![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
also I wanted to start a FB page for elvis costello fans http://www.facebook.com/pages/Elvis-Cos ... 1335681221
it would mean a lot to me if you liked it. thank you
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
This is exacerbated by the fact that the lead vocal is separated onto multiple tracks, which overlap at the beginnings and ends of some of the lines, not so much so as to preclude continuity but still enough to create a kind of ghostly funhouse mirror effect. It sounds like the song is being sung by one person with multiple personalities.Poor Deportee wrote:The song invokes alcoholism, failed seduction, moving through public space (perhaps as a performer) in a state of inner disarray...all themes you'd expect from EC in this era, but again, while the various couplets and lines are among his best, the picture as a whole is blurry
Nice point. It reminds me that our very own cwr combined the original BB with "Land Of Give And Take" and created a very interesting remix of the song:Kevin Davis wrote:This is exacerbated by the fact that the lead vocal is separated onto multiple tracks, which overlap at the beginnings and ends of some of the lines, not so much so as to preclude continuity but still enough to create a kind of ghostly funhouse mirror effect. It sounds like the song is being sung by one person with multiple personalities.Poor Deportee wrote:The song invokes alcoholism, failed seduction, moving through public space (perhaps as a performer) in a state of inner disarray...all themes you'd expect from EC in this era, but again, while the various couplets and lines are among his best, the picture as a whole is blurry
I absolutely love this willingness to suspend rational explanation. To be willing to just listen and let the words and images and sound combinations roll over one is quite liberating. This song has always seemed the epitome in 'Pop' music of what Keats was getting at when he discussed negative capability in his famous letter to his brothers: "that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason." You two have caught that and I applaud. It is something I have repeatedly tried to pass onto my daughters about some of Wallace Stevens's poems- sometimes it is best to just allow the rhythms, sounds and word combinations to wash over your brain and auditory senses and not immediately grasp for a fixed meaning. Well grasped and imparted by both of you.Kevin Davis wrote:This is exacerbated by the fact that the lead vocal is separated onto multiple tracks, which overlap at the beginnings and ends of some of the lines, not so much so as to preclude continuity but still enough to create a kind of ghostly funhouse mirror effect. It sounds like the song is being sung by one person with multiple personalities.Poor Deportee wrote:The song invokes alcoholism, failed seduction, moving through public space (perhaps as a performer) in a state of inner disarray...all themes you'd expect from EC in this era, but again, while the various couplets and lines are among his best, the picture as a whole is blurry
Like you said, "inner disarray" is the key concept for me to "understand" the song (I don't think the song need to be understood...). I recall me being completely drunk and completely lost in my thoughts and feelings and suddenly these lines came to me mind:Poor Deportee wrote: For three minutes, we inhabit, riveted, its compelling and self-contained world.