LA Weekly, September 16, 1983: Difference between revisions
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I spoke with Costello the day after his Austin [[Concert 1983-09-07 Austin|show]], and found him to be as interesting in conversation as he is in song. He was excited about a recent recording session with noted Crescent City producer Allen Toussaint in New Orleans, where Costello had done the song "Walking on Thin Ice," which will be released on the Yoko Ono compilation of various artists interpreting her work. Needless to say, the collaboration is a left turn from anything we've heard from Elvis Costello. | I spoke with Costello the day after his Austin [[Concert 1983-09-07 Austin|show]], and found him to be as interesting in conversation as he is in song. He was excited about a recent recording session with noted Crescent City producer Allen Toussaint in New Orleans, where Costello had done the song "Walking on Thin Ice," which will be released on the Yoko Ono compilation of various artists interpreting her work. Needless to say, the collaboration is a left turn from anything we've heard from Elvis Costello. | ||
''How did your doing the song for the Yoko Ono album come about? | ''How did your doing the song for the Yoko Ono album come about? | ||
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It's a long, slow process for us, but no worse than it is for a lot of people that I really admire. Even if you get around the fact that there are all these black stations, white stations, and country stations in little boxes all across the country, they're all still very narrow. I mean, the black stations still play disco mostly. Where's Bobby Bland? His new records deserve to be heard. We might get some play, but there are people with greater credentials that aren't getting any kind of attention. | It's a long, slow process for us, but no worse than it is for a lot of people that I really admire. Even if you get around the fact that there are all these black stations, white stations, and country stations in little boxes all across the country, they're all still very narrow. I mean, the black stations still play disco mostly. Where's Bobby Bland? His new records deserve to be heard. We might get some play, but there are people with greater credentials that aren't getting any kind of attention. | ||
''Looking at the non-original songs you've recorded — like Sam | ''Looking at the non-original songs you've recorded — like Sam & Dave's "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down," and Betty Everett's "Getting Mighty Crowded" — you seem very influenced by rhythm & blues. | ||
Yeah, I guess I am. I think part of that is because radio in England has opened up in the past several years, while American radio has gotten more closed. Here, you've got all these musical ghettos. It could be that all the white kids are going to grow up sounding like REO Speedwagon and the black kids will sound like Rick James. They're not going to interact at all and create any new hybrid. Presumably rock & roll was born from a geographical area where enough musical styles overlapped to create a cross between rhythm & blues and country. Now, there's no sympathy between the actual musics; it's like the musics simply won't mate. Except Prince, who really isn't that different from Bob Seger. "Little Red Corvette" tells you that. In England, the difference is we're so much more exposed to various styles; it's much more mixed. There's a lot more interest in soul music, and there're cults that generate an interest so that really obscure people end up getting revered. | Yeah, I guess I am. I think part of that is because radio in England has opened up in the past several years, while American radio has gotten more closed. Here, you've got all these musical ghettos. It could be that all the white kids are going to grow up sounding like REO Speedwagon and the black kids will sound like Rick James. They're not going to interact at all and create any new hybrid. Presumably rock & roll was born from a geographical area where enough musical styles overlapped to create a cross between rhythm & blues and country. Now, there's no sympathy between the actual musics; it's like the musics simply won't mate. Except Prince, who really isn't that different from Bob Seger. "Little Red Corvette" tells you that. In England, the difference is we're so much more exposed to various styles; it's much more mixed. There's a lot more interest in soul music, and there're cults that generate an interest so that really obscure people end up getting revered. | ||
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''Have you ever come close to quitting? | ''Have you ever come close to quitting? | ||
