Spike Demo Version Revisited

[TurtleDanceMan]

Hi everyone, I'm a writer for Spectrum Culture and recently did a piece about the demo version of Spike. I'm pasting the link here as I believe readers of this Elvis sight MIGHT enjoy reading it.

All comments, criticisms, and corrections are most appreciated. For the forum admins - as this is purely Elvis-related and hopefully will prompt discussion about Spike and the demos, I hope you will allow this posting.

Thanks.

Eric

http://spectrumculture.com/2010/02/revi ... rsion.html

[Neil.]

Nice piece! Makes me want to revisit the demos - though I can't actually believe they'll be an improvement on most of the album proper!

[Jack of All Parades]

Thank you for sharing your piece. You write with a muscular authority and clearly have a connection with your subject. Your prose is engaging and moves the reader along. I would only take issue with your conclusion that the 'demos' provide a stronger presentation of EC's lyrics. I would argue that cluttered lyrics unwrapped from their musical arrangements are still cluttered lyrics. Though the album contains some excellent songs, as you point out, "Last Boat Leaving", "Veronica", and "God's Comic" for example, it still suffers for me from a chronic problem that often inflicts an EC lyric, verbal excess. The man cannot put down his thesaurus. An argument can be made that what people call his tremendous ability to write a memorable lyric really consists of a particular phrase or image inserted within a lyric, not the entire lyric. There is a reason so many of his songs fail to be covered by other singers; he has difficulty consistently maintaining a clean line. I actually like the full arrangements on this album as they make many of the songs listenable for my ears.

[TurtleDanceMan]

those are good points Christopher. Many of the folks I know actually make the same comments - namely, that Costello often tends to be wordy to the point of annoyance in his lyrics. I personally don't share that opinion, but it's hard to argue against it in certain cases (the demo versions of Tramp the Dirt Down and Veronica for example).

[Ypsilanti]

it still suffers for me from a chronic problem that often inflicts an EC lyric, verbal excess. The man cannot put down his thesaurus.

Chris, I know you really take issue with the wordiness, but it seems to me that wordy songs are kind of what EC does--for better or for worse, this is surely one of the defining elements of his writing style. The less wordy songs are a pretty small subset of his overall catalog. It's like saying Woody Allen movies are great, except the ones that are set in New York. It's my feeling that Elvis employs a less-wordy technique when he wants to make a particularly clear point--when he wants to make a song stand out in stark contrast to his other work. For me, that's why "North" is so stunning. And while I enjoyed all the songs "Momofuku", the straightforward love and fear expressed in "My Three Sons" hits me like a punch in the face.

[Jack of All Parades]

If I am reading you correctly you might almost agree with me. I have no great aversion for 'wordier' efforts by EC; if that were so I would have a strong antipathy towards "Imperial Bedroom" which in truth I hold in high esteem. It is just that I think he is most successful when he controls his verbal impulse as you adroitly point out in an album like "North" or a song like "My Three Sons". I would think he would want all his songs to "stand out'. Turtle, I did like your piece and appreciate 'love' being shown to an album that is often held in lower esteem as you point out, even if it is for the alt disc included in the Rhino reissue. I also applaud you being published and wish you a long, productive writing life.

I have to credit Pophead2k with jump starting my thought process regarding his songwriting. I do not think he started out as a word junkie when he burst on the scene in 1977. Those first three albums are as Bruce Springsteen rightly pointed out on Spectacle a call to arms. They are filled with succinct and sublimely pithy lyrics set to a pulsing three chord beat. Over time, however, and I think beginning with the "Imperial Bedroom" album, EC became infatuated with his press- the 'great' lyricist buzz that has pervaded the air around him all these years. EC stepped away frequently from his economical style and embellished. Not always successfully I would argue.

I really believe there is something in the intelligent discussion he held with Bruce Springsteen this season regarding songwriting. The equation put forth by Bruce that 1+1 =3 has merit. I argue that EC listened and took an assessment of his songwriting as to whether he met that equation with the concrete, specific, narrative based approach Bruce discussed. I equally feel that he may be re engaging with that style having as well listened to Jesse Winchester this season on Spectacle or John Prine. One only has to think of past comments EC has made regarding the songwriting of Mr. Winchester. How raptly did he listen while 'Shama a lama dong ding" was song? He was exceedingly attentive.

That is why I am encouraged by recent efforts like "You Hung the Moon", "Down Among the Wines and Spirits" and this newest effort "Jimmie standing in the rain". I am ecstatic that he may be re engaged with his craft and will grace us with more efforts along these lines. Clutter is still clutter. Give me a strongly crafted song anyday.

[charliestumpy]

Amongst other things, Costello's verbal dexterity-wit-humour is prime in what interested me to buy his stuff from 1977 (as well as his fun music). I buy/enjoy about 50 other fine song wordsters, including Dylan, Simon, Ian Dury etc etc.

[Ypsilanti]

Chris--Maybe I don't quite understand what you mean--I thought you were talking about things like Elvis' use of puns, multi-syllabic rhymes, double & triple (perhaps even quadruple) entendre and generally using just a lot of words--none of which are part of telling a simple, direct story--and might be considered clutter. Plus there are other things, like when he speaks in multiple character voices within the same song or sets the story in both the past and the present. He also tends to insert small but totally obscure details--things that are probably only meaningful to him. Personally, I like all this stuff, but it doesn't necessarily make for songs with a clear narrative. I guess I'd say Elvis is really an old-school songwriter--not a story teller, really. The son of Lorenz Hart and Cole Porter, rather than Bob Dylan (I always think that comparison is odd).

