Melody Maker, May 13, 1989: Difference between revisions
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<center><h3> Elvis Costello | <center><h3> Elvis Costello </h3></center> | ||
<center>''' Songs of love and hate </center> | |||
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<center>Allan Jones</center> | <center> Allan Jones </center> | ||
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''Elvis Costello is currently on a sellout British tour , celebrating the success of 'Spike', the album that's given him his highest public profile since 'Armed Forces' in 1979. Allan Jones met him recently in Dublin , and in the first of a two-part interview talks to the beloved entertainer about the strung-out years of the early eighties , the selling of the new LP , the failure of political pop and his vicious anti-Thatcher tirade, "Tramp The Dirt Down." | ''Elvis Costello is currently on a sellout British tour, celebrating the success of ''Spike'', the album that's given him his highest public profile since ''Armed Forces'' in 1979. Allan Jones met him recently in Dublin, and in the first of a two-part interview talks to the beloved entertainer about the strung-out years of the early eighties, the selling of the new LP, the failure of political pop and his vicious anti-Thatcher tirade, "Tramp The Dirt Down." | ||
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"I remember [[Nick Lowe]] once said to me, he said, 'You know, I just don't understand you. You fight every drink or any drugs you take. You fight them all the time. You're trying to stay straight all the way through it.' And I still do it. I'll never admit that I'm drunk. But we all drink. And sometimes it's for the right reasons... to let your mind off the leash for a while, and have a bit of fun, and then you don't mind if you make a bit of a prat of yourself, like last night. And it doesn't matter if you end up shouting at people, or have a punch up or whatever, as long as you wake up the same person. It's when you don't want to wake up the same person that you've got a problem. "And I think I maybe went through that for a while. There were times when I'd feel every moment as bad I do this morning. Times when you'd wake up, feeling like you were knocking on heaven's f***in' door and there'd be nobody there to f***in' answer you. Those were the worse times..." | "I remember [[Nick Lowe]] once said to me, he said, 'You know, I just don't understand you. You fight every drink or any drugs you take. You fight them all the time. You're trying to stay straight all the way through it.' And I still do it. I'll never admit that I'm drunk. But we all drink. And sometimes it's for the right reasons... to let your mind off the leash for a while, and have a bit of fun, and then you don't mind if you make a bit of a prat of yourself, like last night. And it doesn't matter if you end up shouting at people, or have a punch up or whatever, as long as you wake up the same person. It's when you don't want to wake up the same person that you've got a problem. "And I think I maybe went through that for a while. There were times when I'd feel every moment as bad I do this morning. Times when you'd wake up, feeling like you were knocking on heaven's f***in' door and there'd be nobody there to f***in' answer you. Those were the worse times..." | ||
There was a general feeling back then that you were purposely f***ing up your life to give you material for your songs. | |||
"I think I did that for about a year," Costello says, tired now and showing it. "At the very most. And then I began to mistrust the results. Because if you do that, it's like when they pour acid in rabbits' eyes or something. What does it prove? It proves that it hurts the animal. Very smart. It's unnecessary research. And I guess I did some unnecessary research for a while. And then I'd write something that would scare the hell out of me... Like, there's a couple of things on ''Get Happy!!'', that when I read them back, I just scared the hell out of myself. And I thought, 'Uh-uh... better not think any more about this... it's going too far...' Because you can think too f***in' much, you know, and it gets a bit f***in' evil" | "I think I did that for about a year," Costello says, tired now and showing it. "At the very most. And then I began to mistrust the results. Because if you do that, it's like when they pour acid in rabbits' eyes or something. What does it prove? It proves that it hurts the animal. Very smart. It's unnecessary research. And I guess I did some unnecessary research for a while. And then I'd write something that would scare the hell out of me... Like, there's a couple of things on ''Get Happy!!'', that when I read them back, I just scared the hell out of myself. And I thought, 'Uh-uh... better not think any more about this... it's going too far...' Because you can think too f***in' much, you know, and it gets a bit f***in' evil" | ||
