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So eagle-eyed Maria from Merseyside (Letters, No. 12) gets to exercise her ego in the gymnasium of your letters page… Some circuit training of my own…
If she wishes to treat Mr Costello's excellent songwriting as poetry, she should accept that art is open to whatever interpretation the consumer wishes, and that in good "allegorical" work many levels of interpretation are possible.
What about humour? I trust she does not expect us to swallow "She is the blue chip that belongs to the big fish" as a "chilling condemnation," rather the latest in a long line of tortured puns. Anyone for Ironical Depreciation?
Not everybody has the benefit of advanced education in the field of (im)practical criticism — surely for most people, when it comes to songs and music, it's the mood that matters.
Besides which, a poet is only a potential pop star who can't write good tunes. I think Elvis can. That's why he smiles so much these days
Argy Cramus,
Hull, N. Humberside.
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