New Musical Express, March 25, 1978: Difference between revisions
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Elvis Costello is taking his guest-spot on ''Top Of The Pops'' in his usual sardonic stride. | Elvis Costello is taking his guest-spot on ''Top Of The Pops'' in his usual sardonic stride. | ||
Here in the proverbial lion's den, Costello and the Attractions are sequestered together off to one corner, waiting for their turn on the adjacent stage where they will in due course perform Tip For The Top "[[ (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea|Chelsea]]", while casually observing the rest of those similarly lucky popsters going through their paces. Maybe it's the virtually surreal quotient of ludicrous pop cliches being blithely trotted out on the other twin stages that keeps the Costello collective so near-languidly amused. | Here in the proverbial lion's den, Costello and the Attractions are sequestered together off to one corner, waiting for their turn on the adjacent stage where they will in due course perform Tip For The Top "[[(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea|Chelsea]]", while casually observing the rest of those similarly lucky popsters going through their paces. Maybe it's the virtually surreal quotient of ludicrous pop cliches being blithely trotted out on the other twin stages that keeps the Costello collective so near-languidly amused. | ||
Costello himself views the whole pantomime with a detachment that arguably typifies his recently-discovered professionalism. He's adopted his classic stance for the occasion — the Fender Jazzmaster cradled in his arms, the legs slanted somewhat askew as per usual — but the stance has become totally unselfconscious and his manner is strictly casual. | Costello himself views the whole pantomime with a detachment that arguably typifies his recently-discovered professionalism. He's adopted his classic stance for the occasion — the Fender Jazzmaster cradled in his arms, the legs slanted somewhat askew as per usual — but the stance has become totally unselfconscious and his manner is strictly casual. | ||
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Ah yes, a couple of people have said that. Nick (Lowe) said something similar and some people on the Stiff tour did as well. It usually takes the form of, yeah they think I'm a good songwriter — they've got a certain amount of respect for my songs — they think my talents are mature but they don't think I'm a mature human-being. That I'm incomplete somehow as a human-being. | Ah yes, a couple of people have said that. Nick (Lowe) said something similar and some people on the Stiff tour did as well. It usually takes the form of, yeah they think I'm a good songwriter — they've got a certain amount of respect for my songs — they think my talents are mature but they don't think I'm a mature human-being. That I'm incomplete somehow as a human-being. | ||
But then again, I'd agree with them y'know. I'm not a balanced, mature person as far as I'm concerned. I don't want to sound like some weirdo, but still...they're right, yeah. I would back them up certainly. | But then again, I'd agree with them y'know. I'm not a balanced, mature person as far as I'm concerned. I don't want to sound like some weirdo, but still ... they're right, yeah. I would back them up certainly. | ||
''O.K. then, that said, surely the crux of the matter is — do you want to get more mature as a person and consequently get less extreme? Or do you consider those extremities, albeit immature or overly neurotic, as still indispensable as basic fuel for your songwriting? | ''O.K. then, that said, surely the crux of the matter is — do you want to get more mature as a person and consequently get less extreme? Or do you consider those extremities, albeit immature or overly neurotic, as still indispensable as basic fuel for your songwriting? | ||
That's a difficult one, you know. It's my "Will he have difficulty relating to success and will he still be as sharp as he was now he's been pulled off the streets?" dilemma. That tends to be the popular one that people get with their second albums. It was like that for | That's a difficult one, you know. It's my "Will he have difficulty relating to success and will he still be as sharp as he was now he's been pulled off the streets?" dilemma. That tends to be the popular one that people get with their second albums. It was like that for Springsteen, wasn't it? Like, "What's he going to do now he's no longer on the streets in New Jersey?" | ||
''Ah, but that 'street thing' doesn't apply to you because you were never 'a man of the streets' as such. You were more into emotional extremities. | ''Ah, but that 'street thing' doesn't apply to you because you were never 'a man of the streets' as such. You were more into emotional extremities. | ||