But again, I seem to have misunderstood you--and I'm sorry for that. What are some examples of the songs you find cluttered?

[alexv]

Ypsilanti, take a look at the lyric sheets for MAIT, TYM, AF and GH, you'll see that even though the songs are filled with puns, double entendres, word play etc. (all the things many of us love about EC), the songs themselves are short (well, as short as EC songs can be) and to the point, particularly when compared to the dense lyrics of his songs, starting by my count with Trust, not IB.

Best way to see this is to go to the Home Page at the Wiki and scan the lyric sheets for those records. It's striking to see how snappy the songs on the early albums are, all the way through to GH. Even when you see a lot of lines, the lines themselves are brief. Just visually scanning the lines of these songs you see how succint they are. Now look at Spike, or Goodbye Cruel World, or Sulphur, or MLAR and you see how dense the lines have become. I could list the songs but you get the picture just by scanning the lyric sheets. The Attractions music that accompanied these songs matched the songs perfectly. I've been listening to a lot of the early stuff lately, by the way, and oh do I miss Bruce Thomas's melodic bass!!

Now, this is all a matter of personal taste in the end. There is no right answer. And although I have a pronounced preference for early Elvis over middle stage and current Elvis, my all time favorite EC record is IB which is already a record filled with more dense songs. But they work for me. Why? Some of these dense songs are still great songs. They work with the singing and the music and the melody. There is no rule that says that short, snappy tunes are better than more cluttered ones.

But if you look at song, for example, like the Jimmy song we've been dissecting on another thread and you compare the lyrics to those of early EC songs you detect a certain precioussness in the lyrics of the current song. The song may be, in the end, a good effort, as I think it is, but it's still filled with word choices that border on pretentioussness. How do you redeem songs like that? A good melody, something important to say, good singing. There are still ways to do it, and in practically every EC record, ever, there are at least 3 or 4 songs on each one, even on the weaker efforts, where he pulls it off, but it's not as easy as putting across a Beatlesque 3 minute pop song built around a good, catchy melody, an energetic band, and smart, witty lyrics. Just about every song on those early records fit that bill.

[Jack of All Parades]

Ypsilanti-Alexv has beaten me to the keyboard, yet again, and has for the most part given a response that would have mirrored mine except better stated, as usual. I would just like to add a few notes pertaining to my approach to EC songs.

I do not want to bore you with a litany of songs that I find "cluttered'. I think a few will be sufficient: "Man Out Of Time", "Beyond Belief", just about all of "Goodbye Cruel World", "Mouth Almighty", "The Invisible Man", most of "Spike" and "Mighty Like a Rose", "Our Little Angel", "Glitter Gulch", "I Want You", "Tokyo Storm Warning", "All This Useless Beauty", "London's Brilliant Parade", "Pony Street", "Episode of Blonde", "American Gangster Time", "Turpentine" and a good chunk of SP&S. I have a personal difficulty with most of EC's political songs, as well, not for the politics, but for the fact that for my ears they are just rants with little subtlety.

Like you and Alexv I am appreciative of good word play, though I personally find puns cheap word play. Entendre, intricate rhyming schemes interest me. EC is very good at this. What I do not like is the piling up of these effects which, as Alexv states, has become pronounced in his songwriting since IB. A good song narrative can be told in multiple voices as EC frequently demonstrates and can often shift in time perspective. I welcome again EC's ability with this technique. But all too often there is a preciousness that creeps into a song; an analogy for me might be the victoriana bric a brac that often clutters an antique shop. Some may love it; I do not.

EC does not have to hit me over the head with his artistry in every song; there is no need to throw in the kitchen sink in every line. I know you dislike 'less is more' but I believe there is something to it. Fortunately, EC is such an artist who allows for a varied number of approaches and appreciations of his songs. What works for me may not work for you or others. I truly appreciate that you engage in a conversation about these differences. It is what keeps me interested in this site. I like to see what turns on others about his songs and do not think for a moment that my take is a definitive approach.

The best way to approach how I listen to EC these days would be the list I made in the thread regarding one's top 25 EC songs. The bulk were ballads and picked by me because they are, for my ears, excellent examples of where EC best approaches that song writing geneology you mention of Hart and Porter and I would add Kern, Berlin, Gershwin, Mercer, Cahn and Bachrach and Dylan. Ask yourself what distinguishes their best work? I think a playfulness with language, a facility for rhyme, an ease with idiom and strict form. These are all traits EC possesses and can flurish readily. It is just that I think he has moved away from their model as he advanced in his career and bought into the 'great lyricist' hype. It is almost for me like the majority of the 80's, 90's and 00's have been spent by EC saying to himself 'I will show them what a great lyricist I am, just listen to this.'

This is why I am encouraged by some of the recent song efforts that have been emerging from his pen. I really think he may be emerging from the fog and taping back into the songcraft tradition he demonstrates on occasion. Alexv is right in pointing out that there is still some pretentiousness in a song like "Jimmie standing in the rain", but I am still drawn to its nuanced lines and images and even 'psychological' implications. The poet/critic Randall Jarrell, in his book of essays Poetry & the Age states that a good poet is one who stands in the field and is hit by lightning once or twice: a great poet stands in the field and gets hit maybe seven to ten times. EC is that great songwriter who has been hit at least a dozen times- we can each pick our dozen. I just wish he was a better editor of his work. Perhaps his time of late with Springsteen and Winchester is moving him in that direction.

[bambooneedle]

...yawn...