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"The fact is, those songs were never merely confessional... Even if you're satisfying your own selfish desire to put somebody down in a song or praise them, it isn't important that everybody knows who you're writing about or the specific emotional situation that provoked it. The song should have a universal appeal, otherwise it doesn't serve any purpose. It becomes merely self-indulgent. Like, 'Let me tell you some more secrets about myself...' It's all me me me. And that just gets really f***in' painful after a while. But then you get people saying, 'Well at least it's honest.' But is it? Is it honest to go around going, 'Look at my open sores.' I don't think it is. I think it's just f'in' indulgent." | "The fact is, those songs were never merely confessional... Even if you're satisfying your own selfish desire to put somebody down in a song or praise them, it isn't important that everybody knows who you're writing about or the specific emotional situation that provoked it. The song should have a universal appeal, otherwise it doesn't serve any purpose. It becomes merely self-indulgent. Like, 'Let me tell you some more secrets about myself...' It's all me me me. And that just gets really f***in' painful after a while. But then you get people saying, 'Well at least it's honest.' But is it? Is it honest to go around going, 'Look at my open sores.' I don't think it is. I think it's just f'in' indulgent." | ||
"And that for me always used to spoil it. Particularly when you found out what dickheads some of the people were that they were writing about. I'd rather have them be like Smokey Robinson songs, which could be about anyone. I don't think it's important that people know who 'Alison' was actually about. It's none of their f | Do you feel resentful, then, that people still dig through the bones of your songs, looking for the explicitly autobiographical in your writing? "No, I don't resent it," Costello laughs, setting off a bout of wheezing. "Just blame John Lennon. It's the ''Plastic Ono Band'', that album started it all. After that everything was supposed to be f***in' confessional. The early Seventies were full of all these people baring their f***in' souls for public scrutiny. There were records whose authenticity depended on the confessional aspect, and if you read certain magazines and the background interviews, you knew who these songs were about. | ||
"And that for me always used to spoil it. Particularly when you found out what dickheads some of the people were that they were writing about. I'd rather have them be like Smokey Robinson songs, which could be about anyone. I don't think it's important that people know who 'Alison' was actually about. It's none of their f***in' business. It's a song. 'I Want You' is a song. It doesn't matter who it's about... | |||
People still automatically assume it's addressed to Cait... "Yeah," he says wearily. "But it's just nonsense. It's just a song. It's a really well written song. It's also very personal, but you don't have to know the whole story to be touched by it... It's like people might say this new record is less personal because most of it's written in the third person. That's just as misguided. It all came out of my head, so how can it not be personal, you know... But there are still people, yeah, who want everything I've done documented and explained... but we're really getting into something else here. | People still automatically assume it's addressed to Cait... "Yeah," he says wearily. "But it's just nonsense. It's just a song. It's a really well written song. It's also very personal, but you don't have to know the whole story to be touched by it... It's like people might say this new record is less personal because most of it's written in the third person. That's just as misguided. It all came out of my head, so how can it not be personal, you know... But there are still people, yeah, who want everything I've done documented and explained... but we're really getting into something else here. | ||
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"But it amazed me, the ease which on the one hand you can come back and command the centre stage, just by saying you're there, and secondly still be regarded as somewhat outrageous. But what else is happening? In England, there's a cult a week for some band that's gonna save us all, and then you never f***in' hear of them again. It's very easy and I suppose attractive to get excited and emotional about The Darling Buds or somebody. But after a while, you can't keep up with who's the latest flame. | "But it amazed me, the ease which on the one hand you can come back and command the centre stage, just by saying you're there, and secondly still be regarded as somewhat outrageous. But what else is happening? In England, there's a cult a week for some band that's gonna save us all, and then you never f***in' hear of them again. It's very easy and I suppose attractive to get excited and emotional about The Darling Buds or somebody. But after a while, you can't keep up with who's the latest flame. | ||
