Tampa Bay Times, March 11, 2015: Difference between revisions
(start page) |
(+browser) |
||
(4 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
Line 2: | Line 2: | ||
{{:Bibliography index}} | {{:Bibliography index}} | ||
{{:Tampa Bay Times index}} | {{:Tampa Bay Times index}} | ||
{{: | {{:Florida publications index}} | ||
{{:US publications by state index}} | |||
{{Bibliography article header}} | {{Bibliography article header}} | ||
<center> | <center><h3> Elvis Costello's aim is still true </h3></center> | ||
<h3> Elvis Costello's aim is still true </h3></center> | |||
---- | ---- | ||
<center> Jay Cridlin </center> | <center> Jay Cridlin </center> | ||
---- | ---- | ||
{{Bibliography text}} | {{Bibliography text}} | ||
An Elvis Costello story, from Emmylou Harris: | An Elvis Costello story, from Emmylou Harris: | ||
Line 19: | Line 18: | ||
"That's exactly right!" he exclaims. "She remembers it exactly right. The train track runs right behind the stage in Pittsburgh. It's funny that she should remember that. I've seen it happen to my wife (jazz singer Diana Krall) as well, but she's got a few more tunes. She played 'Take the A Train' when that happened. You've got to think on your feet in this business, you know?" | "That's exactly right!" he exclaims. "She remembers it exactly right. The train track runs right behind the stage in Pittsburgh. It's funny that she should remember that. I've seen it happen to my wife (jazz singer Diana Krall) as well, but she's got a few more tunes. She played 'Take the A Train' when that happened. You've got to think on your feet in this business, you know?" | ||
Few do it as well as Costello, the irascible, irrepressible New Wave icon who, at age 60, is as feisty as ever on the live concert stage. Nearly 40 years and 30 albums into an iconoclastic career, the English songsmith born Declan | Few do it as well as Costello, the irascible, irrepressible New Wave icon who, at age 60, is as feisty as ever on the live concert stage. Nearly 40 years and 30 albums into an iconoclastic career, the English songsmith born Declan MacManus still loves to zig when the world expects a zag, especially when he's out on the road in America. | ||
Many of his tours these days — such as his current solo [[Detour]], which hits Ruth Eckerd Hall on Monday — are, like the man himself, freewheeling and unpredictable, with Costello reaching deep into his catalog to play whatever song moves him at the moment. His last Clearwater show, in 2012, was part of his Spectacular Spinning Songbook Tour, in which parts of his set list were dictated by a giant twirling wheel at center stage. | Many of his tours these days — such as his current solo [[Detour]], which hits Ruth Eckerd Hall on Monday — are, like the man himself, freewheeling and unpredictable, with Costello reaching deep into his catalog to play whatever song moves him at the moment. His last Clearwater show, in 2012, was part of his Spectacular Spinning Songbook Tour, in which parts of his set list were dictated by a giant twirling wheel at center stage. | ||
Line 27: | Line 26: | ||
"I like to give the feeling it can go anywhere," he says. "That's why the tour is titled Detour. It invites the thought that we could go anywhere — and let's go there, you know?" | "I like to give the feeling it can go anywhere," he says. "That's why the tour is titled Detour. It invites the thought that we could go anywhere — and let's go there, you know?" | ||
• • • | <center> • • • </center> | ||
When Elvis Costello dies, every televised obituary, every in memoriam newsreel, surely will spin the famous clip from his 1977 appearance on ''Saturday Night Live''. Costello, then largely unknown in America, sabotaged his own performance by abruptly cutting off his new single Less Than Zero after a few bars ("I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, there's no reason to do this song here.") and ripping into Radio Radio instead. That incident resulted in a 12-year ban from ''SNL'', but it also established his rep as a showman: a smirking instigator with the spectacles of a chemist but the bird-flipping soul of a punk. | When Elvis Costello dies, every televised obituary, every in memoriam newsreel, surely will spin the famous clip from his 1977 appearance on ''Saturday Night Live''. Costello, then largely unknown in America, sabotaged his own performance by abruptly cutting off his new single "Less Than Zero" after a few bars ("I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, there's no reason to do this song here.") and ripping into "Radio, Radio" instead. That incident resulted in a 12-year ban from ''SNL'', but it also established his rep as a showman: a smirking instigator with the spectacles of a chemist but the bird-flipping soul of a punk. | ||