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Well (pause), first of all you could almost break down my two albums and put songs under headings. Like, with the first album, it was Politics / Philosophy (general) / and Revenge. And with ''Model'' you kinda go — Politics, then Fashion and then whatever else ... there's some other heading in there too. See, "Chelsea", "Lipstick", "Paradise", "This Year's Girl", "Pump It Up" are all kind of songs about 'fashion' so they do relate to me now even though they were written before I became a 'fashion'. | Well (pause), first of all you could almost break down my two albums and put songs under headings. Like, with the first album, it was Politics / Philosophy (general) / and Revenge. And with ''Model'' you kinda go — Politics, then Fashion and then whatever else ... there's some other heading in there too. See, "Chelsea", "Lipstick", "Paradise", "This Year's Girl", "Pump It Up" are all kind of songs about 'fashion' so they do relate to me now even though they were written before I became a 'fashion'. | ||
See, the self-fulfilled prophecy thing is exactly that: in a perverse way, I am currently becoming fashionable, a fashion unto myself (grits his teeth). I never ever wanted that, mind you. It's very frightening in a way because that's the very last thing I ever wanted to become. From the very beginning there was never any air-brush stuff. I could never imagine a lot of people wanting this ugly geek in glasses ramming his songs down their throats. And that's exactly what I'm in it for. I'm in it to disrupt people's lives. | See, the self-fulfilled prophecy thing is exactly that: in a perverse way, I am currently becoming fashionable, a fashion unto myself (grits his teeth). I never ever wanted that, mind you. It's very frightening in a way because that's the very last thing I ever wanted to become. From the very beginning there was never any air-brush stuff. I could never imagine a lot of people wanting this ugly geek in glasses ramming his songs down their throats. And that's ''exactly'' what I'm in it for. I'm in it to disrupt people's lives. | ||
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"Paradise" itself is a notion, an idea of what people think would be paradise but which in effect is so totally decadent that, were they to go along with it, they'd end up just utterly corrupt and perverted. | "Paradise" itself is a notion, an idea of what people think would be paradise but which in effect is so totally decadent that, were they to go along with it, they'd end up just utterly corrupt and perverted. | ||
"Hand In Hand" is more complicated. Like it stems ... I wrote it in fact specifically for Nick Lowe, who rejected it because at the time he was more into two-chord things but ... well, that doesn't matter so much as the fact that at the time of ''Aim'''s mixing sessions, Nick was going through this incredible period of misery and depression as a result of the whole [[Rockpile]] episode with Swan Song and all that. Now I don't know Nick that well, though we work well together, but I don't socialise with him and I ... I haven't seen his darker side, for example (Laughs). But he was so obviously just totally 'cut up' by this experience that I wrote "Hand In Hand" as a consequence of it all not simply for him but also because the main figure — the Jimmy Page-type who is actually stating those things, and let's not beat around the bush here with Swan Song and all that crap — is just the sort of unhuman monster type I could become if I let myself go that far. | "Hand In Hand" is more complicated. Like it stems ... I wrote it in fact specifically for Nick Lowe, who rejected it because at the time he was more into two-chord things but ... well, that doesn't matter so much as the fact that at the time of ''Aim'''s mixing sessions, Nick was going through this incredible period of misery and depression as a result of the whole [[Rockpile]] episode with Swan Song and all that. Now I don't know Nick ''that'' well, though we work well together, but I don't socialise with him and I ... I haven't seen his darker side, for example (Laughs). But he was so obviously just totally 'cut up' by this experience that I wrote "Hand In Hand" as a consequence of it all ''not'' simply for him but also because the main figure — the Jimmy Page-type who is actually stating those things, and let's not beat around the bush here with Swan Song and all that crap — is just the sort of unhuman monster type I could become if I let myself go ''that'' far. | ||
So the song is totally given over to stating someone else's feelings with just the slightest tinge of ... not | So the song is totally given over to stating someone else's feelings with just the slightest tinge of ... not "fear" but y'know ... yeah, that could just about be me, y'know. | ||
That's actually a proven example of what I meant when I spoke earlier about using other people as mouthpieces. It may one day totally get like that ... when I'm writing totally impersonal songs. See, I just can't carry on doing ... y'know, | That's actually a proven example of what I meant when I spoke earlier about using other people as mouthpieces. It may one day totally get like that ... when I'm writing totally impersonal songs. See, I just can't carry on doing ... y'know, "more revenge". It'd be like The Clash singing "White Riot '78" or something . . | ||
''How do you see these songs then as opposed to the previous collection on ''My Aim Is True''? | ''How do you see these songs then as opposed to the previous collection on ''My Aim Is True''? | ||