"And who's outrageous anymore? Like I was just in a radio station somewhere in America, in the south, quite a mainstream station. And this guy said, quite a mainstream station. And this guy said, 'Sometimes I just have to let my hair down and get outta here, go over to my old college station and play as much Nick Heyward as I like!' And with all due respect to Nick, he's no Jimmy Reed. I mean, I think Nick Heyward's made a couple of nice records, but he's not the wild man of rock'n' | "And who's outrageous anymore? Like I was just in a radio station somewhere in America, in the south, quite a mainstream station. And this guy said, quite a mainstream station. And this guy said, 'Sometimes I just have to let my hair down and get outta here, go over to my old college station and play as much Nick Heyward as I like!' And with all due respect to Nick, he's no Jimmy Reed. I mean, I think Nick Heyward's made a couple of nice records, but he's not the wild man of rock 'n' roll. But he was this guy's definition of outrageous... And if that's indicative of the present climate, it's maybe not so curious that I still get some attention. And it's maybe why anything I do, not so much in England, but particularly in the States, seems to them to be effortlessly weird. | ||
"So to get over to them the fact that the record isn't all that strange, you sometimes have to fill in a little of the background. You know, I've run into this a lot. People build up such preconceptions or they just associate you with one thing and they can't hear anything else you do. It's like they're looking at a painting you've done, upside down. Unless you can change their point of view, they're never gonna see what that picture is. That's another reason I thought talking about the album was worthwhile. | "So to get over to them the fact that the record isn't all that strange, you sometimes have to fill in a little of the background. You know, I've run into this a lot. People build up such preconceptions or they just associate you with one thing and they can't hear anything else you do. It's like they're looking at a painting you've done, upside down. Unless you can change their point of view, they're never gonna see what that picture is. That's another reason I thought talking about the album was worthwhile. | ||
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"But, anyway, it proved the point that sometimes with the best will in the world to try and speak plainly to people, you can't do anything about how people listen to what you're doing. They'll hear whatever they want to hear." | "But, anyway, it proved the point that sometimes with the best will in the world to try and speak plainly to people, you can't do anything about how people listen to what you're doing. They'll hear whatever they want to hear." | ||
My own first reaction to ''Spike'' was loud and indignant the furious gnashing of a fan betrayed, small-minded and spiteful. My favourite Costello albums have invariably found him in harness with The Attractions, galloping at full tilt, often neurotic, eyes blazing, burning up the surrounding landscape. ''Spike'' is a notably different beast, and at first I wasn't much convinced by any of it. | |||
As you'll know, the record was recorded in London, Hollywood, Ireland and New Orleans, and features an international supporting cast, including co-producer and "musical conscience" T-Bone Burnett, Paul McCartney, Chrissie Hynde, Roger McGuinn, Allen Toussaint, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, guitarist Marc Ribot and percussionist Michael Blair from Tom Waits' band, veteran jazzer Buell Niedlinger, an assortment of former Confederates and a line-up of some of Ireland's finest traditional musicians. | As you'll know, the record was recorded in London, Hollywood, Ireland and New Orleans, and features an international supporting cast, including co-producer and "musical conscience" T-Bone Burnett, Paul McCartney, Chrissie Hynde, Roger McGuinn, Allen Toussaint, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, guitarist Marc Ribot and percussionist Michael Blair from Tom Waits' band, veteran jazzer Buell Niedlinger, an assortment of former Confederates and a line-up of some of Ireland's finest traditional musicians. | ||
The album largely reflects these global resources, romping through what ''Village Voice'' critic [[Special:WhatLinksHere/Richard_Gehr|Richard Gehr]] described as "the rock of all ages: Morrisonian Celtic soul, gospel, R&B, protest folk, cool jazz, C&W and ballads". Costello has been this diverse before, but never all at once. ''Spike'' sounded initially like a kind of musical tourism. | The album largely reflects these global resources, romping through what ''Village Voice'' critic [[Special:WhatLinksHere/Richard_Gehr|Richard Gehr]] described as "the rock of all ages: Morrisonian Celtic soul, gospel, R&B, protest folk, cool jazz, C&W and ballads". Costello has been this diverse before, but never all at once. ''Spike'' sounded initially like a kind of musical tourism. | ||
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It took a while for ''Spike'' to sink in. I still have to leave the room whenever "Veronica" comes on, but over the last couple of months, as the musical climate deteriorates and the rediscovery of the f***ing wah wah pedal is about the only thing that gets the young braves excited, the record's become increasingly indispensible. | |||