[Ypsilanti]

Alex & Chris--
Jeez! You've formed a tag team! Well, I'm no match for you guys, that's for sure. I have neither your skill with words, not your breadth of experience with music. However, in my defense, I have been listening to Elvis' music very carefully and intensely for a while-- I decided I wanted to hear every Elvis song I could find, not realizing I had assigned myself an impossible, unfinishable project. It will be 3 years next month, so far. In that time I have listened to almost nothing else...literally. Last year I spent a couple of weeks revisiting my youth with Squeeze & Dire Straits & The English Beat & Madness. I've sampled some people on Youtube after seeing them on Spectacle. Last week I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out what all this Lady GaGa fuss is about. But basically, it's been all Elvis, all the time--every single day for 3 years. My i-pod is almost full--786 songs, all Elvis. I am both proud of--and incredibly embarrassed by this fact. Actually, I'm almost too mortified to admit all this, but it's true. It's the Autism that fuels my obsession, of course. To my Aspergery brain, it seems like a reasonable use of time and energy--an interesting journey--fun, engaging and not crazy at all. It never gets old. I'm never sick of it. I never need a break. I love the sound of Elvis' voice every time I hear it. And I'm attracted to the idea of learning all about something. It seems like a worthy task.

And let me be clear--I absolutely do not feel that my insatiable need to devour this music has given me any kind of upper hand or special knowledge or super powers...or anything. I am merely fully saturated.

But saturated I am. And I'll tell you what...it has never once crossed my mind that any of his songs are either precious or pretentious. Certainly, the songs are smart, literate, articulate--but I really don't feel they cross the line into pretension. Not to my ears, anyway. But maybe I'm coming at them from less erudite point of view to start with. For me, Elvis' songs are generally a welcome and bracing antidote to the endless, churning sea of useless, retarded pop songs (which are such a big part of our useless, retarded culture).

There are some songs which I find to be a bit too...what?...I guess I'd say specifically self-referential. In particular, I'm referring to the songs that deal with the break-up of his first marriage (i.e. White Knuckles, Boy With a Problem, You'll Never Be a Man). That must have been the messiest, most horrific and drawn-out divorce of all time! There are bits of the carnage littering at least 4 albums and those songs make me feel kind of creepy & icky--like I've been made to be a voyeur against my will. Too much information, Elvis.

And there are some songs that I avoid because they're so heart-breaking and sad that they just make me feel depressed and shitty, so I tend to skip past them (i.e. Pills & Soap, After the Fall, What Do I Do Now, Last Boat Leaving). Possibly all great songs--I just can't take them.

Regarding those first 3 records...Well, of course! Who didn't love them? Fantastic albums, all three. Were the songs on them better or snappier or more concise or more whatever? Well, compared to mostly all other music of 1977 - 1979 they sure were! Those songs were, first of all, the work of a very young man. In some cases they were the work of a high school kid. But those songs were presented (by Elvis and Nick Lowe and probably Jake Riviera, too) in a particular way to create a particular effect. They got Elvis a record deal, some name recognition, made some money--they're amazing records, but not made in a vacuum--not happy accidents. Clearly they live on now, as they stood apart then--among the few lasting jewels of their time, but I see no reason to freeze Elvis in that time, as well.

Years go by. The world changes. Elvis changes. He ages. He makes money. He becomes famous. He does a lot of coke. Then he doesn't. He marries some women. He has some kids. Whatever. He grows up. He gains experience and knowledge, as we all do, hopefully. His way of thinking and speaking naturally changes. Surely his methods change as well--his style of writing, the things he is interested in writing about, the way he sings, the people he wants to work with, etc. If you like Elvis, this is what you get: You get the whole package--songs by a guy who loves words and uses a lot of them. You get some complicated songs, stuffed full of metaphors, and you get songs with a more direct approach. You get sex & death & war & liberal politics & vendettas & petty arguments & guilt & shame & drunken stupidity & adultery & fidelity, etc. You get My Aim is True and The Juliet Letters. You get North and Trust. Some songs are more entertaining than others. Some are more interesting than others. Still others are more or less important. No one has to love all of it. Doesn't matter--regardless of anyone's personal taste--regardless of any listener's reaction or preferences, Elvis' work doesn't change. You can love the songs or scorn them--or not listen at all--they exist in the world, nonetheless--and they are the way he wrote them. After all, he's not writing them for you or me--he's writing out of need for self-expression. And to my way of thinking, that's unassailable--it's an impulse that withstands any critique that might be applied to it.

I guess I just don't feel so judgmental about it all--I'm happy to be alive on Planet Earth at the right time to hear this music--it's a treat! I don't love all of it, but I do enjoy most of it. A few things make me groan, but I don't find any of it boring or pretentious. I even love all the stuff that everyone else seems to hate--like "Alibi", "How Deep is the Red", "Broken", "North", "Il Sogno". And by the way, I don't feel he gets enough credit for what he does--he's often portrayed (especially on this message board) as someone plodding through life with almost no self-awareness--he doesn't know he's being pretentious--he doesn't know how stupid those hats look--he doesn't know he's fat--he doesn't know how bad his voice sounds, etc. I have to disagree. I don't think anybody could achieve that level of success while being that clueless. I'm sure Elvis knows exactly what he's doing and I'm eager to hear what he does next. I suspect I'll probably enjoy it!

OK. This is the longest post I've ever written. I may regret it, but I'm going to click on "submit" anyway. I realize my ideas are frequently out of step with "the norm", but I hope I've expressed myself clearly, anyhow. Everything has been said in the spirit of friendliness and sincerity and a real fondness for Elvis' music. Thanks very much to anyone who bothers to read the whole damn thing. Especially thanks to Alex and Chris for the lively discussion.