Yeah, a few times. I nearly quit at the beginning of the ''Armed Forces'' tour. At the time, we'd gone from being the new thing to being "pop stars." It seemed like rather a pointless ritual. But I realized that if what you're doing is actually worth doing, don't let the fact that all the attention is on this one song, "Accidents Will Happen," get to you. Because if you quit, there's someone else who'll come along to promote their one song. So you might as well present a viable alternative to that. Then, I felt like after ''Get Happy!!'', that was it, I wasn't going to make any more records. I was drinking a lot and taking a lot of drugs, and I was going a bit on-edge; I didn't see much future in it. Even that Sam | Yeah, a few times. I nearly quit at the beginning of the ''Armed Forces'' tour. At the time, we'd gone from being the new thing to being "pop stars." It seemed like rather a pointless ritual. But I realized that if what you're doing is actually worth doing, don't let the fact that all the attention is on this one song, "Accidents Will Happen," get to you. Because if you quit, there's someone else who'll come along to promote their one song. So you might as well present a viable alternative to that. Then, I felt like after ''Get Happy!!'', that was it, I wasn't going to make any more records. I was drinking a lot and taking a lot of drugs, and I was going a bit on-edge; I didn't see much future in it. Even that Sam & Dave song, "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down," was the most lighthearted thing on the album, which is quite harrowing. That song was literally the reality under which we were currently performing. Then on ''Trust'' we started thinking about things getting better. From then on, it was a matter of emphasizing those feelings that say it's right to continue, and also collecting your health. I stopped drinking then. The exorcising of all that was ''Almost Blue'', which sounds like a sad, sad record. That's the closest to a blues record as I'll probably ever make. At the time, it was an exorcism of despair. So I'd done that then, and it was like taking a weight off. I felt better. | ||
''On the next album, ''Imperial Bedroom'', you opened up a whole new sound and emotional tone from what you'd done before. | ''On the next album, ''Imperial Bedroom'', you opened up a whole new sound and emotional tone from what you'd done before. | ||
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''Do you wish people would be a little less wrong in their comparisons? | ''Do you wish people would be a little less wrong in their comparisons? | ||
I wish they'd shut up, really. It makes you think sometimes they haven't gotten it, that you've done something wrong. To combat that, I think you've got to sometimes overstate the case. And if I've overstated the case in one way to begin with, I don't want to redress the balance and overstate myself the other direction in a windy kind of way. If I've been a bit overaggressive to start with, I'd feel like an idiot going too far the other | I wish they'd shut up, really. It makes you think sometimes they haven't gotten it, that you've done something wrong. To combat that, I think you've got to sometimes overstate the case. And if I've overstated the case in one way to begin with, I don't want to redress the balance and overstate myself the other direction in a windy kind of way. If I've been a bit overaggressive to start with, I'd feel like an idiot going too far the other way. I'm much more naturally aggressive than I am naturally passive as a person. It's more in my capabilities to overdramatize the aggressive in music than to underplay it. I also think it's much easier to get a good effect and overdramatize an aggression than it is to trivialize an emotion, which is what you'd have to do to overstate your case the other way. | ||
''The song "Shipbuilding" sounds like it has a particular poignancy for you. | |||
That came up while the Falkland Islands thing was happening. There are very few anti-war songs that haven't reverted to the obvious cliches. That particularly irony struck me, that you could have re-employment at the shipyards and then the workers' sons could go to the Falklands to get killed. The way the Falklands war was really drummed up was very depressing. Some people read that into "Pills and Soap" as well, all the misplaced sympathy and trust and belief and hope. That whole manipulation of emotions, especially nationalism and patriotism, that institutions do. | |||
''When you make a record, do you have a group of songs that you think all fit together? | |||
I usually have a pretty good idea. I look at what I've written, and I want them generally to come up to strength. Sometimes there's some real contenders that just don't fit in. We've got songs that are sitting in the can for just that reason. Not fantastic gems, or anything. That's why we put out ''Taking Liberties'': to clear out the collectors' market, which seems like a bore to me people paying a fortune for these records that should be readily available. | |||
