New York Times, June 25, 2014: Difference between revisions
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<center><h3> Elvis Costello treats Carnegie Hall to a solo show </h3></center> | |||
<center><h3> Elvis Costello | |||
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<center> Jon Pareles </center> | <center> Jon Pareles </center> | ||
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{{Bibliography text}} | {{Bibliography text}} | ||
If Elvis Costello had dived any deeper into his catalog for his solo concert on Tuesday, opening a two-night stand at | If Elvis Costello had dived any deeper into his catalog for his solo concert on Tuesday, opening a two-night stand at Carnegie Hall, he would have needed scuba gear. It wasn't the kind of solo show by an established rocker that treats a bunch of old favorites as guitar-strumming singalongs for longtime fans. The hall was often silent as Mr. Costello offered something else: a continuing, challenging, intimate engagement with his songs, old and new. | ||
At Carnegie Hall, the ovations that tend to greet familiar opening chords were scarce and muted. Mr. Costello played plenty of songs that were originally tucked within his 21st-century albums, unapologetically stacking them up alongside material from his 1970s and | At Carnegie Hall, the ovations that tend to greet familiar opening chords were scarce and muted. Mr. Costello played plenty of songs that were originally tucked within his 21st-century albums, unapologetically stacking them up alongside material from his 1970s and '80s radio heyday. When he got around to his more widely circulated songs, he reworked them ruthlessly: stripping away pop enticements like intros and instrumental hooks, magnifying dynamic ups and downs, illuminating each lyric anew. | ||
At one point Mr. Costello announced: | At one point Mr. Costello announced: "I'm going to play you a song now that I really hate. I wrote it in 10 minutes, and then it was a hit." It was "[[Everyday I Write The Book|Everyday I Write the Book]]," and it was a world away from the perky 1983 single. Solo, set just to folky fingerpicking, its forlorn yearning was unmistakable. "[[Shabby Doll]]," a tale of back-and-forth humiliation, lost its old rock sneer for gnarled chords and hints of jazz syncopation, turning it into something more complex and compassionate. | ||
Although Mr. Costello was playing alone, each song was precisely arranged. He used six guitars — including acoustic and electric, hollow-body and solid-body — and occasionally switched to electric piano. Attuned to the moment rather than to the permanence of recording, he shifted toward extremes: turning the verses of | Although Mr. Costello was playing alone, each song was precisely arranged. He used six guitars — including acoustic and electric, hollow-body and solid-body — and occasionally switched to electric piano. Attuned to the moment rather than to the permanence of recording, he shifted toward extremes: turning the verses of "[[Man Out Of Time|Man Out of Time]]" into acoustic meditations and the choruses into desperate plaints, or pushing the peaks of "[[I Want You]]" toward all-out distortion and dissonance. | ||
Early on, Mr. Costello promised a night of songs about | Early on, Mr. Costello promised a night of songs about "love and deceit" and "tragedy and exile." All of them, particularly the first three, are well represented among his logophile lyrics, whether he's straightforwardly depicting a situation, as in "[[Either Side Of The Same Town|Either Side of the Same Town]]," or conjuring a character with a skein of images, as in "[[Church Underground]]." But he also offered fond, though unsparingly observed, glimpses of his family history in songs about his grandparents — "[[Veronica]]," "[[Last Boat Leaving]]" and "[[Jimmie Standing In The Rain|Jimmie Standing in the Rain]]" — and a reminiscence about playing guitar with his father. | ||
The encores included two mournful, bitter songs about the toll of war and violence: | The encores included two mournful, bitter songs about the toll of war and violence: "[[Shipbuilding]]" and "[[For More Tears]]," both accompanied by sparse, hymnlike keyboard chords. Mr. Costello also had a sardonic tune with God as its cynical narrator, "[[Come The Meantimes|Come the Meantimes]]," from ''Wise Up Ghost'', his 2013 collaboration with the Roots. The solo version traded the funk of the album track for agitated, quick-strummed guitar, and Mr. Costello got the audience shouting along — not to his past, but to his present. | ||
The concert spanned Mr. | The concert spanned Mr. Costello's career, from the first of his songs he said he heard on the radio — "[[Poison Moon]]," recorded as a demo before his 1977 debut album, ''My Aim Is True'' — to a brand-new one, "[[The Last Year Of My Youth|The Last Year of My Youth]]," about breaking free from worries about age. (Mr. Costello turns 60 in August.) He [[TV 2014-06-04 David Letterman|introduced]] that song this month on ''Late Show With David Letterman'' and reintroduced it, with a completely rewritten melody, on Tuesday night. Like the rest of his catalog at Carnegie Hall, it thrived on being a work in progress. | ||
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'''New York Times, June 25, 2014 | '''New York Times, June 25, 2014 | ||
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[[Jon Pareles]] reviews Elvis Costello solo, Tuesday , [[Concert 2014-06-24 New York|June 24, 2014]], Carnegie Hall, New York | [[Jon Pareles]] reviews Elvis Costello, solo, Tuesday, [[Concert 2014-06-24 New York|June 24, 2014]], Carnegie Hall, New York. | ||
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[[image:2014-06- | [[image:2014-06-25 New York Times photo 01 bh.jpg|360px|border]] | ||
<br><small> | <br><small>Photo by [[Brian Harkin]].</small> | ||
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*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times Wikipedia: New York Times] | *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times Wikipedia: New York Times] | ||
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Pareles Wikipedia: Jon Pareles] | *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Pareles Wikipedia: Jon Pareles] | ||
*[http://www.brianharkin.com/ BrianHarkin.com] | |||
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Revision as of 00:53, 26 September 2016
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