New Musical Express, February 18, 1989: Difference between revisions
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{{Bibliography header}} | {{Bibliography header}} | ||
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{{magazine index}} | {{:magazine index}} | ||
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<center><h3> And So To Bedlam </h3></center> | <center><h3> And So To Bedlam </h3></center> | ||
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THE BIG PICTURE | THE BIG PICTURE | ||
"All over the world at the very same time people sharing the same sorrow / As the satellite looks down her darkest hour is somebody else's bright tomorrows." | ''"All over the world at the very same time people sharing the same sorrow / As the satellite looks down her darkest hour is somebody else's bright tomorrows."'' | ||
The very week that Rupert Murdoch's Sky channel beams us all into the age of tabloid TV, Elvis Costello unveils his | The very week that Rupert Murdoch's Sky channel beams us all into the age of tabloid TV, Elvis Costello unveils his "Satellite," one of 14 new songs collectively entitled ''Spike''. Perfect timing. | ||
"...A woman goes into a photo booth which is really a blue screen where she can be superimposed onto any TV special of her own choice. Perfect fantasy come true. But, in order to have this moment of glory there's a big catch. She's gotta be in a peep show. | "...A woman goes into a photo booth which is really a blue screen where she can be superimposed onto any TV special of her own choice. Perfect fantasy come true. But, in order to have this moment of glory there's a big catch. She's gotta be in a peep show. | ||
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"Yeah. These are they." | "Yeah. These are they." | ||
Oh, good. Today, dear reader, I am your bridge to the weird and frightening world of Elvis Costello aka | Oh, good. Today, dear reader, I am your bridge to the weird and frightening world of Elvis Costello aka "Spike" aka "The Beloved Entertainer." Neither the artist nor his complicit go-between are too certain of the wisdom of such a pact but, then again, songs as... as labyrinthine as "Satellite" might need some explaining. They are, to quote the man himself, "Big" songs. Too" BIG" too fully succeed perhaps? | ||
"Possibly. The connections are ambiguous. I've worked out that | "Possibly. The connections are ambiguous. I've worked out that "Satellite" would probably need to be 24 minutes long instead of six, to be completely explained. Somebody might find the key though. It's that kind of album". | ||
Is it that important if most people don't find the key? | Is it that important if most people don't find the key? | ||
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THE BEST MEDICINE | THE BEST MEDICINE | ||
'Spike is Costello's first vinyl outing since '86's schizoid coupling of the stately 'King Of | ''Spike'' is Costello's first vinyl outing since '86's schizoid coupling of the stately ''King Of America'' and the "narrow-minded, made-with-blinkers-on" brutalism of ''Blood And Chocolate''. The latter is now described as "claustrophobic, not so much black and white as brown and red." | ||
I hesitate to ask him for a colour scheme to fit ''Spike'', a record brimming over with all the usual neuroses, psychosis and hypnosis. And then some. | I hesitate to ask him for a colour scheme to fit ''Spike'', a record brimming over with all the usual neuroses, psychosis and hypnosis. And then some. | ||
It begins in a place where "you're nobody... till everybody thinks you're a bastard" and ends in tears with the | It begins in a place where ''"you're nobody... till everybody thinks you're a bastard"'' and ends in tears with the "Last Boat Leaving." In between, lurk, in no particular order, bastards and murderers, hangmen and puppets, pissed up priests and mail order brides, voyeurs, vampires witches and wankers, an MFI God The Father and an Old Testament Thatcher pushing up the daisies. | ||
Describe ''Spike'' for us, Elvis. | Describe ''Spike'' for us, Elvis. | ||
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THE KILLING JOKE | THE KILLING JOKE | ||
"Many of these songs," Elvis elucidates, "are, erm, tragi-comic. They're born of the idea that things are, have become , soo absurd that laughter is the only response." | "Many of these songs," Elvis elucidates, "are, erm, tragi-comic. They're born of the idea that things are, have become, soo absurd that laughter is the only response." | ||
Or Violence? | Or Violence? | ||
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"Yeah." | "Yeah." | ||
On | On "Tramp The Dirt Down" you want Thatcher dead so you can dance on her grave. Literally. It's revenge fantasy as a valid response. | ||