Beyond the crafted excellence of songs like " | Beyond the crafted excellence of songs like "...This Town...," "Let Him Dangle," "God's Comic," "Satellite," "Any King's Shilling," "Miss Macbeth" and "Last Boat Leaving," the album would be worth the price of admission for one track alone. I'm thinking, of course, of "Tramp The Dirt Down", Costello's furious indictment of 10 years of Conservative government and Margaret Thatcher specifically, in which Costello wishes the dragon dead and imagines dancing on her grave. It's a vicious tirade, all the more brutal for the absence of melodrama, breast beating self-righteousness and political posturing. The clear-sightedness of its venom is chilling. | ||
As [[Special:WhatLinksHere/Greil_Marcus|Greil Marcus]] observed in ''Village Voice'': "To make true political music, you have to say what decent people don't want to hear; that's something that people fit for satellite benefit concerts will never understand, and that Costello understood before anyone heard his name." It's this terrific disinclination to pander to liberalistic, simple minded humanistic self-righteousness that separates Costello so profoundly from the simpering conceits, the bland admonishments, the reek of moral attitudinizing that marks the worried global concerns of [[Bono]] and Jim Kerr and [[Sting]]... | As [[Special:WhatLinksHere/Greil_Marcus|Greil Marcus]] observed in ''Village Voice'': "To make true political music, you have to say what decent people don't want to hear; that's something that people fit for satellite benefit concerts will never understand, and that Costello understood before anyone heard his name." It's this terrific disinclination to pander to liberalistic, simple minded humanistic self-righteousness that separates Costello so profoundly from the simpering conceits, the bland admonishments, the reek of moral attitudinizing that marks the worried global concerns of [[Bono]] and Jim Kerr and [[Sting]]... | ||
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"I don't think you have to spend too long pondering the significance of that remark to get the point." | "I don't think you have to spend too long pondering the significance of that remark to get the point." | ||
So what does "Tramp The Dirt Down" achieve, what will it change? | |||
"Nothing I can think of," says Costello. "I honestly don't think it will change anything. Like I said to one guy who asked a similar question, songs like that, they're like tiny marker buoys... this is where the ship went down. A song like that, it's not a party political broadcast, there's no manifesto... It just says, 'I'll only be happy when this woman's dead.' | "Nothing I can think of," says Costello. "I honestly don't think it will change anything. Like I said to one guy who asked a similar question, songs like that, they're like tiny marker buoys... this is where the ship went down. A song like that, it's not a party political broadcast, there's no manifesto... It just says, 'I'll only be happy when this woman's dead.' | ||
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{{Bibliography notes}} | {{Bibliography notes}} | ||
{{Bibliography next | |||
|prev = Melody Maker, February 11, 1989 | |||
|next = Melody Maker, May 20, 1989 | |||
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'''Melody Maker, May 13, 1989 | '''Melody Maker, May 13, 1989 | ||
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[[Allan Jones]] interviews Elvis Costello. | [[Allan Jones]] interviews Elvis Costello. <span style="font-size:92%"> (concluded [[Melody Maker, May 20, 1989|next issue]].) </span> | ||
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Also includes a Elvis Costello concert review for Sunday, [[Concert 1989-05-07 London|May 7, 1989]], Palladium, London, England. | |||
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[[image:1989-05-13 Melody Maker cover.jpg| | [[image:1989-05-13 Melody Maker cover.jpg|x150px|border]] | ||
<br><small>Cover.</small> | [[image:1989-05-13 Melody Maker pages.jpg|x150px|border]] | ||
<br><small>Cover and page scans.</small> | |||
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<center><h3> Live! </h3></center> | |||
<center>''' Elvis Costello, Palladium, London </center> | |||
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<center> ... </center> | |||
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{{Article needed 2}} | |||
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{{Bibliography notes footer}} | {{Bibliography notes footer}} | ||
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[[Category:Magazine articles|Melody Maker 1989-05-13]] | [[Category:Magazine articles|Melody Maker 1989-05-13]] | ||
[[Category:Interviews|Melody Maker 1989-05-13]] | [[Category:Interviews|Melody Maker 1989-05-13]] | ||
[[Category:1989 concert reviews|Melody Maker 1989-05-13]] | |||
[[Category:Article needed|Melody Maker 1989-05-13]] |
Revision as of 14:33, 10 October 2013
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