Newsweek, May 8, 1978: Difference between revisions
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<center><h3> Elvis the | <center><h3> Elvis the menace </h3></center> | ||
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<center> Tony Schwartz </center> | <center> Tony Schwartz </center> | ||
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{{n}}<i>'Cause I don't miss you that much.</i> | {{n}}<i>'Cause I don't miss you that much.</i> | ||
Costello is in fact married and has a 3-year-old child, but chooses not to elaborate. Nor does talking about the past much interest him. He answers a few questions, but as he says in one song, ''"Lip service is all you'll ever get from me."'' Born Declan Patrick | Costello is in fact married and has a 3-year-old child, but chooses not to elaborate. Nor does talking about the past much interest him. He answers a few questions, but as he says in one song, ''"Lip service is all you'll ever get from me."'' Born Declan Patrick MacManus in London, where his father was a successful musician, he harbored no fantasies of becoming a rock star until his late teens, when he took up the guitar. It was after high school that he began churning out his own songs and trying to peddle them to record companies. | ||
No one showed any interest until he dropped off a cassette of his songs at Stiff Records, a tiny independent label. That visit led to Costello's first album, and the adoption of a pseudonym borrowed from the other Elvis and a family name. Then, last summer, as a ploy to get the attention of CBS Records executives, in London for a convention, he took his guitar into the street outside their hotel and zipped through a string of songs when they were passing by. He was arrested for causing a public disturbance but eventually got a contract. | No one showed any interest until he dropped off a cassette of his songs at Stiff Records, a tiny independent label. That visit led to Costello's first album, and the adoption of a pseudonym borrowed from the other Elvis and a family name. Then, last summer, as a ploy to get the attention of CBS Records executives, in London for a convention, he took his guitar into the street outside their hotel and zipped through a string of songs when they were passing by. He was arrested for causing a public disturbance but eventually got a contract. | ||
That break has not diluted the venom he feels for the corporate music world. In "Radio, Radio," Costello screams dead on: ''"I wanna bite the hand that feeds me... I wanna make them wish they'd never seen me."'' "You can become too heroic in your own eyes," he explains, "but I'm chipping away at a certain attitude that has a stranglehold on music. I'm a menace. I'm not even sure what I want, but that's not the point — it's that I want it now. I'm up for a fight. I'm saying, 'What are you gonna do? Deal with us? Try to stamp us out, or just sit there and vegetate?' I'm here to corrupt American youth, but my visa will probably run out before I get to do it." | That break has not diluted the venom he feels for the corporate music world. In "Radio, Radio," Costello screams dead on: ''"I{{nb}}wanna bite the hand that feeds me... I wanna make them wish they'd never seen me."'' "You can become too heroic in your own eyes," he explains, "but I'm chipping away at a certain attitude that has a stranglehold on music. I'm a menace. I'm not even sure what I want, but that's not the point — it's that I want it now. I'm up for a fight. I'm saying, 'What are you gonna do? Deal with us? Try to stamp us out, or just sit there and vegetate?' I'm here to corrupt American youth, but my visa will probably run out before I get to do it." | ||
The flip side of being dismissed is to be taken too seriously — a prospect that appalls him. "If people are too serious, they're boring," he says. "Too much seriousness takes away the chance for any spontaneity and fun. I want to keep it simple. There is an art to brief, fleeting forms of expression — they're direct. That's why my songs are all about three minutes long. Any longer and I'd be bored listening. You have to be ruthless about cutting them down. It's a discipline." To maintain his lean, spare sound, Costello plays with just three backup musicians — a guitarist, a keyboard player and a drummer, blandly billed as the Attractions. In Costello's view, more is less: "When you can't maintain the danger of what you're doing, you either retreat into being an 'artist,' which means you're allowed to be sloppy and self-indulgent in the name of Art, or you go showbiz, where your softness and slickness are excused by the fact that you don't want to be offensive. That's the way 90 per cent of American acts go." | The flip side of being dismissed is to be taken too seriously — a prospect that appalls him. "If people are too serious, they're boring," he says. "Too much seriousness takes away the chance for any spontaneity and fun. I want to keep it simple. There is an art to brief, fleeting forms of expression — they're direct. That's why my songs are all about three minutes long. Any longer and I'd be bored listening. You have to be ruthless about cutting them down. It's a discipline." To maintain his lean, spare sound, Costello plays with just three backup musicians — a guitarist, a keyboard player and a drummer, blandly billed as the Attractions. In Costello's view, more is less: "When you can't maintain the danger of what you're doing, you either retreat into being an 'artist,' which means you're allowed to be sloppy and self-indulgent in the name of Art, or you go showbiz, where your softness and slickness are excused by the fact that you don't want to be offensive. That's the way 90 per cent of American acts go." | ||
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{{Bibliography notes}} | {{Bibliography notes}} | ||
{{Bibliography next | |||
|prev = :Category:Newsweek | |||
|next = Newsweek, February 23, 1981 | |||
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'''Newsweek, May 8, 1978 | '''Newsweek, May 8, 1978 | ||
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{{Bibliography images}} | {{Bibliography images}} | ||
[[image:1978-05-08 Newsweek page 113.jpg| | [[image:1978-05-08 Newsweek page 113.jpg|380px|border]] | ||
<br><small>Page scan.</small> | <br><small>Page scan.</small> | ||
<small>Photo by [[Robert R. McElroy]].</small><br> | <small>Photo by [[Robert R. McElroy]].</small><br> | ||
[[image:1978-05-08 Newsweek photo 01 rrm.jpg| | [[image:1978-05-08 Newsweek photo 01 rrm.jpg|380px]] | ||
<small>Cover and contents page.</small><br> | |||
[[image:1978-05-08 Newsweek cover.jpg|x120px|border]] | [[image:1978-05-08 Newsweek cover.jpg|x120px|border]] | ||
[[image:1978-05-08 Newsweek page 03.jpg|x120px|border]] | [[image:1978-05-08 Newsweek page 03.jpg|x120px|border]] | ||
{{Bibliography notes footer}} | {{Bibliography notes footer}} | ||
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==External links== | ==External links== | ||
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsweek Wikipedia: Newsweek] | *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsweek Wikipedia: Newsweek] | ||
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_R._McElroy Wikipedia:Robert R. McElroy] | *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_R._McElroy Wikipedia: Robert R. McElroy] | ||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Newsweek 1978-05-08}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Newsweek 1978-05-08}} |
Latest revision as of 01:49, 7 July 2021
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