"That's the liberal interpretation. Looking for 'valid' responses. Valid doesn't come into it. It's an unreasonable response. 'Tramp The Dirt Down' is totally unpleasant. It doesn't fill me with happiness that I'm wishing someone dead, not even someone as repugnant as her. Some people have enough and reach for a hand grenade, I put it into my songs." | "That's the liberal interpretation. Looking for 'valid' responses. Valid doesn't come into it. It's an unreasonable response. 'Tramp The Dirt Down' is totally unpleasant. It doesn't fill me with happiness that I'm wishing someone dead, not even someone as repugnant as her. Some people have enough and reach for a hand grenade, I put it into my songs." | ||
Tragi-comic | Tragi-comic songs? | ||
"Yeah. It's that moment when you don't know whether to laugh or kick the TV in. Y'know, when you feel that if you see Lawson or Tebbitt's smug face one more time filling the screen... aaaargh!" | |||
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But, of all our literate obsessives — Cave, Morrissey, MacGowan, Smith — Costello walks a well trodden path where disintegration is the recurring theme. Love affairs, families, friendships, lusts all fall apart against backdrop of social decay and breakdown. | But, of all our literate obsessives — Cave, Morrissey, MacGowan, Smith — Costello walks a well trodden path where disintegration is the recurring theme. Love affairs, families, friendships, lusts all fall apart against backdrop of social decay and breakdown. | ||
From the claustrophobic domestic jealousies of 'Trust', through the elegaic forlorn despair of | From the claustrophobic domestic jealousies of ''Trust'', through the elegaic forlorn despair of "Shipbuilding" on into the multi-layered intrigues of this album's "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror," "Chewing Gum" and "Any King's Shilling," Costello has specialised in the mechanics of disintegration. | ||
"That's what I see when I look around me. It's there. I'm not a miserabilist." | "That's what I see when I look around me. It's there. I'm not a miserabilist." | ||
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Yeah. It crops up a lot on ''Spike'', delusion in all its guises. | Yeah. It crops up a lot on ''Spike'', delusion in all its guises. | ||
For instance, you've printed the lyrics to the monstrous | For instance, you've printed the lyrics to the monstrous "Stalin Malone" on the cover even though that track is an instrumental. Do the lyrics say something about the essence of ''Spike''? | ||
"I dunno, really. The words and music fought too much to work. Actually, the music was too good for me to f—up by droning over. It relieves you from my vocal interpretation." | "I dunno, really. The words and music fought too much to work. Actually, the music was too good for me to f—up by droning over. It relieves you from my vocal interpretation." | ||
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"Well, it is about a raving madman. Y'know, the guy who sits glowering in the corner of the pub and then says 'see that clock? I make it work.' Then, when the hands have moved, he goes, 'There, a told you so'. He thinks he controls everything but he's completely deluded. | "Well, it is about a raving madman. Y'know, the guy who sits glowering in the corner of the pub and then says 'see that clock? I make it work.' Then, when the hands have moved, he goes, 'There, a told you so'. He thinks he controls everything but he's completely deluded. | ||
"An extension of the character in | "An extension of the character in 'Deep Dark Truthful Mirror' — that’s someone who won't go home and eventually starts hallucinating dead monkeys' hands and Persian cats and Jesus." | ||
The temptation, of course, is to merge Elvis Costello with the songs. Do people always assume songs in the first person singular are autobiographical? | The temptation, of course, is to merge Elvis Costello with the songs. Do people always assume songs in the first person singular are autobiographical? | ||
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"Nearly always. That's why this record is consciously more third person. I couldn't be a great hack songwriter though. It has to come, on some level, from my emotions. People constantly misunderstand, though. | "Nearly always. That's why this record is consciously more third person. I couldn't be a great hack songwriter though. It has to come, on some level, from my emotions. People constantly misunderstand, though. | ||
"Remember 'Possession' off 'Get Happy'? Man, people read so much into that but what happened was I saw this beautiful waitress in a cafe in Hilversham and I said to Pete (Thomas) "I want to possess her!'' I banged out 'Possession' on the way back to the studio. We recorded it that night. Demented, really." | "Remember 'Possession' off ''Get Happy''? Man, people read so much into that but what happened was I saw this beautiful waitress in a cafe in Hilversham and I said to Pete (Thomas) "I want to possess her!'' I banged out 'Possession' on the way back to the studio. We recorded it that night. Demented, really." | ||
Ahhh, the very word. I'm glad you brought up the demented angle. That's another EC constant: there does seem to be an edge of dementia about some of your best work. | Ahhh, the very word. I'm glad you brought up the demented angle. That's another EC constant: there does seem to be an edge of dementia about some of your best work. | ||
