ELVIS COSTELLO DOESNT GET HAPPY
Below an email sent by Elvis Costello to journalist Robert Sandall after a recent Telegraph piece on Costello’s composition Shipbuilding.
It seems to be a common thread among certain musicians (Pete Townshend and Elton John come to mind) namely - they expect praise as a matter of course, its taken for granted. There’s no notes of thanks, champagne or chocs forthcoming for glowing reviews - but if something incurs their wrath then they fire off pompous faxes and emails.
As if some “entitlement” had been denied them!
I have loved Elvis in my time but I couldn’t help think, on reading this, of the shocked/are you having a laugh? expression on the face of the hapless punter who arrived at the bar , just as the show was about to start, on the last show of EC’s Country Darkness tour at Hammersmith Appollo/Labatts to be told that the bar was now shut.
Artists orders, apparently.
Welll, excuuuuuuuse me, I think that folks who pay out good money for tickets, brave the public transport system or road networks and car parking malarkey of Ole Londiminium are deserving of a quick livener before the Maestro does his thing.
One thing was for sure that trick wasn’t one even Elvis thought of playing at the much more raucous and lively show that began the tour, in Glasgows Barrowlands, a month previously…
Dear Mr. Sandall
>> I read your “Shipbuilding” article with some
>> bemusement. Are you really so vain as to think that my failure
>> provide a
>> quote for in
>> your nostalgic little article really denotes some embarrassment or
>> lack of
>> conviction on my part?
>>
>> You might regard this note as churlish given the praise that you
>> heaped upon
>> the song but let’s not let the facts get in the way of coming to a
>> smug
>> conclusion, never forgetting the opportunity to make a passing
>> slight to
>> unrelated
>> musical endeavours. What exactly IS an “uber-muso”? Why don’t you
>> talk
>> proper?
>>
>> I’m sure that, with you superior musical knowledge and grasp of the
>> English
>> language and German, unless I am mistaken, you could easily dismiss
>> any of
>> the
>> songs I’ve written out of the news headlines during the last twenty-
>> five
>> years
>> and detail the reasons why they remain obscure to you. Or perhaps
>> you simply
>> don’t listen very hard.
>>
>> If I sing “Bedlam” or “The Scarlet Tide” or “The River In Reverse”
>> - to
>> mention three - in a theatre or in a cellar, at the Grand Ole Opry
>> or with
>> the
>> Chicago Symphony, then I have to accept that some people may
>> disagree with
>> me
>> quite violently, even as others applaud. That is part of my job.
>> You may not
>> care
>> for these songs or regard them as effective but to deny their
>> existence is
>> both lazy and dishonest.
>>
>> This is what I would have said, had a serious family crisis not
>> made it
>> impossible for me to satisfy your interview request:
>>
>> Songs do not change things, people change things. Songs may make
>> people feel
>> a little less lonely in their convictions but do nothing to change
>> the heart
>> or mind of, say, a Dick Cheney. Singers delude themselves if they
>> think they
>> inevitably and directly sway world events.
>>
>> Then again, you are the critic who decided to deliver a C.S.E.-level
>> sociopolitical essay and leave the more hopeful aspects of
>> “Shipbuilding”
>> - the
>> refrain, “Diving for dear life…” - without remark.
>> Congratulations! You
>> missed
>> the point once again.
>>
>> It seems that it isn’t the songwriters who believe themselves
>> central to the
>> universe of their own argument. Ah well, as a greater man that
>> either you or
>> I
>> once sang, “It makes no difference now”…
>>
>> See you in another twenty-five years, you old dunce. Elvis Costello
>>
>> P.S. Just so you know, none of the songs that I have written
>> required me to
>> be a card-carrying member of any political party or organization.
>> While it
>> is
>> quaint to think that readers of an Old Tory newspaper like “The Daily
>> Telegraph” care about such things, my contempt for Thatcherism and
>> its
>> Blarite little
>> sister, did not and does not automatically make me a “staunch
>> supporter of
>> Old
>> Labour.
