Nashville Tennessean, September 6, 2007: Difference between revisions
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Few artists can boast as diverse a body of work as Elvis Costello, whose discography leaps from bristling rock to classic country, jazzy pop, intricate orchestral work and elsewhere. | Few artists can boast as diverse a body of work as Elvis Costello, whose discography leaps from bristling rock to classic country, jazzy pop, intricate orchestral work and elsewhere. | ||
And the title of the songwriter's 1977 debut My Aim is True certainly proved prophetic, too, as that diverse aim hast earned Costello not scorn for muddling his legacy but an increasingly vaunted reputation as one of modern rock's great minds. | And the title of the songwriter's 1977 debut ''My Aim is True'' certainly proved prophetic, too, as that diverse aim hast earned Costello not scorn for muddling his legacy but an increasingly vaunted reputation as one of modern rock's great minds. | ||
"Not every record should be the same," Costello says from a Milwaukee stop on wife/jazz star Diana Krall's summer tour, with his almost-9-month-old twin sons Dexter Henry Lorcan and Frank Harlan James cooing in the background. "There are records or groups of songs where you're driven by different impulses." | "Not every record should be the same," Costello says from a Milwaukee stop on wife/jazz star Diana Krall's summer tour, with his almost-9-month-old twin sons Dexter Henry Lorcan and Frank Harlan James cooing in the background. "There are records or groups of songs where you're driven by different impulses." | ||
On Sunday at Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Costello will pull from a broad stock of those records, performing selections from his ballet score Il Sogno and a collection of his non-classical work, joined by the Nashville Symphony. In advance of that show, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer shared the wisdom behind some of those wide-stretching impulses. | On Sunday at Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Costello will pull from a broad stock of those records, performing selections from his ballet score ''Il Sogno'' and a collection of his non-classical work, joined by the Nashville Symphony. In advance of that show, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer shared the wisdom behind some of those wide-stretching impulses. | ||
Don't look down. | Don't look down. | ||
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Follow your muse and don't worry about who's coming with you. | Follow your muse and don't worry about who's coming with you. | ||
"Well, I think I kind of got over that one the first time I came to Nashville (to make 1981 country covers album Almost Blue). I mean, if I'd worried about that then | "Well, I think I kind of got over that one the first time I came to Nashville (to make 1981 country covers album ''Almost Blue''). I mean, if I'd worried about that then... I didn't particularly worry about it then, I just did what I felt and I've been doing it ever since... The people that want to talk down, say what I'm doing working with orchestras, 'Will he just come to his senses and make another ''Armed Forces'',' ignore the fact that you can't go back and make the same record again — people would rightly ridicule you for trying to do that. There is an audience for all these different adventures. They sometimes are a different shape, a different constituency, and that's the way I want it to be. I'm not trying to please all the people all the time. I'm not a megalomaniac. I'm not trying to make the biggest audience possible. I'm quite happy for there to be discreet or overlapping audiences for all these different adventures." | ||
Times, they're always a-changin', but some things stay true. | Times, they're always a-changin', but some things stay true. | ||
"There's less and less records made, records of consequence made anyway. And I'm less and less interested in recording myself — I'm much more interested in performing than I am recording right now. I don't have any plans to record, because it doesn't seem to be a viable business in recording anymore. The format is changing, and it may take a couple of years to settle down. I don't subscribe to the idea that the Internet is everything. It's just something. But I do think that the event of playing music in a concert and one thing being different to the next thing is very exciting still, as it has been for hundreds and hundreds of years. And recorded music has been a brief interlude in that . . . I'd rather play concerts, myself. That's just the way I feel." | "There's less and less records made, records of consequence made anyway. And I'm less and less interested in recording myself — I'm much more interested in performing than I am recording right now. I don't have any plans to record, because it doesn't seem to be a viable business in recording anymore. The format is changing, and it may take a couple of years to settle down. I don't subscribe to the idea that the Internet is everything. It's just something. But I do think that the event of playing music in a concert and one thing being different to the next thing is very exciting still, as it has been for hundreds and hundreds of years. And recorded music has been a brief interlude in that... I'd rather play concerts, myself. That's just the way I feel." | ||
Even serious musicians need a little silliness. | Even serious musicians need a little silliness. | ||
"I recorded some new melodies for some of my older songs, and for a gag I recorded them on just a cassette player. And I didn't have a microphone so I plugged in headphones into the tape recorder, because you switch them backwards, they work as a microphone. I didn't want to be like a Luddite, so I put them on a CDR, and I put 10 of the CDRs in 10 copies of the best of record that we released in April, and hid 'em in the shops in America, just to see whether anybody bought records anymore. And as nobody's found 'em yet and it's now September, I guess nobody buys records anymore. But somewhere somebody's gonna get a little surprise one of these days . . . They're gonna be in Wal-Mart or somewhere, and they're gonna buy one of these records and they're gonna discover a little free gift from me. . . . There's not enough fun with the business of music. It's all very serious. The record thing for as long as it's gonna last, it needs a little mischief put back into it." | "I recorded some new melodies for some of my older songs, and for a gag I recorded them on just a cassette player. And I didn't have a microphone so I plugged in headphones into the tape recorder, because you switch them backwards, they work as a microphone. I didn't want to be like a Luddite, so I put them on a [[30:10|CDR]], and I put 10 of the CDRs in 10 copies of the [[The Best Of Elvis Costello The First 10 Years|best of]] record that we released in April, and hid 'em in the shops in America, just to see whether anybody bought records anymore. And as nobody's found 'em yet and it's now September, I guess nobody buys records anymore. But somewhere somebody's gonna get a little surprise one of these days... They're gonna be in Wal-Mart or somewhere, and they're gonna buy one of these records and they're gonna discover a little free gift from me. . . . There's not enough fun with the business of music. It's all very serious. The record thing for as long as it's gonna last, it needs a little mischief put back into it." | ||
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'''The Tennessean, September 6, 2007 | '''The Tennessean, September 6, 2007 | ||
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[[Nicole Keiper]] | [[Nicole Keiper]] interviews Elvis Costello in advance of his concert with [[Steve Nieve]] and the [[Nashville Symphony]], Sunday, [[Concert 2007-09-09 Nashville|September 9, 2007]], Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville, TN. | ||
{{Bibliography no images}} | {{Bibliography no images}} | ||
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[[Category:The Tennessean| Tennessean 2007-09-06]] | [[Category:The Tennessean| Tennessean 2007-09-06]] | ||
[[Category:Newspaper articles|Tennessean 2007-09-06]] | [[Category:Newspaper articles|Tennessean 2007-09-06]] | ||
[[Category:Interviews|Tennessean 2007-09-06]] | |||
[[Category:Concert previews|Tennessean 2007-09-06]] | [[Category:Concert previews|Tennessean 2007-09-06]] |
Revision as of 22:39, 27 May 2013
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