New York Rocker, October 1982: Difference between revisions
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<center><h3> Elvis Costello candid! </h3></center> | <center><h3> Elvis Costello candid! </h3></center> | ||
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"You'd really like Elvis Costello," the J. Geils Band's vocalist Peter Wolf assured me one night when he was ransacking my record collection. "He'll listen to an old rock | "You'd really like Elvis Costello," the J. Geils Band's vocalist Peter Wolf assured me one night when he was ransacking my record collection. "He'll listen to an old rock 'n' roll record and then turn around and want to hear some bebop, then maybe some African music, then Billie Holiday..." I'd figured Costello would have broad tastes and a healthy curiosity about lots of different kinds of music. ''His'' music just keeps growing, gaining maturity without losing its emotional honesty or its edge, and it stands to reason that he must be growing right along with it. "But Costello doesn't seem to like music critics much," I said. "He hasn't even given an interview in almost five years." Wolf promised to have a talk with Elvis about that. | ||
And it worked. I met Costello in the lobby of the Parker Meridien Hotel in New York City, and he came strolling in carrying his guitar, Just as friendly and cheerful as you please. He'd bought a suitcase full of records at various Manhattan stores, and he showed them to me — Richard Hell's ''Destiny Street'' was right in there with a couple of super-rare Chet Baker items ("my favorite singer") and some Ella Fitzgerald. | And it worked. I met Costello in the lobby of the Parker Meridien Hotel in New York City, and he came strolling in carrying his guitar, Just as friendly and cheerful as you please. He'd bought a suitcase full of records at various Manhattan stores, and he showed them to me — Richard Hell's ''Destiny Street'' was right in there with a couple of super-rare Chet Baker items ("my favorite singer") and some Ella Fitzgerald. | ||
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''I can understand your not wanting to talk to some of the English music writers, who seem to be mostly fashion-conscious and not very knowledgeable musically. But that's no excuse for just avoiding doing interviews with anyone. | ''I can understand your not wanting to talk to some of the English music writers, who seem to be mostly fashion-conscious and not very knowledgeable musically. But that's no excuse for just avoiding doing interviews with anyone. | ||
There were very few journalists I wanted to talk to. So many of them just ask idiotic questions. But more than that, it was important to me to be very clear about what I was doing. I read a lot of interviews in which the artist betrays artistic confusion. And during the early part of my career, I wasn't too clear about what I was doing; I just did It. At this moment, though, I feel very clear about what we've done and what we're doing. I can look back and see that there was a distinct break in my career after we made Armed Forces, for example. I think of the albums we've made since then as running together very distinctly — ''Get Happy!!'', ''Trust'', ''Almost Blue'' and ''Imperial Bedroom''. Before ''Armed Forces'', we were constantly touring, trying to attack America. And then we stopped... I'm sure you know why. | There were very few journalists I wanted to talk to. So many of them just ask idiotic questions. But more than that, it was important to me to be very clear about what I was doing. I read a lot of interviews in which the artist betrays artistic confusion. And during the early part of my career, I wasn't too clear about what I was doing; I just did It. At this moment, though, I feel very clear about what we've done and what we're doing. I can look back and see that there was a distinct break in my career after we made ''Armed Forces'', for example. I think of the albums we've made since then as running together very distinctly — ''Get Happy!!'', ''Trust'', ''Almost Blue'' and ''Imperial Bedroom''. Before ''Armed Forces'', we were constantly touring, trying to attack America. And then we stopped... I'm sure you know why. | ||
''I wasn't going to bring up the Columbus incident until later. I was going to talk about music first, jolly you up... | ''I wasn't going to bring up the Columbus incident until later. I was going to talk about music first, jolly you up... | ||
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''Well, the shows after ''Trust'' were a lot longer, there was a lot more give-and-take with the audience. And they couldn't really be as angry, whether the anger was contrived or not, because you were writing so many more ballads. | ''Well, the shows after ''Trust'' were a lot longer, there was a lot more give-and-take with the audience. And they couldn't really be as angry, whether the anger was contrived or not, because you were writing so many more ballads. | ||
