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Ten Times Better
Stuart Maconie
With Yazz, The Hollies, and Level 42 currently riding high and proud there's enough pop cholesterol around to induce a Chart attack. With a wave of our magic wand the NME has conjured up four notable pop faces to provide us with the ten acts or artists they'd rather see and hear in the Top 10. First off the block, Billy Bragg summons up the people he considers to be Ten Times Better.
Extract:
COSTELLO — "Why Elvis isn't as big as Springsteen just baffles me. I mean, he should not be playing the Dominion. He ought to be filling Wembley. To me he's the greatest songwriter working in the English language. But apart from the late '70s he's never had the success or the exposure he deserves. Maybe there's a built in aversion to having good lyrics in the charts. As someone who's very involved with working with language I notice this. I notice it even with groups I like. Take Prefab Sprout... "Hopscotch (sic) jumping frog" or whatever. I'm sure he's making some point but it's lost on me. And Scritti Politti as well. He does these really deep and meaningful interviews and then his lyrics are like "Hey, love me, I love you, girl." Very strange. So I feel strong similarities with Costello. It pisses me off that people like him with something to say are left stamping around out in the cold for the want of the patronage of Radio 1."
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Photo by Peter Anderson.
Cover.
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External links