[TOBYROME]

Ypsilanti,

Don't sell yourself short, 'no match for you guys'.

I loved reading your reply, my sentiment entirely, although I can say, I do love and enjoy all his work. It's a pleasure to know that there are others who shares my approach to EC's work. Although I appreciate and acknowledge some of the observations made by others I'd question if there maybe some cultural differences which make some of these songs difficult to digest.

I'm really confused by this term, 'cluttered'. Our Little Angel? I Want You? surely some of these songs are simply longer than average, neither are wordy or have a tongue tied delivery.

How should we categorise a track like 'Luxembourg'?

[Ypsilanti]

Thanks, Toby!
I woke up today, filled with dread and regret about my post (like a post- posting hangover). You made me feel a lot better about it.

Luxembourg...that's a song I have not yet learned to love...

[Jack of All Parades]

Ypsilanti, echo Tobyrome's[and welcome aboard] sentiments as to not selling yourself short nor do I think I am some erudite listener. Like you just a lover of music and good lyrics amongst other things in this world. I think we can all agree that there is much to like in this artist, we just individually approach him differently. The consistent point throughout this conversation has been the diversity of songs. I think it is clear from the posts that for the most part[I do exclude most of "Goodbye Cruel World" and "Mighty Like a Rose" for my ears and eyes] there are at least a few songs on each record that continuously give a listener pleasure with some albums being a full treat. Futhermore, I have never petrified my enjoyment of EC by solely placing in aspic the first three albums. In other threads I have stated my love for albums as diverse as "The Juliet Letters" and "North" to "Painted from Memory" and "For the Stars". I have a particular fondness for "Imperial Bedroom" and for what EC accomplished with that record sonically, lyrically and melodically. Perhaps that has been reinforced for me by fond memories of a memorable concert at Forest Hills, Queens highlighting that album. I have loved listening to him mature as a writer.

What I have been trying to state here, and perhaps clumsily, is my, and only my, approach to his music. When EC burst on the scene and into the mid 80's, I was most attracted to the linkage I saw with the 'great songbook'. I really thought that, and continue to think, in him we had a worthy heir to Berlin, Mercer, Porter, Gershwin and Cahn. That he spoke intelligently about their efforts only fueled this feeling. As I previously stated what attracts me to all these writers is their craft-which is a facility with rhyme, word play, a sensitivity to idiom, and an anchoring in form combined with a melodic talent. Songs like "Allison", "Almost Blue", "Motel Matches", "King Horse" for example are models of this style for me. I am on record discussing later examples and I will not regurgitate my appreciations.

I like you, really care little how he looks[although one would think the weight loss has to be good for his health and seflishly I would like to have him around for many more years of music], what clothes he wears or where he is dining, vacationing or hobnobbing. He deserves a private life and I will always respect his private life. My basic argument from the first day I joined this board has been that I think he connects best for me when he is working in that tradition of the songbook, whether 30 years ago, or now. Tobyrome, the notion of 'clutter' for me is not effective wordplay, rhyme or references, but the piling of these components on to a lyric in excess just to plump up the lyric. As to "Luxembourg", it is a song for me like others that explores EC's feelings about male/female relationships but one which I find filled with anger. "I Want You" is just tedious for my ears. For my ears "Our Little Angel" is a cluttered lyric and could stand some editing, maybe not as dramatic as "a chainsaw running through a dictionary". You make a valid point when you bring up cultural differences; I am certain that certain references, words or images fall deafly on my ears. As to judgement, I think we all conciously and unconsiously make critical judgements as we move through our days. We are constanly editing the world around us as it invades our senses. You have demonstrated this in your reply when you state there are songs you cannot bring yourself to listen to regularly because they make you sad. That is a critical decision on your part to not engage that particular song. That you both discuss and offer counter arguments is enjoyable and most welcome as I love the dialogue. Thank you for engaging my thoughts.

[Ypsilanti]

Of course Chris, I meant to respond to both you and Alex at once. My comments about MAIT, AF & TYM were aimed more at what Alex had said.

And I have heard so often, on this board and elsewhere, that it's been all downhill since those first 3 records. That's an idea I totally reject, so I said so.

What I meant to say about the self-awareness --and please know that I am absolutely not accusing you of this--is there are countless posts on this board and in various music reviews and articles and blogs and so forth where the writers seem to have a very clear idea about what Elvis' intentions are in various situations. They seems to know just what he ought to do, as opposed to what he is doing--like everyone can see him so clearly--all his mistakes and stupidity and foolish choices (be it songs or hats or whatever)--much more clearly than he can see himself. Everyone is full of ideas about how he can "fix" himself and his career. I guess it's just one of the curses of being a public figure--like the way everybody thinks they can manage a baseball team better than the manager. I find that attitude annoying and presumptuous. It seems to me that Elvis approaches his career in a very clear-eyed and calculated way. I assume he knows what he's doing--he's been doing it for a long time and it all seems to be working out. But nobody actually knows but him.

It is all certainly just about difference in approach, as you say. All this talk aside, we probably form attachments to certain songs for entirely personal, possibly even sub-conscious reasons. Speaking for myself, I enjoy the music, but I am much more strongly connected to the words. In my favorite songs, I've usually been won over by a phrase, a single rhyme or maybe even 1 word.

I also love Elvis' connection to The Great Songbook, and I don't feel he's severed those ties. I totally agree that's he's a worthy successor to Gershwin, Hart, etc. For me it's actually much more difficult to see him as part of the "singer/songwriter" lineage.