I ''was'' very angry when we first came over here. And all the complacency I saw in America made me angry. But I'm not writing songs from the point of view of a 22-year-old computer programmer any more, I'm writing from the viewpoint of a moderately successful musician. And I don't think of a lot of the songs I'm writing now as rock | I ''was'' very angry when we first came over here. And all the complacency I saw in America made me angry. But I'm not writing songs from the point of view of a 22-year-old computer programmer any more, I'm writing from the viewpoint of a moderately successful musician. And I don't think of a lot of the songs I'm writing now as rock 'n' roll. On ''Imperial Bedroom'' especially, I was making a conscious effort to remove the dominance of the beat and have the melody dominate. I don't want to be just yelling and screaming; I'm not a wild man as such. I'm in pop music. Now Jerry Lee Lewis is a rock 'n' roll singer. He's deliberately perverse. When he was booked on rock 'n' roll revival shows in Europe, he sang hymns. Then I saw him recently at a big country music festival in England, and he sang nothing but rock 'n' roll. Little Richard is another one, a real rock 'n' roller. There aren't that many, I don't think. There are a lot of pretenders to it — bozos dressed in silly clothes. | ||
''The first time I heard some of the new songs from ''Imperial Bedroom'', when you performed in New York City last New Year's Eve, I got the impression that you were aiming at being a kind of Cole Porter or Jerome Kern for the '80s, that you had set your sights on writing standards. | ''The first time I heard some of the new songs from ''Imperial Bedroom'', when you performed in New York City last New Year's Eve, I got the impression that you were aiming at being a kind of Cole Porter or Jerome Kern for the '80s, that you had set your sights on writing standards. | ||
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''I could imagine Frank Sinatra doing one or two of the songs from ''Imperial Bedroom'' — "Almost Blue," for example. Is he a singer you really like? Who are some of your other favorites? | ''I could imagine Frank Sinatra doing one or two of the songs from ''Imperial Bedroom'' — "Almost Blue," for example. Is he a singer you really like? Who are some of your other favorites? | ||
So far, the most widely heard cover versions of my songs have been the ones by Linda Ronstadt. Her versions didn't do my bank balance any harm, but... ugh... it did smack of a decision, her decision or her producer's decision, to try to get a bit of "new wave credibility." There aren't that many singers I like... now Sinatra, yes, that would be ''ideal''. My publishers asked me not too long ago what my ambitions were, and I said that first I'd like to hear one of my songs recorded by Frank Sinatra or Aretha Franklin, and second, I'd like to write music to a lyric by Sammy Cahn. I did attempt a collaboration with him, and it didn't quite work out, but I really would like to keep a link with that era of songwriting. But everything is so pigeonholed now. Radio formats... Why can't you play Billie Holiday and then Hank Williams on the radio? They're the same thing. Why ''can't'' you hear Sinatra, Chet Baker, Lee Dorsey, Jerry Lee Lewis, Randy Newman, the Band, Little Willie John, Aaron Neville, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison, Dusty Springfield, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Stevie Wonder, some early Mel | So far, the most widely heard cover versions of my songs have been the ones by Linda Ronstadt. Her versions didn't do my bank balance any harm, but... ugh... it did smack of a decision, her decision or her producer's decision, to try to get a bit of "new wave credibility." There aren't that many singers I like... now Sinatra, yes, that would be ''ideal''. My publishers asked me not too long ago what my ambitions were, and I said that first I'd like to hear one of my songs recorded by Frank Sinatra or Aretha Franklin, and second, I'd like to write music to a lyric by Sammy Cahn. I did attempt a collaboration with him, and it didn't quite work out, but I really would like to keep a link with that era of songwriting. But everything is so pigeonholed now. Radio formats... Why can't you play Billie Holiday and then Hank Williams on the radio? They're the same thing. Why ''can't'' you hear Sinatra, Chet Baker, Lee Dorsey, Jerry Lee Lewis, Randy Newman, the Band, Little Willie John, Aaron Neville, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison, Dusty Springfield, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Stevie Wonder, some early Mel Tormé... Those are some of my favorite singers. | ||
''A lot of people would be amused to hear you talking about Mel | ''A lot of people would be amused to hear you talking about Mel Tormé and Chet Baker and so on ... I think in a lot of people's minds you're still that angry young new wave rocker... | ||
