Creem, May 1979: Difference between revisions
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Chaperoned in the back of a hire car, taking in the sights, partaking in entertaining chit-chat about the industry with fellow passengers, I shouldn't feel this damned uneasy. But impending duties weigh heavy and a sizeable part of me is getting more and more dispirited about the deal I've gotten into. | Chaperoned in the back of a hire car, taking in the sights, partaking in entertaining chit-chat about the industry with fellow passengers, I shouldn't feel this damned uneasy. But impending duties weigh heavy and a sizeable part of me is getting more and more dispirited about the deal I've gotten into. | ||
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Meanwhile amid this personal strife, Costello, his band and manager Riviera have to face up to easily the heaviest professional maneuver of their career. Having viewed Costello as very much in the Springsteen mold of burgeoning megastar, U.S. Columbia are determined to go all out on their third shot in much the same way as they did with ''Born To Run''. Riviera knows the score exactly. "We either make it all the way with ''Armed Forces'' or we don't. If this album doesn't break in America, then Columbia will still keep us but we'll be considered pretty much a spent force." | Meanwhile amid this personal strife, Costello, his band and manager Riviera have to face up to easily the heaviest professional maneuver of their career. Having viewed Costello as very much in the Springsteen mold of burgeoning megastar, U.S. Columbia are determined to go all out on their third shot in much the same way as they did with ''Born To Run''. Riviera knows the score exactly. "We either make it all the way with ''Armed Forces'' or we don't. If this album doesn't break in America, then Columbia will still keep us but we'll be considered pretty much a spent force." | ||
It's this sort of pressure that's caused Riviera once again to hassle with Columbia bigwigs over the actual track listing on the new album, having to concede to the deletion of "Sunday's Best | It's this sort of pressure that's caused Riviera once again to hassle with Columbia bigwigs over the actual track listing on the new album, having to concede to the deletion of "Sunday's Best" — with "Peace, Love And Understanding" slotted in its place as the necessary "obvious choice for single" airplay. | ||
As far as prior Stateside form goes, it's intriguing to note that ''This Year's Model'' didn't sell as well as ''My Aim Is True'' (''Aim'' by the way holds the record for being the all-time biggest selling "import" of this decade) due mostly to the lack of that one track that radio stations can pick up on en masse to use to push the album. | As far as prior Stateside form goes, it's intriguing to note that ''This Year's Model'' didn't sell as well as ''My Aim Is True'' (''Aim'' by the way holds the record for being the all-time biggest selling "import" of this decade) due mostly to the lack of that one track that radio stations can pick up on ''en masse'' to use to push the album. | ||
In Britain, after arduous double-checking, the choice for the new single has settled on "Oliver's Army," although ''Forces'' has at least four other tracks with equally nagging hook-lines and all sound high-grade commercial potential. In its own intimate way ''Armed Forces'' is Costello's most fervent declaration of intention yet for the title of great 70's pop subversive. The old parallels with Van Morrison, Graham Parker, etc., now seem doubly redundant — the only comparisons even worth making are with the Beatles (the quote from ''Abbey Road'' is no mere coincidence) and Bowie (again that "Rebel Rebel" coda on "Two Little Hitlers" replete with is stylistic nod to "TVC15" in the vocal inflexions) and they scarcely scratch the surface. | In Britain, after arduous double-checking, the choice for the new single has settled on "Oliver's Army," although ''Forces'' has at least four other tracks with equally nagging hook-lines and all sound high-grade commercial potential. In its own intimate way ''Armed Forces'' is Costello's most fervent declaration of intention yet for the title of great 70's pop subversive. The old parallels with Van Morrison, Graham Parker, etc., now seem doubly redundant — the only comparisons even worth making are with the Beatles (the quote from ''Abbey Road'' is no mere coincidence) and Bowie (again that "Rebel Rebel" coda on "Two Little Hitlers" replete with is stylistic nod to "TVC15" in the vocal inflexions) and they scarcely scratch the surface. | ||
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" 'Pump It Up' was actually the last song I wrote for the ''Model'' album and it was conceived very much as a reaction to that tour. | " 'Pump It Up' was actually the last song I wrote for the ''Model'' album and it was conceived very much as a reaction to that tour. | ||