[Jack of All Parades]

Interesting how you describe how a song may attach itself to you. For me, though I can note an effective usage of a particular line, rhyme, or image, even well placed word[as you effectively pointed out in another thread] a song will only stay with me if it is the entire package-word, melody, harmony, theme and nuance[does it speak to me at that time]. Like you, enjoy listening through the 'songbook', both EC's and the greater one accumulating from a wide variety of artists.

[Neil.]

Great stuff Ypsilanti - I also disagree with the 'pretentious' tag. He sometimes writes in a literary style to suit the song - he wants to imbue a literary, or old-fashioned tone, deliberately. For example, the song 'No Wonder' - there's imagery of skirts dragging in mud, and high-buttoned boots etc. - very George Eliot kind of imagery. He sometimes uses old fashioned turns of phrase - but he WANTS it to sound stiff, or formal. It's not pretentious. The wonderful "How Deep Is The Red" - again, very literary terms and constructions "Is this not a pretty tale? Is this not a riddle?" ... "Who is the beau of a young girl's heart that a king may send to battle?" - "Red is the breast of a soldier's tunic, hung with a silver medal" Very courtly imagery - but deliberately so. He's trying to evoke an old-fashioned feel. It's not pretentious to want to evoke an old-fashioned atmosphere. It's a valid artistic choice. In 'Telescope', the line "A bamboo needle on a shellac of Chopin" is meant to make you picture some sophisticate in a smoking jacket, listening wistfully to his old 78s - it's not trying to impress, it's trying to make you picture something specific.

The lyric of She Was No Good and Red Cotton are an astonishing feat of compression, I think - as I've said before, they're like novels packed into songs. I don't think there's pretension here - just ambition to do something well. There's nothing wrong with that, even if it fails. "The blue cetacean in the basement" is, I guess, a ponderous rhyme - but as least it made me look up the meaning of the word! (It's a whale). Elvis has taught me a few words I didn't know. I don't think he's doing it to impress, I think he's doing it because he enjoys language. There's a difference.

I'm certainly really glad he hasn't remade This Year's Model over and over again.

"Pretentious" is such an odd word - I think it's often misused. If someone is trying to impress without the actual knowledge or interest to back it up, then I think that's pretentious. But Elvis clearly has the interest and/or the knowledge. He keeps on amazing me with his stuff. Long may he continue!

No idea, Christopher, how the early stuff appears to you to be attached to the great American Songbook - I think a lot of the later stuff is a lot more related.

[Jack of All Parades]

Neil, I do not know if I can elaborate more clearly how I feel the 'early stuff' is in the same league with the great American Songbook than I already have, but I will gladly try.

The material for me in the those early four or five albums mirrors the material you find in that songbook for sheer wit, dramatic usage of idiom, strong melodic line, offerings of realistic slices of intimate life, lines written the way people speak[playfully but with a supple poetic ease], cleverness not substituted for feeling. The songs are tour de forces of rhyme with melodies that take unexpected leaps but that never lose their line. They are complicated songs about the relationships between men and women. Like the past writers cited, EC is clearly a master wit, moralist and pop tunesmith in these songs.

At their best, this material matches music with lyric in exciting inventiveness. EC shares a knowing and even cynical view with the persona he presents in the songs like his past peers. The songs show a fresh exhuberance, like their predecessors, breaking with the dull sameness that had filled the music which preceeded them. The lyrics are not cliched and contain very clever word play and stanzas. They are erudite, cynical and yet filled with humor and humanity. The chord structures are uncluttered and refreshingly elemental. I hope that better explains the connections I have always experienced with this material and the songbook.

I concur with you that pretentious when used the way you define it is not right in context with the songs. I would suggest that Alexv does not mean to claim 'merit or knowledge of something' when using it to refer to the songs but the secondary definition that refers to being 'showy or pompous'. There is quite a difference and I think the secondary definition accurately reflects his take and mine on later efforts. My usage of precious, meaning 'affectedly refined', in describing later songs, is one I continue to stand by. I share with you an agreement that strong songs exist in the mid to later albums. I just do not think they are there as often as I found them in the early years.

[Ypsilanti]

Very nicely stated (as usual), Neil! You've expressed things much more clearly than I could ever have. Wow! This is quite an interesting thread!

I love what you had to say about the songs on SP&S--the way they evoke the 19th century so clearly with just a few apt word choices. More than anything else in the tragic, heart-rending, shame-inducing "Red Cotton", that poor elephant just kills me! For me, it's the saddest image in any of Elvis' vast array of sad songs--and why? The elephant isn't actually dead or injured or anything--not exploited in any grandiose way. There's just something about him being up on the 2nd story--unable to put his elephant feet in the grass where they belong--it's just too much for my heart to bear. And this is just a small detail in a song about truly terrible events--vast, sweeping, history-changing tragedies. And yet, that elephant really hits it home! No accident on Elvis' part, I'm sure.

[Jack of All Parades]

Neil, I wanted to fully digest and think about your last post on this thread before responding.

As to "No Wonder" agree I like the song but do not share your feeling that the imagery of a soiled petticoat or hightop boots helps the song. The lyric would be equally effective if a contempory example was used- a dirty skirt and muddy shoes. This is for me a good example of the artiface and affectation, the 'preciousness' that often spoils an EC song for me.

