Tuesday, August 25, 2009

ELVIS COSTELLO b AUGUST 25 1954



i suppose there was no way of knowing where costello was going hearing his first album. we played it a lot down at new college. several of the songs always made it onto the "palm court party" dance tapes. i played "alison" at the coffee houses. there's a lot on that first album that does give an indication of his various directions but who knew he'd follow all of them? at that point in time, i'm not sure anyone wanted him to explore jazz, country, americana, standards. i think we wanted him to rock & spew.

he's gotten so good that we take him for granted. no one writes better lyrics than him & very few can summon up the melodies he hooks onto those lyrics. the image from the second video here, a river running in reverse, is taken from a times-picayune reporter's description of the mighty mississippi river being pushed backwards by the power of hurricane katrina. apocalypse & salvation, who you gonna call when it all comes down?


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