"My feelings about that tour ... well, it was fun because as far as I was concerned it was principally down to pushing Ian's album. Like every night the encore would be 'Sex And Drugs' | "My feelings about that tour ... well, it was fun because as far as I was concerned it was principally down to pushing Ian's album. Like every night the encore would be 'Sex And Drugs,' right, and Ian knows there's more to it than that, obviously, but it quickly reaches a point where the tour started to take on the manifestations of the song. And like it was getting so ugly I was compelled to write "Pump It Up" as, you know, well just how much can you fuck, how many drugs can you do before you get so numb you can't really feel anything? | ||
"The Stiff tour was a failure as far as I was concerned. It failed initially because Ian's album didn't immediately take off anyway. On the other hand there was plenty of human chemistry but lots of it was just down to basic negativity. In the last two weeks it can really start to show on certain people's faces. | "The Stiff tour was a failure as far as I was concerned. It failed initially because Ian's album didn't immediately take off anyway. On the other hand there was plenty of human chemistry but lots of it was just down to basic negativity. In the last two weeks it can really start to show on certain people's faces. | ||
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"But we read the same magazines," chips in Clarke with characteristic good humor. Suddenly Clarke disappears, leaving me with Costello — still amenable to talking. Time to aim for the pressing issues. An opening salvo on ''Armed Forces'' seems appropriate enough. Like, why has Costello relented from calling the album by its initially intended moniker of ''Emotional Fascism''? | "But we read the same magazines," chips in Clarke with characteristic good humor. Suddenly Clarke disappears, leaving me with Costello — still amenable to talking. Time to aim for the pressing issues. An opening salvo on ''Armed Forces'' seems appropriate enough. Like, why has Costello relented from calling the album by its initially intended moniker of ''Emotional Fascism''? | ||
"Because it became obvious | "Because it became obvious that it was impossible to get away with it. And also because ''Armed Forces'' seemed actually more appropriate with its double meaning and all. It was Pete's (Thomas) idea actually." | ||
Just as it seems a dialogue has begun, a finger taps on my shoulder and Costello's lackey PR man peers down and informs me its time to split. When I counter that I'm happy to spend the night at the hotel the message has to be spelt out. "It would be, uh, ''better'' if you came with us," he lears. I look at Costello who sits there smiling inscrutably and I realize that I've been set | Just as it seems a dialogue has begun, a finger taps on my shoulder and Costello's lackey PR man peers down and informs me its time to split. When I counter that I'm happy to spend the night at the hotel the message has to be spelt out. "It would be, uh, ''better'' if you came with us," he lears. I look at Costello who sits there smiling inscrutably and I realize that I've been set up. The whole thing has been a performance, impeccably acted out with Costello the likely instigator. He'll probably get a song out of it. | ||
And that would be that, if it weren't for some revelations on the drive back. Jake Riviera, as always still functioning on enough adrenalin to equip a small field battalion, reveals that Elvis has already composed the whole of his next album while bassist Bruce Thomas reckons the maestro has enough to fill four new albums. | And that would be that, if it weren't for some revelations on the drive back. Jake Riviera, as always still functioning on enough adrenalin to equip a small field battalion, reveals that Elvis has already composed the whole of his next album while bassist Bruce Thomas reckons the maestro has enough to fill four new albums. | ||
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One year later I addressed that same quote to him asking whether success had amended that feeling. | One year later I addressed that same quote to him asking whether success had amended that feeling. | ||
"It's still too close to that. I'm already getting paranoid about what is usually petty bitchiness. Like, someone from England saw me in the States and said something like, 'Oh he's not hungry anymore.' Like I'd lost that edge or something. And it scared me. Sometimes it's just fatigue, other times you can really start to doubt yourself. Sometimes it can be healthy because complete conviction about one's | "It's still too close to that. I'm already getting paranoid about what is usually petty bitchiness. Like, someone from England saw me in the States and said something like, 'Oh he's not hungry anymore.' Like I'd lost that edge or something. And it scared me. Sometimes it's just fatigue, other times you can really start to doubt yourself. Sometimes it can be healthy because complete conviction about one's rightness at all times is the worst sort of vanity. Like I've got areas of megalomania which are sometimes the only things that keep me going. | ||
