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Reggae was punk's blues, a touchstone for new-wave rockers. Elvis Costello wrote his reggae-inflected "Watching the Detectives" within 24 hours of hearing The Clash's first album.
It seethes with a lethal anger as Costello unveils a B-movie tale about a couple in front of the TV. The man is on his knees, begging; she has one eye on a cop show. He becomes desperate, until "fear is here to stay." The climax was shocking for a chart hit in 1977: "Though it nearly took a miracle to get you to stay / It only took my little fingers to blow you away."
"Detectives," recorded in May 1977, was released four months later, after Costello's debut album My Aim Is True. On the album, Costello was backed by a country band, Clover. The follow-up single was at first a solo outing, created with the help of Andrew Bodnar and Steve Goulding, seconded from Graham Parker's band the Rumour. Goulding's drums crash in like a body falling downstairs and Bodnar and Costello plot the sinister melody. Steve Nieve overdubbed an organ and piano refrain, creating an atmosphere of eerie tension.
"'Detectives' was very important because it was the first song that proved to me I could write in a whole new style," Costello told the NME.
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