New Orleans Wavelength, April 1989: Difference between revisions
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{{Bibliography header}} | {{Bibliography header}} | ||
{{:Bibliography index}} | {{:Bibliography index}} | ||
{{:Wavelength index}} | {{:New Orleans Wavelength index}} | ||
{{:Louisiana publications index}} | {{:Louisiana publications index}} | ||
{{:US publications by state index}} | {{:US publications by state index}} | ||
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<center> Bunny Matthews </center> | <center> Bunny Matthews </center> | ||
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'''In an exclusive interview, Elvis Costello reflects on recording with the Dirty Dozen. | '''In an exclusive interview, Elvis Costello reflects on recording with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.. | ||
{{Bibliography text}} | {{Bibliography text}} | ||
''So how did you become associated with the Dirty Dozen? | ''So how did you become associated with the Dirty Dozen? | ||
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The reason I mention it, it was very much the same way it was with the Dozen, being the first person to actually go. You're out of the trench first. At every chance, you can stumble. There's nothing much to play to. You've just got the song, which is just me playing on acoustic and maybe some explanations and clues you can give a person. you're asking them to really define their part very, very precisely. | The reason I mention it, it was very much the same way it was with the Dozen, being the first person to actually go. You're out of the trench first. At every chance, you can stumble. There's nothing much to play to. You've just got the song, which is just me playing on acoustic and maybe some explanations and clues you can give a person. you're asking them to really define their part very, very precisely. | ||
We only had that very limited amount of time. We had four days, I think, that | We only had that very limited amount of time. We had four days, I think, that the Dozen were free for. We ended up working Saturday morning to try and get the final parts done. | ||
Like I said, Toussaint was not confirmed until we got to New Orleans. I wasn't sure what we were going to do for keyboards. I knew the sort of thing I wanted and I knew he would fit the bill perfectly. Various people were suggesting this person and that person and I was really holding out for him. Finally he said, "Okay." | |||
Originally, the plan was to go to Sea-Saint to do it. I thought it was very gracious of him to come across town to Southlake, which is his main competitor. I am mindful of the fact that there is quite a lot of feuding and factionalism in New Orleans. If you can get all the musicians together without a fight breaking out, you seem to be doing quite well. That's only an outsider's view but I think that's pretty accurate. It's a comparatively small town to support two studios. | |||
It was pretty shocking when Toussaint comes in at 11 o'clock in the morning and does that piano part. Played the song through for about 20 minutes until he got familiar with it, and then just seemed to be able to reel off endless variations. I had to actually stop him. I had to say, "Allen, that part is so good, that figure that you're playing. Can you repeat that and make a part out of it?" | |||
It's such a sparse record. The minute I heard him, I knew that we had the record and I really didn't think there was going to be much else. He then started doing a lot more left-handed stuff because he was leaving it out originally. His intelligence as a musician was ''right there''; nobody needed to be told that. He's incredibly self-effacing as a musician. His arranger's sense would just leave out the left hand because he would assume the bass would take care of it. | |||
Once I said, "You've got some figures there that really bear repeating," he was a lot freer. At the end of it, he asked for another take. We kept another two tracks and he did another part, which he said wasn't any good (it was equally good but completely different, which was ''really'' shocking). Like I say, he's so modest. | |||
He's got an arranger's sense about his piano playing and also that thing he's got in his piano playing that I can't really identify. He's got all of the traditional stuff and he's got some sort of classical thing in the way. Sometimes, it sounds like Bach when he plays. Some of those introductions, like "Freedom for the Stallion"... | |||
''His little Baroque touch. | |||
Yeah, it's very shocking. And then there's that funny harmony he gets into. I don't know, I'm not very good on intervals. In the bridge of the song, when he gets into on the way down. I don't know what that is, but I love it! We have recognizably "him" yet playing very austerely, really. I thought that was it then. There was nowhere else to go with that track except just to put the little propulsion in with the tambourines, which I thought needed to be very dry. They didn't need to be hi-fi; they needed to be kind of ''real''. And (drummer Jim) Keltner put the little bit of emphasis in the chorus. | |||
We'd been talking all along about having drums just play on the chorus of the song. Really having them like orchestral so that they only played where they absolutely were necessary. And I think the track works great from that point of view. Plus you've got your man Kirk Joseph on the sousaphone. | |||