Actually I see the ''Aim'' songs as just | Actually I see the ''Aim'' songs as just "a collection," really. On ''Model'', in the beginning, I was into creating something more complete — not a concept album but something more interlinked, yeah? Back then there was still "Detectives" which ... actually though it's not on this album, "Detectives" was very important because it was the first song that proved to me that I could write in a whole new style. Like, I see this album as being generally more 'oblique' lyrically than ''Aim''. | ||
''Really? | ''Really? | ||
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''What about "Little Triggers"? That seems a very weird song. | ''What about "Little Triggers"? That seems a very weird song. | ||
It is a very weird song, yeah. Different things come to mind when I hear it now. It's more | It ''is'' a ''very'' weird song, yeah. Different things come to mind when I hear it now. It's more "evocative" than direct. More like a poem though I hate poetry usually. It's weird — the way I see it now, it relates very much to "Alison". It's like the reverse side of the feeling in "Alison" though I certainly didn't plan it that way. | ||
''Ah yes, "Alison ". That strikes me very much as a key song for you because it's the nearest you've ever got to a direct manifestation of 'tenderness' though, at the same time, you're recoiling from exactly that feeling. | ''Ah yes, "Alison ". That strikes me very much as a key song for you because it's the nearest you've ever got to a direct manifestation of 'tenderness' though, at the same time, you're recoiling from exactly that feeling. | ||
Well that song is very, very personal to me and I rarely perform it now. Very rarely. I'm usually just not in the right mood. And it's almost frightening that, because when I find that feeling creeping up on me — when I perform that song — that I'm attaching more importance to my work than is reasonable. It's like 'yeah, it's only rock 'n' roll' but, at the same time, rock 'n' roll as such is my life. It's all I do, so these songs are me. | Well that song is very, very personal to me and I rarely perform it now. Very rarely. I'm usually just not in the right mood. And it's almost frightening that, because when I find that feeling creeping up on me — when I perform that song — that I'm attaching more importance to my work than is reasonable. It's like 'yeah, it's only rock 'n' roll' but, at the same time, rock 'n' roll as such is my life. It's all I do, so these songs ''are'' me. | ||
That's why people whose songs you admire are usually so disappointing when you meet them. Because their songs are their lives and they don't have a life outside their songs. And often I feel exactly the same way. | That's why people whose songs you admire are usually so disappointing when you meet them. Because their songs are their lives and they don't have a life outside their songs. And often I feel exactly the same way. | ||
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Oh, about 15. There's "Sunday's Best", which is nothing more than a commentary on the English way of life, as far as I can see. There's "Dr Luther's Assistant" which I mentioned before, where Luther is this Howard Hughes sort of figure and his assistant ... well, you'll hear it soon enough. | Oh, about 15. There's "Sunday's Best", which is nothing more than a commentary on the English way of life, as far as I can see. There's "Dr Luther's Assistant" which I mentioned before, where Luther is this Howard Hughes sort of figure and his assistant ... well, you'll hear it soon enough. | ||
There's another one called "[[Chemistry Class]]" which I do solo and also "[[Green Shirt]]" which is an offshoot of "[[The Beat]]" in a way. These songs will be more, uh ... outward looking (Laughs to himself). Like, there's less humour on ''Model'' than the last, don't you think? It's more vicious overall but far less personal, though. But then my sense of humour is very, very bleak, Very low key. | There's another one called "[[Chemistry Class]]" which I do solo and also "[[Green Shirt]]" which is an offshoot of "[[The Beat]]" in a way. These songs will be more, uh ... outward looking (Laughs to himself). Like, there's less humour on ''Model'' than the last, don't you think? It's more vicious overall but far less personal, though. But then my sense of humour is very, very bleak, ''Very low key.'' | ||
''Finally, two questions. First — do you consider yourself an obsessive? | ''Finally, two questions. First — do you consider yourself an obsessive? | ||
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''Then you consider your vocation as being simply a singer and a songwriter. | ''Then you consider your vocation as being simply a singer and a songwriter. | ||
Yes (Pause). No, not my vocation. That's a fair blanket description of myself but not my vocation ... my ultimate vocation in life is to be an | Yes (Pause). No, not my vocation. That's a fair blanket description of myself but not my vocation ... my ultimate vocation in life is to be an "irritant"! Not something actively destructive just someone who irritates, who disorientates. Someone who disrupts the daily drag of life just enough to leave the victim thinking there's maybe more to it all than the mere hum-drum quality of existence. | ||
{{cx}} | {{cx}} |
Revision as of 20:02, 21 May 2014
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