"How Deep is The Red" shares no literary qualities for me other than a nice internal rhyme, bow and beau. It reads as an unfinished lyric for me which could use a strong re-working. It goes on way too long just repeating the refrain. There is a total disconnect for me between the partial lines you cite and the culminating refrain with its question of debt. One does not add up to the other and try as I do to bridge the gap, I fail.

"The Other End of the Telescope"-the old shellacs and cartridge why could that not just as well be the conveyance that EC uses to listen to that music, now?- they do exist. I have seen them in my brother-in-laws auctions. Is not EC a collector? Has he not given such 78's to his father-in -law as a present? This need not be an evocation of an 'old-fashioned atmosphere'.

"She Was No Good" and "Red Cotton"-try as I do I fail to read any 'feats of compression' nor do I see 'novels' in the lyrics. What I do see is forced wordplay trying to cover too much in fussy little arias. Fail to see any rhyme which is used with cetacean. Again I see and hear aborted pieces of an operetta that are very lugubrious in tone and lyric, stuffy, fussy and very 'precious', so 'affectedly dainty or overly refined'. They also cross into 'pretention' with an 'extravagant ostentatious show'. I will offer the use of the word, prosceniums as just one example. Though the anti-slavery sentiments are noble and the lament that man is 'feeble' and 'puny' a given, the expression of these sentiments is tedious.

Again, as I have previously stated about SP&P, the only song that works wholeheartedly for me is "Change Partners" which he did not write. Its beautiful simplicity and lack of artiface is as EC has been quoted as saying a wonderful expression of "fidelity that is without irony', the only song of his without that type of expression he says.

I would offer two songs that do a much better job from other artists in artistically and stylistically expressing emotion and which comment on universal concerns for men and women. The first is Dylan's "Blind Willie McTell"

Seen the arrow on the doorpost
Saying, “This land is condemned
All the way from New Orleans
To Jerusalem.”
I traveled through East Texas
Where many martyrs fell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

Well, I heard that hoot owl singing
As they were taking down the tents
The stars above the barren trees
Were his only audience
Them charcoal gypsy maidens
Can strut their feathers well
But nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

See them big plantations burning
Hear the cracking of the whips
Smell that sweet magnolia blooming
See the ghosts of slavery ships
I can hear them tribes a-moaning
Hear that undertaker’s bell
Nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

There’s a woman by the river
With some fine young handsome man
He’s dressed up like a squire
Bootlegged whiskey in his hand
There’s a chain gang on the highway
I can hear them rebels yell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

Well, God is in His heaven
And we all want what’s his
But power and greed and corruptible seed
Seem to be all that there is
I’m gazing out the window
Of the St. James Hotel
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

Copyright © 1983 by Special Rider Music

This is just such a better job of dealing with the concerns expressed in "Red Cotton". I love the play of know/no, the double negative rhyme[just think your algebra where two negatives make a positive]. The notion that I know that no one can, and I know no one who can sing the truth of this misery except for perhaps a deceased old blues singer. The evocation of 'condemned' with 'seed', great internal rhyme and usage of assonance and consonance. All the images of injustice are scrolled succinctly and evocatively with tight word pictures. What seems as inevitable from a hotel window may in truth be redeemed by the vocals of a blind musician. I love the image of the hoot owl, Athena's symbol of wisdom, which may be being 'hooted' off the stage or be all knowing like a blind musician[or poet] who can see clearer the suffering, injustice and tryanny in the world. The carry over of the feathers on the dancers strutting their stuff is mirrored in the owl with its fluffed up feathers. The evocation of St. James Hotel with the great blues song "St Jame's Infirmiry" is a great stroke and then compound it with the evocation of magnolia and the stench of burning flesh just like in Billie Holiday's great song "Strange Fruit". Dylan even plays on the word bow, just like EC, the guitar string, just like the bow, can let loose an arrow. I only touch the surface of this great song but hopefully you can see how more effective a piece of work it is than "Red Cotton".

I also offer this song by Jesse Winchester:

Sham-A-Ling-Dong-Ding
The boys were singing shing-a-ling
The summer night we met
You were tan and seventeen
O how could I forget
When every star from near and far
Was watching from above
Watching two teenagers fall in love

The way we danced was not a dance
But more a long embrace
We held on to each other and
We floated there in space
And I was shy to kiss you while
The whole wide world could see
So shing-a-ling said everything for me

And O the poor old old folks
They thought we'd lost our minds
They could not make heads or tails
Of the young folks' funny rhymes
But you and I knew all the words
And we always sang along to
O sham-a-ling-dong-ding
Sham-a-ling-dang-dong

So after years and after tears
And after summers past
The old folks tried to warn us
How our love would never last
And all we'd get was soaking wet
From walking in the rain
And singing sham-a-shing-a-ling again

And O the poor old old folks
They smile and walk away
But I bet they did some
Sham-a-lama-ding-dong in their day
I bet that they still close their eyes
And I bet they sing along to
O sham-a-ling-dong-ding
Sham-a-ling-dang-dong

O those sweet old love songs
Every word rings true
Sham-a-ling-dong-ding means sweetheart
Sham-a-ling-dang-dong does too
And it means that right here in my arms
That's where you belong
And it means sham-a-ling-dong-ding
Sham-a-ling-dang-dong

© Jesse Winchester

It is a model of compression as it deals with the universal theme of love. Jesse playfully works the notion of young love as it evolves into a more mature love of older age. And tying it together is the courtly hint of old doo-wop sentiments as shared with older folks with the sly enjoinder that the 'old folks' may have done some 'sham-a-ling- dong' in their day. Tightly constructed, playful with its words and lovingly evocative with its refrain, I have rarely experienced a better love song. I submit yet again that EC agrees as he raptly watched Jesse play the song on the recent Spectacle show and then commented.