''Now that Spike has been released, will you ever talk to the players about it? Would you, for instance, call Toussaint to discuss it? | |||
I don't have numbers for them. Some people I'm more into contact with than others. People in Ireland who played on the record, a lot of those people are friends. I'd probably be in contact even with McCartney more than I would people in New Orleans because he's putting some of these songs we wrote together on ''his'' album and I'll probably hear about that. There are other people in Los Angeles I'm liable to see. T Bone is a friend and I'm liable to see him and some of those players. It's hard when you're so far afield to make friendships as opposed to making musical acquaintances. I did feel like by the end of the week... I might be wrong in this; obviously when you haven't met people, there's a certain amount of reserve and suspicion, particularly I think with the Dozen, given their other experience of working with a rock 'n' roll musician, that Alvin character, Phil Alvin (the bad one). I don't think they were completely convinced. | |||
What are they supposed to make of demos of this guy bashing on an acoustic guitar, singing about a witch? They could just think I'm crazy. They were amazingly patient with my lack of technical knowledge, theoretical musical knowledge. I can't write. We had to adapt between T Bone writing charts, Michael Blair writing certain figures, Gregory writing certain figures and then me just humming parts and thinking about them and saying, "No, can we try this voicing? Can we move that there? Can we try that mute?" All stuff which must be like falling off a log to them but they were very indulgent of that while I was pursuing some sound I had in my head. While it's not new to them, perhaps it's new to me. I still think there's a couple of things on the record that must be new to them. | |||
"Miss Macbeth" has got to be new to them. I remember the reaction when we played the introduction. The introduction, obviously, was recorded as a separate piece. And I said, "This is what you're going to cross-fade out off..." And they went: "What's ''that''?!" | |||
I thought we had a lot of fun. By the end of the week, I was really sorry to have it end. We had to work hard with it and everybody put a lot into it. | |||
''Do you like New Orleans? | |||
Ah, I love it... I think it's great! We had almost too much fun. We're just like tourists... we don't know nothing. We try to get around a little bit, seek out bookstores or whatever, find some places with character. Not just go to all the tourist traps to eat. Inevitably, we do somewhat. | |||
It's usually not pleasant weather for me, who hates hot and very humid conditions, but it was mild and warm without humidity this time. We only had one day of what I think of as New Orleans weather, like you're wearing a sort of lukewarm overcoat. | |||
I felt very energetic when I was there. It was very early on in the record. We had everything to gain. And I was really anxious that we got everything we could out of the week there. I really thought it would define the record. | |||
In my previous experiences working with other musicians, the first main sessions really said where the record went. When I worked on ''King of America'', the TCB guys were the first ones in and that defined what that record was. | |||
While we'd already done the two days in Dublin and done those two tracks, I thought that everything else would revolve around those two songs. They wouldn't really dominate the record but they would be very definite tracks and have their very very set moods and they came out very much the way I hoped for, in some cases better. But there was a lot more to be gained because of the interaction that was still to be experimented with between what we got in New Orleans. | |||
The vividness that exited by the end of the week really set a high standard for anyone else playing on those tracks. Even though the parts on "Miss Macbeth" are only interludes in the song, they had such a lot of personality that anything else that went on that track had to be 8 feet tall or had to be really strong. Obviously, it must've been difficult for the band to comprehend what was going on with "Chewing Gum" and "Stalin Malone" because particularly "Chewing Gum" just had the very barest of guide guitar on there and drum machine. And then they played their parts and then (drummer) Willie (Green) played his part. So it was all kind of backward. | |||
''Did you originally plan to use a vocal track on "Stalin Malone"? | |||
Yeah, that's one thing where I'm kind of curious, not to say a little bit nervous, as to the Dozen's reaction to that. I didn't have time to consult with them about the decision to leave the vocal off. I was genuinely afraid that they might not want it on there so I went ahead and just took a bold leap in the dark about it. I honestly felt that my recitation over the music, which was the original intention, got in the way of the music to the extent that it made the indulgence of me acting the story out unnecessary. I felt that people could just as easily read the story for themselves. And that the music was so good, that if I were to put the vocal on there, people would tire very quickly of my recitation and wish they had the music on its own. They can obviously read for themselves, but they can't play ''those'' instruments. It was just a decision that had to be made. It was made right near the end. 1 persevered and tried it different ways. I just couldn't satisfy myself with it. | |||