''Are you making plans yet for the next record? | |||
I haven't been writing that much lately. I always go through a sort of blank period after finishing an album. You've used up everything from the previous year in writing those songs, and you've got to store up new experiences. I've only written one song since we've finished the album. By my standards, it's been a slow period to get back on, maybe because the longer it goes on the more I consider what I want to do next. What I found out last time was that right after ''Imperial Bedroom'' I wrote three or four songs that, as good as they might have been, were just a continuation of ''Imperial Bedroom'', and didn't cover anything new. | |||
''Are you excited about music videos? | |||
I don't give a shit about video. We just have a bit of fun doing them. I don't take them all that seriously. It can be an interesting holiday from making records, but it's also an enormous vanity. I can't think of anything more boring than a load of conceited, vain pop stars with a massive budget that is in no way justified by musical talent to go make a short movie about themselves. I really don't subscribe to that at all. When Duran Duran fall into the water with their clothes on, and do it so self-consciously, there's just no humility involved at all. I'd rather treat them as a bit of a joke. Really, it's just an advertisement without a stupid talkover. It's sure not better than what radio could be. You might see bands on MTV that make you more interested in what they are, because you see just what they look like. A lot of it dulls you after awhile. I think what's missing is the mystery that radio can have. | |||
''Looking back at your nine albums, which stand out? | |||
The record I now value the most as a change in style is ''Get Happy!!'' It's the one I think is the closest to the edge for us. It was either make that one or not make. anymore. I can pick holes in all of them, and see virtues as well, but I'm most proud of that one. You have to respect the fact that you did them with the best of intentions at the time, even if you don't feel that great about them now. We've only made one really dreadful record that I knew was awful at the time, and that was the "Party Party" single. I wrote it in five minutes and it sounds like it was written in two minutes. There's some songs that might not hold up totally, but if you write 11 or 20 songs, they can't all be brilliant. | |||
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{{tags}}[[Austin]] {{-}} [[Jake Riviera]] {{-}} [[Los Angeles]] {{-}} [[Paul McCartney]] {{-}} [[:Category:Clocking In Across America Tour|Clocking In Across America]] {{-}} [[Everyday I Write The Book]] {{-}} [[The Attractions]] {{-}} [[The TKO Horns]] {{-}} [[Universal Amphitheatre]] {{-}} [[Concert 1983-09-07 Austin|Austin show]] {{-}} [[Allen Toussaint]] {{-}} [[New Orleans]] {{-}} [[Walking On Thin Ice]] {{-}} [[Every Man Has A Woman|Yoko Ono compilation]] {{-}} [[Almost Blue]] {{-}} [[Nashville]] {{-}} [[Punch The Clock]] {{-}} [[Concert 1982-12-24 London|Albert Hall concert]] {{-}} [[Royal Albert Hall]] {{-}} [[London]] {{-}} [[Imperial Bedroom]] {{-}} [[Elvis Presley]] {{-}} [[The Beatles]] {{-}} [[Talking Heads]] {{-}} [[Bobby Bland]] {{-}} [[Sam & Dave]] {{-}} [[I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down]] {{-}} [[Getting Mighty Crowded#Recordings by other artists|Betty Everett]] {{-}} [[Getting Mighty Crowded]] {{-}} [[Prince]] {{-}} [[Bob Marley]] {{-}} [[Bob Dylan]] {{-}} [[Memphis]] {{-}} [[Detroit]] {{-}} [[Chicago]] {{-}} [[Los Angeles]] {{-}} [[Nice]] {{-}} [[X (band)]] {{-}} [[John Hiatt]] {{-}} [[Percy Sledge]] {{-}} [[Gerry Goffin]] {{-}} [[Carole King]] {{-}} [[Life, September 1983|Life magazine interview]] {{-}} [[George Gershwin]] {{-}} [[This Year's Model]] {{-}} [[The Rolling Stones]] {{-}} [[Vanity Fair, November 2000#The Rolling Stones|Aftermath]] {{-}} [[Vanity Fair, November 2000#The Rolling Stones|Stupid Girl]] {{-}} [[This Year's Girl]] {{-}} [[Oliver's Army]] {{-}} [[Goon Squad]] {{-}} [[Armed Forces]] {{-}} [[Accidents Will Happen]] {{-}} [[Get Happy!!]] {{-}} [[Sam & Dave]] {{-}} [[I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down]] {{-}} [[Trust]] {{-}} [[Almost Blue]] {{-}} [[Imperial Bedroom]] {{-}} [[Cole Porter]] {{-}} [[Las Vegas]] {{-}} [[Shipbuilding]] {{-}} [[Pills And Soap]] {{-}} [[Taking Liberties]] {{-}} [[Duran Duran]] {{-}} [[Party Party]] | |||
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{{Bibliography notes header}} | {{Bibliography notes header}} |
Revision as of 00:34, 17 August 2019
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