That image has persisted, and Costello has largely lived up to it — his sprawling discography veers wildly from genre to genre, including collaborative albums with artists as disparate as Burt Bacharach, Allen Toussaint and the Roots. His latest endeavor is the ''New Basement Tapes'', a folk-rock supergroup — featuring, among others, Mumford and Sons' Marcus Mumford and My Morning Jacket's Jim James — that gave life to a collection of once-lost Bob Dylan lyrics from the '60s. | That image has persisted, and Costello has largely lived up to it — his sprawling discography veers wildly from genre to genre, including collaborative albums with artists as disparate as Burt Bacharach, Allen Toussaint and the Roots. His latest endeavor is the ''New Basement Tapes'', a folk-rock supergroup — featuring, among others, Mumford and Sons' Marcus Mumford and My Morning Jacket's Jim James — that gave life to a collection of once-lost Bob Dylan lyrics from the '60s. | ||
Line 51: | Line 50: | ||
When he feels the audience beginning to drift: "Then it's time to get up and make a noise and get people's blood pumping a bit — and your own." | When he feels the audience beginning to drift: "Then it's time to get up and make a noise and get people's blood pumping a bit — and your own." | ||
Cynics have argued — perhaps "because of the variety of things I've done," he says — that all of this may sound too rehearsed to be real, that over a lifetime of live performance, Costello has grown too calculating, too detached from his 23-year-old self, to unleash another Radio Radio moment on the world. | Cynics have argued — perhaps "because of the variety of things I've done," he says — that all of this may sound too rehearsed to be real, that over a lifetime of live performance, Costello has grown too calculating, too detached from his 23-year-old self, to unleash another "Radio, Radio" moment on the world. | ||
Ever the contrarian, Costello argues that rock music has no orthodox definition, that a richly learned and lived-in performance can be just as moving as one that's spur of the moment. | Ever the contrarian, Costello argues that rock music has no orthodox definition, that a richly learned and lived-in performance can be just as moving as one that's spur of the moment. | ||
"You can start to elevate the idea of ' | "You can start to elevate the idea of rock 'n' roll, or some sort of raw, spontaneous performance, as being the only true way to do it," he says. "That's kind of a boring way to be, I think, is that there's only one way to play. Orthodoxy is the enemy of what I do." | ||
• • • | <center> • • • </center> | ||
Costello's Ruth Eckerd Hall gig is the first of two he'll play in Tampa Bay in 2015. He'll be back with a full band, the Imposters, opening for Steely Dan on Aug. 11 at Tampa's MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre. At that show, hits like Alison, Veronica and (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding will surely sound more like their old, familiar selves. | Costello's Ruth Eckerd Hall gig is the first of two he'll play in Tampa Bay in 2015. He'll be back with a full band, the Imposters, opening for Steely Dan on Aug. 11 at Tampa's MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre. At that show, hits like "Alison," "Veronica" and "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding" will surely sound more like their old, familiar selves. | ||
But does that make them better? Costello isn't so sure. At a solo concert last year at Carnegie Hall, he introduced 1983's Everyday I Write the Book, his first Top 40 single in the States, by announcing: "I'm going to play you a song now that I really hate. I wrote it in 10 minutes, and then it was a hit." | But does that make them better? Costello isn't so sure. At a solo concert last year at Carnegie Hall, he introduced 1983's Everyday I Write the Book, his first Top 40 single in the States, by announcing: "I'm going to play you a song now that I really hate. I wrote it in 10 minutes, and then it was a hit." | ||
Nothing against trotting out the hits — Costello still plays them every night — but there's a difference between playing Radio Radio because you have to, and playing it because it feels right and true in that moment. Embracing this has brought Costello "a lot of joy" on these solo and Spectacular Spinning Songbook tours. | Nothing against trotting out the hits — Costello still plays them every night — but there's a difference between playing "Radio, Radio" because you have to, and playing it because it feels right and true in that moment. Embracing this has brought Costello "a lot of joy" on these solo and Spectacular Spinning Songbook tours. | ||
