Village Voice, December 26, 1977: Difference between revisions
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<center><h3> Elvis Costello's | <center><h3> Elvis Costello's not so angry anymore </h3></center> | ||
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<center> Simon Frith </center> | <center> Simon Frith </center> | ||
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In what has been a wonderful year for young British musicians, Elvis Costello has set himself up, with a nod and a wink, as our quirkiest newcomer. But don't be deceived by the packaging. Costello's record company may have changed his name, exploited his gawkiness, and sold him as the kid anyone can kick sand at, but his music is not a joke. | In what has been a wonderful year for young British musicians, Elvis Costello has set himself up, with a nod and a wink, as our quirkiest newcomer. But don't be deceived by the packaging. Costello's record company may have changed his name, exploited his gawkiness, and sold him as the kid anyone can kick sand at, but his music is not a joke. | ||
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My immediate problem Was with Costello's image. His name and pose suggest a joke: Here was this week on stage, acting the star, calling himself Elvis. How ridiculous! But this was not how Costello saw himself. He took himself entirely seriously, bristled with self-righteousness. Faced with the person and not the image, my sense of the ridiculous faltered. Costello was grim: his frustrations — physical or otherwise — were no laughing matter. | My immediate problem Was with Costello's image. His name and pose suggest a joke: Here was this week on stage, acting the star, calling himself Elvis. How ridiculous! But this was not how Costello saw himself. He took himself entirely seriously, bristled with self-righteousness. Faced with the person and not the image, my sense of the ridiculous faltered. Costello was grim: his frustrations — physical or otherwise — were no laughing matter. | ||
Costello himself has always been explicit about the role of revenge in his work, but what I find disturbing in his songs is not their anger but their fatalism. "Watching the Detectives," greeted in Britain as Costello's masterpiece and added to the U.S. LP, makes his position clear. Using the Jamaican dub mixing techniques in which instruments fade in and out to create an aural dissociation, Costello coldly describes the come-uppance of a girl who was more stuck on TV heroes than on him. In his frustrated, vengeful imagination her absorption becomes literal: She vanishes through the screen, with real detectives looking for her! For Costello her fate is neither funny nor ironic: it is deserved. Yet at the same time it's not really a fate at all, because nothing has really happened — for her, the distinction between TV and reality has dissolved. "She's filing her nails while they're dragging the lake" — trashy drama merges with trashy life, equally real, equally false. | Costello himself has always been explicit about the role of revenge in his work, but what I find disturbing in his songs is not their anger but their fatalism. "Watching the Detectives," greeted in Britain as Costello's masterpiece and added to the U.S. LP, makes his position clear. Using the Jamaican dub mixing techniques in which instruments fade in and out to create an aural dissociation, Costello coldly describes the come-uppance of a girl who was more stuck on TV heroes than on him. In his frustrated, vengeful imagination her absorption becomes literal: She vanishes through the screen, with real detectives looking for her! For Costello her fate is neither funny nor ironic: it is deserved. Yet at the same time it's not really a fate at all, because nothing has really happened — for her, the distinction between TV and reality has dissolved. ''"She's filing her nails while they're dragging the lake"'' — trashy drama merges with trashy life, equally real, equally false. | ||
"I was raised on romance," Costello begins on "Pay It Back," and it's obviously true, because he's obsessed with the disillusion that has resulted. Having based his hopes on the myths and fantasies of pop and been let down accordingly, he now trusts nothing and nobody. "Everything means less than zero," he concludes in a song sparked off by the appearance of the old fascist Oswald Mosley on a TV talk show. Rather than being annoyed by the specific lies of fascists, Costello is taken with the insidious notion that nothing matters. | ''"I was raised on romance,"'' Costello begins on "Pay It Back," and it's obviously true, because he's obsessed with the disillusion that has resulted. Having based his hopes on the myths and fantasies of pop and been let down accordingly, he now trusts nothing and nobody. ''"Everything means less than zero,"'' he concludes in a song sparked off by the appearance of the old fascist Oswald Mosley on a TV talk show. Rather than being annoyed by the specific lies of fascists, Costello is taken with the insidious notion that nothing matters. | ||
Throughout the album you can hear the consequences of this idea: doomed relationships, empty lives, futile emotions. "I'm not angry," Costello sings, angry about wasting energy on anger. "Blame it on Cain, don't blame it on me!" he chants. "There's no such thing as an original sin." "I used to be disgusted; now I try to be amused," he asserts and it's the credo of a pop obsessive, locked in his room with his facts and his fanzines, so upset that the world isn't like his record collection that he never bothers to take his headphones off at all. | Throughout the album you can hear the consequences of this idea: doomed relationships, empty lives, futile emotions. ''"I'm not angry,"'' Costello sings, angry about wasting energy on anger. ''"Blame it on Cain, don't blame it on me!"'' he chants. ''"There's no such thing as an original sin."'' ''"I used to be disgusted; now I try to be amused,"'' he asserts and it's the credo of a pop obsessive, locked in his room with his facts and his fanzines, so upset that the world isn't like his record collection that he never bothers to take his headphones off at all. | ||
The problem is how to make music out of such loneliness, and it was this problem that Costello hadn't solved when I first saw him. He stood, stone-faced, center stage, as his band, the Attractions, played competent hard-rock backing tracks. Costello's own performance was monotonous and wearing; there was no pace to his show, no movement. The obvious comparison was with Graham Parker, musically and even emotionally similar, but pushed by the Rumour into exhilarating displays of life and faith. | The problem is how to make music out of such loneliness, and it was this problem that Costello hadn't solved when I first saw him. He stood, stone-faced, center stage, as his band, the Attractions, played competent hard-rock backing tracks. Costello's own performance was monotonous and wearing; there was no pace to his show, no movement. The obvious comparison was with Graham Parker, musically and even emotionally similar, but pushed by the Rumour into exhilarating displays of life and faith. | ||
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|prev = Village Voice | |prev = :Category:Village Voice | ||
|next = Village Voice, January 23, 1978 | |next = Village Voice, January 23, 1978 | ||
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[[image:1977-12-19 Village Voice photo 01 sc.jpg|x240px|border]] | [[image:1977-12-19 Village Voice photo 01 sc.jpg|x240px|border]] | ||
<br><small>Photo by [[Stephanie Chernikowski]].</small> | <br><small>Photo by [[Stephanie Chernikowski]].</small> | ||
[[image:1977-12-19 Village Voice page 55 clipping.jpg|360px|border]] | [[image:1977-12-19 Village Voice page 55 clipping.jpg|360px|border]] | ||
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*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Village_Voice Wikipedia: The Village Voice] | *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Village_Voice Wikipedia: The Village Voice] | ||
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[[Category:Village Voice| Village Voice 1977-12-19]] | [[Category:Village Voice| Village Voice 1977-12-19]] | ||
[[Category:Magazine articles | [[Category:Magazine articles]] |
Revision as of 21:47, 13 September 2014
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