Thank you for making me think about all these songs. Links to these two songs http://www.google.com/url?url=http://ww ... BXKKUNeIuA

http://www.google.com/url?url=http://ww ... 6M8L_FZpkA

[Poor Deportee]

Neil, I wanted to fully digest and think about your last post on this thread before responding.

As to "No Wonder" agree I like the song but do not share your feeling that the imagery of a soiled petticoat or hightop boots helps the song. The lyric would be equally effective if a contempory example was used- a dirty skirt and muddy shoes. This is for me a good example of the artiface and affectation, the 'preciousness' that often spoils an EC song for me.

"How Deep is The Red" shares no literary qualities for me other than a nice internal rhyme, bow and beau. It reads as an unfinished lyric for me which could use a strong re-working. It goes on way too long just repeating the refrain. There is a total disconnect for me between the partial lines you cite and the culminating refrain with its question of debt. One does not add up to the other and try as I do to bridge the gap, I fail.

"The Other End of the Telescope"-the old shellacs and cartridge why could that not just as well be the conveyance that EC uses to listen to that music, now?- they do exist. I have seen them in my brother-in-laws auctions. Is not EC a collector? Has he not given such 78's to his father-in -law as a present? This need not be an evocation of an 'old-fashioned atmosphere'.

"She Was No Good" and "Red Cotton"-try as I do I fail to read any 'feats of compression' nor do I see 'novels' in the lyrics. What I do see is forced wordplay trying to cover too much in fussy little arias. Fail to see any rhyme which is used with cetacean. Again I see and hear aborted pieces of an operetta that are very lugubrious in tone and lyric, stuffy, fussy and very 'precious', so 'affectedly dainty or overly refined'. They also cross into 'pretention' with an 'extravagant ostentatious show'. I will offer the use of the word, prosceniums as just one example. Though the anti-slavery sentiments are noble and the lament that man is 'feeble' and 'puny' a given, the expression of these sentiments is tedious.

Again, as I have previously stated about SP&P, the only song that works wholeheartedly for me is "Change Partners" which he did not write. Its beautiful simplicity and lack of artiface is as EC has been quoted as saying a wonderful expression of "fidelity that is without irony', the only song of his without that type of expression he says.

I would offer two songs that do a much better job from other artists in artistically and stylistically expressing emotion and which comment on universal concerns for men and women. The first is Dylan's "Blind Willie McTell"

Seen the arrow on the doorpost
Saying, “This land is condemned
All the way from New Orleans
To Jerusalem.”
I traveled through East Texas
Where many martyrs fell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

Well, I heard that hoot owl singing
As they were taking down the tents
The stars above the barren trees
Were his only audience
Them charcoal gypsy maidens
Can strut their feathers well
But nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

See them big plantations burning
Hear the cracking of the whips
Smell that sweet magnolia blooming
See the ghosts of slavery ships
I can hear them tribes a-moaning
Hear that undertaker’s bell
Nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

There’s a woman by the river
With some fine young handsome man
He’s dressed up like a squire
Bootlegged whiskey in his hand
There’s a chain gang on the highway
I can hear them rebels yell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

Well, God is in His heaven
And we all want what’s his
But power and greed and corruptible seed
Seem to be all that there is
I’m gazing out the window
Of the St. James Hotel
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

Copyright © 1983 by Special Rider Music

This is just such a better job of dealing with the concerns expressed in "Red Cotton". I love the play of know/no, the double negative rhyme[just think your algebra where two negatives make a positive]. The notion that I know that no one can, and I know no one who can sing the truth of this misery except for perhaps a deceased old blues singer. The evocation of 'condemned' with 'seed', great internal rhyme and usage of assonance and consonance. All the images of injustice are scrolled succinctly and evocatively with tight word pictures. What seems as inevitable from a hotel window may in truth be redeemed by the vocals of a blind musician. I love the image of the hoot owl, Athena's symbol of wisdom, which may be being 'hooted' off the stage or be all knowing like a blind musician[or poet] who can see clearer the suffering, injustice and tryanny in the world. The carry over of the feathers on the dancers strutting their stuff is mirrored in the owl with its fluffed up feathers. The evocation of St. Johns Hotel with the great blues song "St Jame's Infirmiry" is a great stroke and then compound it with the evocation of magnolia and the stench of burning flesh just like in Billie Holiday's great song "Strange Fruit". Dylan even plays on the word bow, just like EC, the guitar string, just like the bow, can let loose an arrow. I only touch the surface of this great song but hopefully you can see how more effective a piece of work it is than "Red Cotton".

I also offer this song by Jesse Winchester:

Sham-A-Ling-Dong-Ding
The boys were singing shing-a-ling
The summer night we met
You were tan and seventeen
O how could I forget
When every star from near and far
Was watching from above
Watching two teenagers fall in love

The way we danced was not a dance
But more a long embrace
We held on to each other and
We floated there in space
And I was shy to kiss you while
The whole wide world could see
So shing-a-ling said everything for me

And O the poor old old folks
They thought we'd lost our minds
They could not make heads or tails
Of the young folks' funny rhymes
But you and I knew all the words
And we always sang along to
O sham-a-ling-dong-ding
Sham-a-ling-dang-dong

So after years and after tears
And after summers past
The old folks tried to warn us
How our love would never last
And all we'd get was soaking wet
From walking in the rain
And singing sham-a-shing-a-ling again