>> I read your “Shipbuilding” article with some
>> bemusement. Are you really so vain as to think that my failure
>> provide a
>> quote for in
>> your nostalgic little article really denotes some embarrassment or
>> lack of
>> conviction on my part?
>>
>> You might regard this note as churlish given the praise that you
>> heaped upon
>> the song but let’s not let the facts get in the way of coming to a
>> smug
>> conclusion, never forgetting the opportunity to make a passing
>> slight to
>> unrelated
>> musical endeavours. What exactly IS an “uber-muso”? Why don’t you
>> talk
>> proper?
>>
>> I’m sure that, with you superior musical knowledge and grasp of the
>> English
>> language and German, unless I am mistaken, you could easily dismiss
>> any of
>> the
>> songs I’ve written out of the news headlines during the last twenty-
>> five
>> years
>> and detail the reasons why they remain obscure to you. Or perhaps
>> you simply
>> don’t listen very hard.
>>
>> If I sing “Bedlam” or “The Scarlet Tide” or “The River In Reverse”
>> - to
>> mention three - in a theatre or in a cellar, at the Grand Ole Opry
>> or with
>> the
>> Chicago Symphony, then I have to accept that some people may
>> disagree with
>> me
>> quite violently, even as others applaud. That is part of my job.
>> You may not
>> care
>> for these songs or regard them as effective but to deny their
>> existence is
>> both lazy and dishonest.
>>
>> This is what I would have said, had a serious family crisis not
>> made it
>> impossible for me to satisfy your interview request:
>>
>> Songs do not change things, people change things. Songs may make
>> people feel
>> a little less lonely in their convictions but do nothing to change
>> the heart
>> or mind of, say, a Dick Cheney. Singers delude themselves if they
>> think they
>> inevitably and directly sway world events.
>>
>> Then again, you are the critic who decided to deliver a C.S.E.-level
>> sociopolitical essay and leave the more hopeful aspects of
>> “Shipbuilding”
>> - the
>> refrain, “Diving for dear life…” - without remark.
>> Congratulations! You
>> missed
>> the point once again.
>>
>> It seems that it isn’t the songwriters who believe themselves
>> central to the
>> universe of their own argument. Ah well, as a greater man that
>> either you or
>> I
>> once sang, “It makes no difference now”…
>>
>> See you in another twenty-five years, you old dunce. Elvis Costello
>>
>> P.S. Just so you know, none of the songs that I have written
>> required me to
>> be a card-carrying member of any political party or organization.
>> While it
>> is
>> quaint to think that readers of an Old Tory newspaper like “The Daily
>> Telegraph” care about such things, my contempt for Thatcherism and
>> its
>> Blarite little
>> sister, did not and does not automatically make me a “staunch
>> supporter of
>> Old
>> Labour.
ENDS
Posted by
at
12:06:13
hahahaha - what a wanker.
Hey, everyone’s a critic these days - even the uber-muso’s. In the words of the prophet ‘the mystery is gone’ - never more true than in the 2007 blogosphere.
Could this be a nasty case of the Disease Of Conceit? Or does it have something to do with the poor live reviews that Costello has received in the States of late. What an uber-twat (understand that, you bellicose oaf?)
Back to the de-caff, Mr Costello.
So, Ole Four Eyes has starting name-calling again. Did he learn nothing from that unpleasant Ray Charles business? There’s only thing for it: next week in the Telegraph Robert Sandall examines the power and influence of Elvis Costello’s seminal ‘Party Party’. Well, he started it…
Yeah and then, the week after… because, because its Elvis it must be a series, we examine, forensically, the album wot he wrote for Wendy James.
Elvis has past ‘form’ as regards petulant reaction to criticism.
see
http://www.elviscostellofans.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6275
Third marriage? Angry, insecure middle-aged man? Middle( to-heavy)-weight? Discuss. Not nice.
you sad, lonely twats. EC stands up for himself and you chalk it up to conceit, caffeine, and middle age. Maybe, like every one on occasion, he just got pissed off?