I always thought it was a real mistake to toss around that expression "new wave" in connection with my records. In the early days of Stiff Records, around 1976-77, Jake [Riviera, co-founder of the pioneering British label that gave Costello, Nick Lowe and many others their start] used to keep trying to come up with slogans. And I said ''our'' slogan should be "surfing on the new wave" — not being really involved in it, just riding on it. | I always thought it was a real mistake to toss around that expression "new wave" in connection with my records. In the early days of Stiff Records, around 1976-77, Jake [Riviera, co-founder of the pioneering British label that gave Costello, Nick Lowe and many others their start] used to keep trying to come up with slogans. And I said ''our'' slogan should be "surfing on the new wave" — not being really involved in it, just riding on it. | ||
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''Yet you want the songs to connect with people... | ''Yet you want the songs to connect with people... | ||
Yes, if you write pop songs you do want them to be important in people's lives. I'd love for one of my songs to be as important to someone as "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" by the Temptations was to me. On the other hand, I hate it when the relationship between the audience and me gets too intense and reverent. I hate rock | Yes, if you write pop songs you do want them to be important in people's lives. I'd love for one of my songs to be as important to someone as "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" by the Temptations was to me. On the other hand, I hate it when the relationship between the audience and me gets too intense and reverent. I hate rock 'n' roll climaxes, that whole sort of predictable response you get at the end of a rock concert. I'd rather close the show with a ballad. This whole "man alone tortured by his art" stance is something I'm trying to get rid of. I'm just not as weighed down by the pain of it all anymore. The important things to me are the words, the melody, the way you sing them — all the little innuendos you can get into them — above all, the ''feeling'' behind them. I'm trying to cut back on the clever wordplay and write things that are more directly emotional, more personal, things with more ''heart''. | ||
Other than that, what am I gonna do? Write a rock opera? Rock films, rock musicals... they're pathetic, a joke. So there's really just continuing the songwriting, honing that, doing it better. | Other than that, what am I gonna do? Write a rock opera? Rock films, rock musicals... they're pathetic, a joke. So there's really just continuing the songwriting, honing that, doing it better. | ||
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{{Bibliography notes}} | {{Bibliography notes}} | ||
{{Bibliography next | |||
|prev = New York Rocker, September 1982 | |||
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'''New York Rocker, No. 54, October 1982 | '''New York Rocker, No. 54, October 1982 | ||
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[[image:1982-10-00 New York Rocker cover.jpg|360px|border]] | [[image:1982-10-00 New York Rocker cover.jpg|360px|border]] | ||
<br><small>Cover.</small> | <br><small>Cover photo by [[Kim Steele]].</small> | ||
[[image:1982-10-00 New York Rocker page 17.jpg|360px|border]] | [[image:1982-10-00 New York Rocker page 17.jpg|360px|border]] | ||
<br><small>Page scans.</small> | |||
[[image:1982-10-00 New York Rocker page 18.jpg|x240px|border]][[image:1982-10-00 New York Rocker page 19.jpg|x240px|border]] | |||
<small>Photo by [[Kim Steele]].</small><br> | |||
[[image:1982-10-00 New York Rocker photo 01 ks.jpg|300px|border]] | |||
[[image:1982-10-00 New York Rocker photo | <small>Photo by [[Kim Steele]].</small><br> | ||
[[image:1982-10-00 New York Rocker photo 02 ks.jpg|300px|border]] | |||
<small>Contents page.</small><br> | |||
[[image:1982-10-00 New York Rocker page 03.jpg|x120px|border]] | [[image:1982-10-00 New York Rocker page 03.jpg|x120px|border]] | ||
{{Bibliography notes footer}} | {{Bibliography notes footer}} | ||
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*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Rocker Wikipedia: New York Rocker] | *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Rocker Wikipedia: New York Rocker] | ||
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Palmer_(writer) Wikipedia: Robert Palmer] | *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Palmer_(writer) Wikipedia: Robert Palmer] | ||
*[http://www.facebook.com/newmanology/photos/a.403713440848.176095.199718485848/403713530848 Facebook: Newmanology] | |||
*[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10203328119551134&set=a.1161842173626.25132.1454984925 Facebook: Stephen Kroninger] | |||
{{DEFAULTSORT:New York Rocker 1982-10-00}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:New York Rocker 1982-10-00}} |
Latest revision as of 22:22, 3 January 2022
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