And O the poor old old folks
They smile and walk away
But I bet they did some
Sham-a-lama-ding-dong in their day
I bet that they still close their eyes
And I bet they sing along to
O sham-a-ling-dong-ding
Sham-a-ling-dang-dong

O those sweet old love songs
Every word rings true
Sham-a-ling-dong-ding means sweetheart
Sham-a-ling-dang-dong does too
And it means that right here in my arms
That's where you belong
And it means sham-a-ling-dong-ding
Sham-a-ling-dang-dong

© Jesse Winchester

It is model of compression as it deals with the universal theme of love. Jesse playfully works the notion of young love as it evolves into a more mature love of older age. And tying it together is the courtly hint of old doo-wop sentiments as shared with older folks with the sly enjoinder that the 'old folks' may have done some 'sham-a-ling- dong' in their day. Tightly constructed, playful with its words and lovingly evocative with its refrain, I have rarely experienced a better love song. I submit yet again that EC agrees as he raptly watched Jesse play the song on the recent Spectacle show and then commented.

Thank you for making me think about all these songs.

This is a great post. Thanks for that. Your critique of later Costello lyrics is penetrating and, in fact, I tend to share it. 'Fussiness,' 'artifice' - these are the two words that capture the essential problem. I still listen to EC and enjoy following his career, but there is simply no comparison between the creative urgency and focus of (say) 'Get Happy' and the later stuff. Having said that, Dylan's late-career resurgence should teach us that there's no telling when a major artist will arrive at a new creative plateau. EC may stun us all by finally synthesizing all the materials he's been playing with over the last 15 years into some dazzling new achievement.

[Jack of All Parades]

Thank you for reading and the kind words. It is hard to objectively look at one's heroes and comment when they fall short of our expectations. But I think as a fan it is important to do this with any artist we admire. There is often a tendency amongst fans to broadly accept all work by an artist without casting a critical eye over the ouevre. We don't have to agree about every book, movie, song, album, painting, dance piece, etc. but we owe it to the artist to be discriminating as fans. I think too much of EC to just blindly say I love everything he does. He is owed better. Hope you are right and he has that resurgence. Dylan had that wilderness time in the 80's and into the early 90's before he had the epiphany on the road as to how to reanimate his catalogue and was sparked back into creative life. Not that EC has been dead creatively but I do think he is stumbling more often these days than hitting the mark. I can easily find things to like on many of the latter albums and even enjoyment in whole pieces of work, like North or Painted From Memory. That is why I am encouraged by current efforts like "You Hung the Moon" and "Jimmy Standing In the Rain". In them I see glimpses of a vibrant songwriting that I have despaired has too often been deadened in the last fifteen years or so. As you say maybe the genre hopping will finally spark that masters touch he has shown in the past.

[Poor Deportee]

Thank you for reading and the kind words. It is hard to objectively look at one's heroes and comment when they fall short of our expectations. But I think as a fan it is important to do this with any artist we admire. There is often a tendency amongst fans to broadly accept all work by an artist without casting a critical eye over the ouevre. We don't have to agree about every book, movie, song, album, painting, dance piece, etc. but we owe it to the artist to be discriminating as fans. I think too much of EC to just blindly say I love everything he does. He is owed better. Hope you are right and he has that resurgence. Dylan had that wilderness time in the 80's and into the early 90's before he had the epiphany on the road as to how to reanimate his catalogue and was sparked back into creative life. Not that EC has been dead creatively but I do think he is stumbling more often these days than hitting the mark. I can easily find things to like on many of the latter albums and even enjoyment in whole pieces of work, like North or Painted From Memory. That is why I am encouraged by current efforts like "You Hung the Moon" and "Jimmy Standing In the Rain". In them I see glimpses of a vibrant songwriting that I have despaired has too often been deadened in the last fifteen years or so. As you say maybe the genre hopping will finally spark that masters touch he has shown in the past.

Well, I came to terms with what I see as the loss of EC's creative urgency years ago. Most of his albums have specific songs that show the old touch, however, so I agree with you about that too. For me, for instance, 'Mr Feathers' or 'Harry Worth' have the old sharpness, as do certain songs on North (but not the whole album), and elsewhere; there's many instances. What seems to be lacking is the sustained inspiration of yore, in favour of a kind of musical scholaticism that sometimes elicits admiration but often fails to truly excite or surprise. (I would add that this seems to have been accompanied by a less subtle approach to singing - one that finds EC often powering/bludgeoning his way through material that he would have performed much more tastefully in, say, 1980. It's almost as though he is trying to compensate for the relative lack of power in the songs themselves. But I suppose here I enter an even more thorny and controversial domain, so I'll flee, pursued by people making dire threats )

[Jack of All Parades]

Share a fondness for the songs you mention and would add "My Threee Sons" and "Flutter & Wow" to that list from that album. Like your expression ' musical scholasticism', I will have to remember that one, it is a good way to express his possible approach to music these days. Have been struck over the past two years of Spectacle by the almost curatoral aspect of the show-offering exhibits of music he likes. Have often thought the same thing about his singing approach over the years, as you describe it 'often powering/bludgeoning his way through material'. Do not know if it is an attempt to compensate for weaker material but the shouting over the top vocals can be annoying. You may have offered a new way of measuring the worth of a particular song- the bludgeon meter. It was painful to watch EC and Springsteen torture "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down" this season. Way too over the top. I was wondering who would get the hernia first from the weight of their vocal efforts. I do not find any of this judgemental, to the contrary just trying to listen and digest as I suspect you are, as well. No throngs will threaten you; if you listen, you will solely hear the thud of deadening indifference.