"I think it's made the performances more emotional and stronger in the last few years, because I've been following my instincts instead of starting out, 'Well, I must play that. I have an obligation to play that song,' " he says. "You've got to earn the right to play the songs. Even the ones that people think they want to hear because they're famous, you can easily confuse yourself about that, and then you're playing the songs for cheap applause. Why would you do that? That's cheating the people who've bought the tickets." | "I think it's made the performances more emotional and stronger in the last few years, because I've been following my instincts instead of starting out, 'Well, I must play that. I have an obligation to play that song,' " he says. "You've got to earn the right to play the songs. Even the ones that people think they want to hear because they're famous, you can easily confuse yourself about that, and then you're playing the songs for cheap applause. Why would you do that? That's cheating the people who've bought the tickets." | ||
It's risky to play Radio Radio on ''Saturday Night Live'', to assume your band can keep up with your lead on "Mystery Train," to walk on stage all alone without knowing exactly what you're about to play. | It's risky to play "Radio, Radio" on ''Saturday Night Live'', to assume your band can keep up with your lead on "Mystery Train," to walk on stage all alone without knowing exactly what you're about to play. | ||
It's also the only way Elvis Costello cares to live. | It's also the only way Elvis Costello cares to live. | ||
Line 75: | Line 74: | ||
{{cx}} | {{cx}} | ||
'''Elvis Costello — The singer performs solo at 8 p.m. Monday at Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 N McMullen-Booth Road, Clearwater. Tickets are $49.50-$150. <!-- (727) 791-7400 or rutheckerdhall.com. --> <br> | |||
'''Elvis Costello | '''Costello and his band the Imposters will perform with Steely Dan on Aug. 11 at the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa. Tickets to that show are $25-$132 via LiveNation.com. | ||
Line 84: | Line 83: | ||
{{Bibliography notes}} | {{Bibliography notes}} | ||
{{Bibliography next | |||
|prev = :Category:Tampa Bay Times | |||
|next = Tampa Bay Times, March 17, 2015 | |||
}} | |||
'''Tampa Bay Times, March 11, 2015 | '''Tampa Bay Times, March 11, 2015 | ||
---- | ---- | ||
[[Jay Cridlin]] interviews | [[Jay Cridlin]] interviews Elvis Costello ahead of the concert, Monday, [[Concert 2015-03-16 Clearwater|March 16, 2015]], Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater, Florida. | ||
{{Bibliography images}} | {{Bibliography images}} | ||
[[image:2015-03-11 Tampa Bay Times photo 01 ap.jpg| | [[image:2015-03-11 Tampa Bay Times photo 01 ap.jpg|320px|border]] | ||
<br><small>Associated Press photo (1986).</small> | <br><small>Associated Press photo (1986).</small> | ||
<small>Getty Images (2005).</small><br> | <small>Getty Images (2005).</small><br> | ||
[[image:2015-03-11 Tampa Bay Times photo 02 gi.jpg| | [[image:2015-03-11 Tampa Bay Times photo 02 gi.jpg|320px|border]] | ||
[[image:2015-03-11 Tampa Bay Times photo 03 | [[image:2015-03-11 Tampa Bay Times photo 03 nbc.jpg|320px|border]] | ||
<br><small>NBC (2015).</small> | <br><small>NBC (2015).</small> | ||
Line 107: | Line 111: | ||
*[http://www.tampabay.com/things-to-do/music/interview-elvis-costello-on-his-shows-music-philosophy/2220876 TampaBay.com] | *[http://www.tampabay.com/things-to-do/music/interview-elvis-costello-on-his-shows-music-philosophy/2220876 TampaBay.com] | ||
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampa_Bay_Times Wikipedia: Tampa Bay Times] | *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampa_Bay_Times Wikipedia: Tampa Bay Times] | ||
*[http://newspagedesigner.org/photo/elvis-costello?context=latest#!/photo/elvis-costello newspagedesigner.org] | |||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tampa Bay Times 2015-03-11}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Tampa Bay Times 2015-03-11}} | ||
Line 114: | Line 119: | ||
[[Category:Newspaper articles]] | [[Category:Newspaper articles]] | ||
[[Category:Interviews]] | [[Category:Interviews]] | ||
[[Category: | [[Category:2015 interviews]] |
Latest revision as of 18:16, 18 January 2024
|