Oor, October 5, 1977: Difference between revisions
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"That was a little ridiculous, because we played with a huge lake in front of us to a group of aging hippies. We only did it because we were paid very well and we'd just bought all our equipment. We played well but a bit further away you could hardly hear it. The press also reacted without much enthusiasm; but that's the way it is, first they're praising us for a few weeks, then they're running us down for a few weeks, and then they like us again. I really couldn't care less." | "That was a little ridiculous, because we played with a huge lake in front of us to a group of aging hippies. We only did it because we were paid very well and we'd just bought all our equipment. We played well but a bit further away you could hardly hear it. The press also reacted without much enthusiasm; but that's the way it is, first they're praising us for a few weeks, then they're running us down for a few weeks, and then they like us again. I really couldn't care less." | ||
''You only played four numbers from your LP. | |||
"Yes I'm not really interested in playing exactly what people expect me to, I always want to have a few new songs up my sleeve." | |||
''We've already been made curious about the new songs like "Watching The Detectives" (a harrowing story about a young couple that's watching Starsky and Hutch, or something, when the girl is paying so much attention to her television hero that she completely forgets her boyfriend; the climax of the story being that the boyfriend kills her for this.) | |||
"That's being released as a single on October 7th. The B-side will be live versions of 'Blame It On Cain' and 'Mystery Dance'. It's recorded with our new band, The Attractions." | |||
''In the music press, most of the attention goes to your lyrics. | |||
"Yes, that makes perfect sense." | |||
''That's why we want to ask you something about music. It's maybe a difficult question, but we're interested in which music has had an influence on you. | |||
"Hmm, there are so many artists that I'm influenced by, but there's not one that's more important than the rest. My favourite singers change weekly, depending on what I'm listening to." | |||
''You don't have any specific heroes? | |||
"No, no. Every journalist has got someone in their head who I remind them of. When they then ask me about it, I always say that I wasn't influenced by that artist more or less than someone like Dusty Springfield, who I seriously appreciate but don't particularly resemble." | |||
''A lot of people compare you to Graham Parker or Van Morrison, but we don't think you're like anyone else. | |||
"Some hear the similarities with Parker, but I don't notice it at all. The same goes for Van Morrison and Bruce Springsteen. Those three are more like each other than I am like any one of them. My voice is much higher and lighter than their voices. On the record anyway, my voice does sound different live, but when I listen to the record, I think it's just nonsense." | |||
''One of the few direct traces of the past that we've discovered are the drumbeats on 'No Dancing'. They come from 'Be My Baby' from the Ronettes. | |||
"Well, that's more or less an average drum pattern. You could just as easily say it's from 'Not A Second Time' from the Beatles. It's just the same beat, but it's not like we thought, come on let's use the drums from 'Be My Baby'. It happens more or less on it's own, without realising it." | |||
''There are musicians that do it intentionally. | |||
"Yes, and there's nothing wrong with that. There are so many different drum fills you can use and it becomes dead boring if you always use the same one. If you sound like the Ramones or Bo Diddley, then it gets boring. You listen to people and you keep some of it unconsciously. That doesn't mean that you directly copy certain things." | |||
''What were you doing actually, before your breakthrough this year? | |||
"I've decided not to talk about that. Not that I want to be so mysterious but only because I sound a little bitter when I talk about all those futile attempts to get a recording contract. I don't want to come across as bitter, but it's bound to happen when I start criticising those record companies. Because of that, it just becomes boring. I don't really like to talk about my past. I think that interviews where someone talks about what they did when they were 14 etc. are also a bit boring." | |||
''Is Elvis Costello your real name? | |||
"Yes, it is actually an uncommon name in England, but it's true." | |||
''Were your parents fans of the other Elvis, or something? | |||
"No, not at all." | |||
''It's also a name that a sly manager could think up. | |||
"Yes, that's also a problem for me. But if John Lennon were to die tomorrow, they wouldn't be making a fuss about John Denver being named John; it's just the same as me and Elvis Presley." | |||
''An 'In Memorium' about Presley here in Holland ended with 'Elvis Presley is dead, but we already have a new Elvis.' | |||
"Ah, that's just journalism; being so clever that you find another glib closing for your article; it doesn't matter to me. People see soon enough that I'm not just a misplaced joke; I'm not trying to fool anybody. It's just a name, you know." | |||
''To what degree has Nick Lowe's production, and indeed the whole atmosphere at Stiff, influenced your concept or sound? Would My Aim is True have sounded different with another producer and record company? | |||
"Yes, because the sound, the tune of the whole record is for the most part Nick's job. That's why he's the producer. At a big record company, they could have made me sound very different, maybe they would have wanted me to be the new Bob Dylan, the new Bruce Springsteen, or the new Graham Parker. The big companies have a tendency to do that. They had quite possibly even less imagination than all these journalists, who also wanted to make me into the next 'new somebody'. Instead of just accepting me as Elvis Costello and making the best of it." | |||
''Nick Lowe sort of makes it a habit to play and sing on the albums he produces. | |||
"Nick only plays bass on 'Mystery Dance' and sings some harmonies on 'Red Shoes' and 'No Dancing'." | |||
''Did you have an absolute idea about the arrangements in advance? | |||
"No, before we decided to make a record, I just sat home writing a countless number of songs. The songs outnumbered any ideas I had about how the arrangements would actually sound on record. Only four, of the approximately 15 songs I sent to Stiff last year, ended up on the LP. The other 11 weren't even attempted, I'd already written so many other new songs in the meantime." | |||
''Do you really have so many extra songs lying around? | |||
"Yes, right now I have about an album and a half of new songs that I wrote after recording ''My Aim is True''. I also have about sixty numbers that I wrote before that. If my doctor tells me I have terminal cancer; I can still make 4 more LP's really quickly just to make a bunch of money before I'd die." | |||
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''Remainder of text to come... | ''Remainder of text to come... | ||
{{Bibliography notes header}} | {{Bibliography notes header}} |
Revision as of 19:53, 20 August 2013
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