinking of burying it all in a landfill and starting again. One of the main reasons for going ahead [with the current reissue programme] is that we did a very good job with the [1994] reissues while we still controlled Demon, but Rykodisc got a lot of credit in America for all the work that was basically done in Brentford. Ryko never did a lick. And they really gave up on trying to present those records to the public after the three easiest-to-sell ones came out. So when I signed a deal with Rhino, we decided to do the job in America properly, and also wrest back some control over the Warner Bros records [from ''Spike'' onwards]. I got very demoralised with Warners at the time of ''All This Useless Beauty''. I don't like making a record I care about and finding that nobody even knows it exists because people are too scared to take an advert in a paper in case they get fired for doing it. | ||
'''Q:''' In which case you must have been outraged when Virgin recently paid Mariah Carey £20 million not to make any more albums for them? | '''Q:''' In which case you must have been outraged when Virgin recently paid Mariah Carey £20 million not to make any more albums for them? | ||
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{{Bibliography text}} | {{Bibliography text}} | ||
Costello's decade of collaborations - McCartney, Brodsky Quartet, Bacharach, Anne Sofie von Otter - produced good diverse stuff, but clearly his solo self was building up a head of steam. When I Was Cruel is bursting with bile and romance, tricky lyrics and tantalising tunes, and finds him practically trampolining with the thrill of messing about with sounds. He uses loads of quiet - often just voice and a drum loop setting up the song - then piles in with big axeman guitars and dirty brass riffs. And still, at bottom, the oomph comes from his writing's fertile intensity, as exemplified by Alibi - seven-minute freak hit, anyone? Relentlessly circling, the insinuating vocal accuses, "Alibi, alibi" at every hackneyed excuse for every weakness until it twists back to the sweet refrain, "I love you just as much as I hate your guts." Costellar. | Costello's decade of collaborations - McCartney, Brodsky Quartet, Bacharach, Anne Sofie von Otter - produced good diverse stuff, but clearly his solo self was building up a head of steam. ''When I Was Cruel'' is bursting with bile and romance, tricky lyrics and tantalising tunes, and finds him practically trampolining with the thrill of messing about with sounds. He uses loads of quiet - often just voice and a drum loop setting up the song - then piles in with big axeman guitars and dirty brass riffs. And still, at bottom, the oomph comes from his writing's fertile intensity, as exemplified by Alibi - seven-minute freak hit, anyone? Relentlessly circling, the insinuating vocal accuses, "Alibi, alibi" at every hackneyed excuse for every weakness until it twists back to the sweet refrain, "I love you just as much as I hate your guts." Costellar. | ||
{{cx}} | {{cx}} |
Revision as of 21:32, 29 April 2013
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