jardine wrote:this linguistic trick (if that's what it is) is now starting to sound familiar in e.c.s work--too tired right now to summon up another e.g., but this flip around of the grammar of an idea...with slightly disorienting effect but pointing towards a less common meaning than expected
. . .me sleep now. sorry I can't manage another e.g. It reminds me of something like a phrase "bait and switch" and saying, instead, "switch and bait" to mean something new and unexpected. e.c. doesn't do this one in particular, but i know he's done these...ok, you folks who are more awake, got some e.g.s for me svp??
"Your mind is made up but your mouth is undone"
"It's a death that's worse than fate"
"But I know you've got me and I'm in a grip-like vise"
"They'll find that all the dogs outside bite much worse than they bark"
when these are less well wrought, they end up a bit clever still, but kind of obvious, sore thumb like. but when you stop over "your mouth is made up but your mind is undone" it starts opening up into quite a scenario of stern, unwavering talk from someone who is losing it mentally.
must say that this one about the sherry is so well buried that i never noticed this subtle (possible) reversal until this thread started. Brilliant is he.
docinwestchester wrote:Great song. Probably my favorite from the album. Looks like there are 2 different audience recordings from that Dublin 1987 concert that circulate, but I have neither one. Maybe someone can share/upload/torrent?
At 1:38 you can hear a guy in the audience yell "Elvis, I want to kiss you", which is immediately followed by the lyric "Hush your mouth, you hypocrite". Pretty funny.
This thread made bring out this copy of the "This is Tomorrow" bootleg, something I burned back before they went straight into my iPod. I used the alternate cover for the Fatal Attractions mainly because the stark orange color seemed more striking. Anyway, you're right it's such an amazing performance of the song and it reminded me how great of a bootleg this is.
So what if the Costello live series never materialized beyond the '70s, there will always be bootlegs and some cool fan made artwork to go with it.
"'Til he chopped off the head of a visitor's child
He danced upon the bonfire
Swallowed sleeping pills like dreams
With a bottle of sweet sherry that everything redeems"
"That is all the line is, as Neil points out. That bottle of sherry is simply the liquid aid, along with the pills, which by drinking assists in achieving a feeling of no guilt. Nothing more, nothing less- no magic language trick.[/quote]
OK. I see, Chris. It's your way or no way. I'm wrong and you're right. Absolute fact. No room for interpretation. Hmmm. Well, then, I guess I have no choice, but to agree with you. However, that giant sucking sound you hear is all the fun being drained out of this topic. As usual, I regret joining the conversation.[/quote]
Clumsily posted on my part in that there was never an intent on my part to say there is only one interpretation and that being mine. I would never argue that. I asked a friend whose close reading and grammar skills far exceed mine to take a look at the verse[it did not hurt that this person is an EC fan]. In conversation this was relayed to me:
""the sherry redeems everything" that I prefer is perhaps a far sadder reading and a far more coherent reading of the line if one wants it to make some sense. A reading that "everything redeems the sherry" can be read as a literal extrapolation from the syntax in the verse. It makes sense on a grammatical level and it can also be read as making a certain kind of narrative/ thematic sense. The sherry, or its consumption, requires redemption, or justification. But to my mind if that is what EC means than I find the writing in that verse and line rather weak. The sherry, surely, is not the main thing that needs redemption? Is it not the lone man and his entire murderous existence which requires the redemption? To my mind the one reading can be sustained but only at the cost of trivializing what is at stake, as though the lone man's alcoholism is the main problem. He needs an excuse for his drinking so he says his life is awful. What this ultimately does is make a murder a side act to the act of drinking by the end of the verse. I personally find that bathetic. It reads as anticlimactic and it takes greatly away from the infanticide. I would hope EC did not torture the syntax as he does here in your reading to just achieve his ending rhyme."
Hopefully that better explains my reaction to your interpretation and perhaps 'redeems' me.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
30+ years after buying Armed Forces at the Disc-O-Mat in Grand Central Station on the day it was released, today I noticed for the first time that lyric actually switches within the song:
There's so many fish in the sea
That only rise up in the sweat and smoke like mercury
But they keep you hanging on
They say you're so young Your mind is made up but your mouth is undone
...
...
...
There's so many people to see
So many people you can check up on
And add to your collection
But they keep you hanging on
Until you're well hung Your mouth is made up but your mind is undone
BRILLIANT!
(now carry on with the Battered Old Bird sing-along)
Thought this was pretty cool, today I spent a lot of time in the guitar store and they played all of Imperial Bedroom and This Year's Model. Anyone else heard any EC on the radio recently ?
It's not the days when you leave me, but all I fear are the nights.