"Sometimes even now I can feel absolutely washed up. If two days go by without an idea for a song, I become obsessive about writing. That's what taking it up as a career does as opposed to it merely being a hobby. The thought of me drying up doesn't scare me so much as the thought of me just repeating myself in a series of diminished echoes. | "Sometimes even now I can feel absolutely washed up. If two days go by without an idea for a song, I become obsessive about writing. That's what taking it up as a career does as opposed to it merely being a hobby. The thought of me drying up doesn't scare me so much as the thought of me just repeating myself in a series of diminished echoes. | ||
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'''Creem, May 1979 | '''Creem, May 1979 | ||
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[[Nick Kent]] profiles Elvis Costello. <span style="font-size:92%">( | [[Nick Kent]] profiles Elvis Costello. <span style="font-size:92%">(From [[New Musical Express, January 27, 1979|''NME'', January 1979]].)</span> | ||
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[[Robert Christgau]] reviews ''[[Armed Forces]]''. | [[Robert Christgau]] reviews ''[[Armed Forces]]''. | ||
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{{Bibliography images}} | {{Bibliography images}} | ||
[[image:1979-05-00 Creem cover.jpg| | [[image:1979-05-00 Creem cover.jpg|x257px]]{{t}} | ||
[[image:1979-05-00 Creem page 40.jpg| | [[image:1979-05-00 Creem page 40.jpg|x257px]] | ||
<br><small>Cover and page scan.</small> | <br><small>Cover and page scan.</small> | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
{{Bibliography box | {{Bibliography box}} | ||
<center><h3> Armed Forces </h3></center> | <center><h3> Armed Forces </h3></center> | ||
<center>''' Elvis Costello </center> | <center>''' Elvis Costello </center> | ||
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{{Bibliography text}} | {{Bibliography text}} | ||
[[image:1979-05-00 Creem page 12.jpg|120px|right | [[image:1979-05-00 Creem page 12.jpg|120px|right]] | ||
Like his predecessor, Bob Dylan, this ambitious tunesmith offers more as a phrase-maker than as an analyst or a poet, more as a public image than as a thinking, feeling person. He needs words because they add color and detail to his music. I like the more explicitly sociopolitical tenor here— "the boys from the Mersey and the Thames and The Times" evokes the conscripts in Her Majesty's Senior Service more directly than any lover he's inclined to pick on. But I don't find as many memorable bits of language as I did on ''This Year's Model''. And though I approve of the more intricate pop constructions of the music, I found <i>TYM</i>'s relentless nastiness of instrumental and (especially) vocal attack more compelling. A good record, to be sure, but not a great one. | Like his predecessor, Bob Dylan, this ambitious tunesmith offers more as a phrase-maker than as an analyst or a poet, more as a public image than as a thinking, feeling person. He needs words because they add color and detail to his music. I like the more explicitly sociopolitical tenor here— "the boys from the Mersey and the Thames and The Times" evokes the conscripts in Her Majesty's Senior Service more directly than any lover he's inclined to pick on. But I don't find as many memorable bits of language as I did on ''This Year's Model''. And though I approve of the more intricate pop constructions of the music, I found <i>TYM</i>'s relentless nastiness of instrumental and (especially) vocal attack more compelling. A good record, to be sure, but not a great one. | ||
{{cx}} | {{cx}} | ||
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<br><br> | <br><br> | ||
[[image:1979-05-00 Creem photo 05 be.jpg| | <small>Photos by [[Brad Elterman]] and [[Lynn Goldsmith]].</small><br> | ||
<br>< | [[image:1979-05-00 Creem photo 05 be.jpg|x385px|Photo by Brad Elterman]]{{t}} | ||
[[image:1979-05-00 Creem photo 02 lg.jpg|x385px|Photo by Lynn Goldsmith]] | |||
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{{Bibliography box}} | |||
{{Bibliography box | |||
<center><h3> Waiting for the end of the world </h3></center> | <center><h3> Waiting for the end of the world </h3></center> | ||
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<br><br><br> | <br><br><br> | ||
[[image:1979-05-00 Creem cover photo 01 rb.jpg| | <small>Photo by [[Roberta Bayley photos|Roberta Bayley]].</small><br> | ||
[[image:1979-05-00 Creem cover photo 01 rb.jpg|380px]] | |||
<small>Photo by [[Chalkie Davies]].</small><br> | |||
[[image:1979-05-00 Creem photo 03 cd.jpg|380px]] | |||
<small>Photo by [[Roberta Bayley photos|Roberta Bayley]].</small><br> | |||
[[image:1979-05-00 Creem photo 04 rb.jpg|380px]] | |||
<small>Page scans.</small><br> | |||
[[image:1979-05-00 Creem page 41.jpg|x255px]] | |||
[[image:1979-05-00 Creem page 42.jpg|x255px]] | |||
[[image:1979-05-00 Creem page 70.jpg| | <small>Page scans.</small><br> | ||
[[image:1979-05-00 Creem page 71.jpg| | [[image:1979-05-00 Creem page 05.jpg|x170px]] | ||
[[image:1979-05-00 Creem page 70.jpg|x170px]] | |||
[[image:1979-05-00 Creem page 71.jpg|x170px]] | |||
{{Bibliography notes footer}} | {{Bibliography notes footer}} |
Latest revision as of 23:34, 24 January 2024
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