''It's puzzling when you first get the album because the lyrics to "Stalin Malone" are so prominently displayed on the back cover, yet there are no vocals on the track... | |||
Yeah, I think it's one of the strongest lyrics on the whole album. As you can see from the structure of it, it hasn't got a very even meter so there was no obvious melody suggested. The music, which was this repetitious thing, was just propelling it on. It was like background music for the story, but it was one of those things where the background music was more interesting than the actual performance even though the story itself is pretty vivid. I think it works in your imagination better if you haven't got the character's voice in your head. If I could've found a tune for it, it might've suggested the madness of it, but it might not have fit in with the music. | |||
The studio should be somewhere where you can make bold decisions like that. I love the Dozen's playing of it so much. While it's not got the same cohesion as a piece of their own, it's interesting to hear them playing that music 'cause it's on a funny foot. Although it's got a shuffle thing going in the drums, the way they normally play "ahead," the very nature of the riff is unusual for them. It's good because it's got the personality of the players. I was cajoling them to play these wild breaks. There's some pretty wild stuff on ''Voodoo'' (the Dozen's current Columbia release). I heard ''Voodoo'' and I thought, "Wow! They got much farther out than 'Stalin Malone.' They're not worried about splitting notes and stuff going for ''something''. That's the great thing about 'em, it's very volatile live music. It's really lively. | |||
It has, actually, a life. | |||
{{cx}} | |||
{{Bibliography notes header}} | {{Bibliography notes header}} | ||
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'''Wavelength, No. 102, April 1989 | '''Wavelength, No. 102, April 1989 | ||
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[[Bunny Matthews]] interviews Elvis Costello. | [[Bunny Matthews]] interviews Elvis Costello about the recording of ''[[Spike]]''. | ||
{{Bibliography images}} | {{Bibliography images}} | ||
[[image:1989-04-00 Wavelength page 09.jpg| | [[image:1989-04-00 New Orleans Wavelength page 09.jpg|380px|border]] | ||
<br><small>Page scans.</small> | <br><small>Page scans.</small> | ||
[[image:1989-04-00 Wavelength page 10.jpg| | [[image:1989-04-00 New Orleans Wavelength page 10.jpg|380px|border]] | ||
[[image:1989-04-00 Wavelength page 11.jpg| | [[image:1989-04-00 New Orleans Wavelength page 11.jpg|380px|border]] | ||
[[image:1989-04-00 Wavelength page 48.jpg| | [[image:1989-04-00 New Orleans Wavelength page 48.jpg|380px|border]] | ||
[[image:1989-04-00 Wavelength page 49.jpg| | [[image:1989-04-00 New Orleans Wavelength page 49.jpg|380px|border]] | ||
[[image:1989-04-00 Wavelength page 50.jpg| | [[image:1989-04-00 New Orleans Wavelength page 50.jpg|380px|border]] | ||
<br><small>Page scans.</small> | <br><small>Page scans.</small> | ||
<small>Photographer unknown.</small><br> | <small>Photographer unknown.</small><br> | ||
[[image:1989-04-00 Wavelength photo 01 px.jpg| | [[image:1989-04-00 New Orleans Wavelength photo 01 px.jpg|380px|border]] | ||
[[image:1989-04-00 Wavelength photo 02 px.jpg| | [[image:1989-04-00 New Orleans Wavelength photo 02 px.jpg|380px|border]] | ||
[[image:1989-04-00 Wavelength photo 03 px.jpg| | [[image:1989-04-00 New Orleans Wavelength photo 03 px.jpg|380px|border]] | ||
[[image:1989-04-00 Wavelength photo 04 px.jpg| | [[image:1989-04-00 New Orleans Wavelength photo 04 px.jpg|380px|border]] | ||
<br><small>Photographer unknown.</small> | <br><small>Photographer unknown.</small> | ||
[[image:1989-04-00 Wavelength cover.jpg|x120px|border]] | <small>Cover and contents page.</small><br> | ||
[[image:1989-04-00 Wavelength page 03.jpg|x120px|border]] | [[image:1989-04-00 New Orleans Wavelength cover.jpg|x120px|border]] | ||
[[image:1989-04-00 New Orleans Wavelength page 03.jpg|x120px|border]] | |||
{{Bibliography notes footer}} | {{Bibliography notes footer}} | ||
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==External links== | ==External links== | ||
*[https://scholarworks.uno.edu/wavelength/91/ scholarworks.uno.edu] | *[https://scholarworks.uno.edu/wavelength/91/ scholarworks.uno.edu] | ||
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunny_Matthews Wikipedia: Bunny Matthews] | |||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wavelength 1989-04-00}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:New Orleans Wavelength 1989-04-00}} | ||
[[Category:Bibliography]] | [[Category:Bibliography]] | ||
[[Category:Bibliography 1989]] | [[Category:Bibliography 1989]] | ||
[[Category:Wavelength| Wavelength 1989-04-00]] | [[Category:New Orleans Wavelength| New Orleans Wavelength 1989-04-00]] | ||
[[Category:Magazine articles]] | [[Category:Magazine articles]] | ||
[[Category:Interviews]] | [[Category:Interviews]] | ||
[[Category:1989 interviews]] | [[Category:1989 interviews]] |
Latest revision as of 01:13, 22 September 2020
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