" I'm a very demented sort of person, I guess. (He says this the way other people say 'I'm a very lovable sort of person, actually'). Though when you're more in control, you can create dementedness and use it more as a dramatic tool." | "I'm a very demented sort of person, I guess. (He says this the way other people say 'I'm a very lovable sort of person, actually'). Though when you're more in control, you can create dementedness and use it more as a dramatic tool." | ||
Did you do that a lot on this record? | Did you do that a lot on this record? | ||
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These 14 new songs are a last resting place for Costello's last two years worth of dredged up memories, observations, fantasies and reflections. Hence, ''Spike'' is a sprawling affair juxtaposing the weirded-out, multi point of view, welcome-to-my-nightmare Costello with the chastened, straight forward, life's-a-bitch-but-I'm-a-stoical fellow Costello. | These 14 new songs are a last resting place for Costello's last two years worth of dredged up memories, observations, fantasies and reflections. Hence, ''Spike'' is a sprawling affair juxtaposing the weirded-out, multi point of view, welcome-to-my-nightmare Costello with the chastened, straight forward, life's-a-bitch-but-I'm-a-stoical fellow Costello. | ||
For every bittersweet ballad like | For every bittersweet ballad like "Baby Plays Around" or "Last Boat Leaving" there are a batch of brutally complex operations like "Miss Macbeth," the aforementioned "Satellite" and the cosmically absurd "God's Comic." The subject matter throughout is as adventurous as it is dramatically different. | ||
"Yeah. On one hand you have 'Miss Macbeth' which is based on the old lady on the street that every child thinks is evil or witchy. So, I thought, f— it, what if she was actually evil. | "Yeah. On one hand you have 'Miss Macbeth' which is based on the old lady on the street that every child thinks is evil or witchy. So, I thought, f— it, what if she was actually evil. | ||
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"It goes against the scripture's idea that the poor and crippled rise above their adversity and are ultimately good. But, what if they're just bastards! Total f—in' no good evil bastards. Sometimes people are just what they seem." | "It goes against the scripture's idea that the poor and crippled rise above their adversity and are ultimately good. But, what if they're just bastards! Total f—in' no good evil bastards. Sometimes people are just what they seem." | ||
And | And "God's Comic"? A cosmic joke about our received wisdoms concerning the creator? | ||
"Yeah. I wrote that in Greenland. It's the only song I've written above the Arctic Circle. It was so Godlike in a childish sort of way — y'know how we perceive God and Santa Claus as wise old men with big white beards. | "Yeah. I wrote that in Greenland. It's the only song I've written above the Arctic Circle. It was so Godlike in a childish sort of way — y'know how we perceive God and Santa Claus as wise old men with big white beards. | ||
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"Greenland was quite spiritually uplifting, the expanse, the whiteness, the whole feeling of being literally at the edge of the world. The song came out differently. | "Greenland was quite spiritually uplifting, the expanse, the whiteness, the whole feeling of being literally at the edge of the world. The song came out differently. | ||
"It's about a drunken sleezebag priest dying and arriving in heaven which is God's MFi warehouse full of all his wonderful creations. God's reading Jeffrey Archer with one eye and Brett Easton Ellis with the other, watching Sky channel on one of his five functioning TVs and | "It's about a drunken sleezebag priest dying and arriving in heaven which is God's MFi warehouse full of all his wonderful creations. God's reading Jeffrey Archer with one eye and Brett Easton Ellis with the other, watching Sky channel on one of his five functioning TVs and ''It's A Wonderful Life'' on another and... he's agog at humanity. y'know, it's come to this! Jesus! I should have given the world to the monkeys." | ||
We go round and round like this, Elvis and me, till I'm pulled effortlessly into his absurdly rational outlook on LIFE. And ''Spike'' begins to make cohesive sense in a funny, cruel, honest sort of way. | We go round and round like this, Elvis and me, till I'm pulled effortlessly into his absurdly rational outlook on LIFE. And ''Spike'' begins to make cohesive sense in a funny, cruel, honest sort of way. | ||
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{{Bibliography notes}} | {{Bibliography notes}} | ||
{{Bibliography next | |||
|prev = New Musical Express, February 11, 1989 | |||
|next = New Musical Express, May 13, 1989 | |||
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'''New Musical Express, February 18, 1989 | '''New Musical Express, February 18, 1989 | ||
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Revision as of 14:55, 17 October 2013
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