Complicated Shadows
Page 44
14. Daily Variety, 6 August 1998
15. New York Post, 9 October 1998
16. Sunday Herald, 11 April 1999
17. Woodstock.com
18. Sunday Herald, 11 April 1999
19. Entertainment Weekly, October 1999
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
1. The Guardian, 1 March 1996
2. Programme notes for Il Sogno
3. Interview with Damon Coward, Bologna, printed in Beyond Belief, October 2000
4. Dallas Observer, 5 April 2001
5. Phoenix New Times, 12 April 2001
6. Expressen, 1 December 2000
7. Daily Telegraph, 15 March 2001
8. Independent On Sunday, 11 February 2001
9. Interview with Damon Coward, Bologna, printed in Beyond Belief, October 2000
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
1. Boston Globe, 21 April 2002
2. Mix, 1 May 2002
3. ibid
4. ibid
5. Interview with author, August 2002
6. Mix, 1 May 2002
7. Word, April 2003
8. Detroit News, 22 March 2002
9. ibid
10. Word, April 2003
11. Daily Star, 23 February 2003
12. Word, April 2003
13. ibid
14. Providence Journal Bulletin, 11 July 2003
15. Guardian, 19 September 2003
16. Guardian, 30 August 2003
17. stevenieve.com, 7 April 2004
18. Clarksdale Press, 15 April 2004
19. ASCAP Awards, 20 May 2003
Endnotes
1. Ray Charles was later asked for his opinion on Elvis Costello’s comments, and showed the kind of maturity and restraint that few on either side of the battle-lines had been able or willing to display. ‘Anyone could get drunk once in his life,’ said Charles. ‘Drunken talk isn’t meant to be printed in the paper.’
2. The family’s surname was originally spelt with the Mc- prefix, rather than Mac-, but by the time Declan’s father Ross married in 1952 it had morphed into the latter spelling, traditionally Scottish rather than Irish. This may have been an attempt to escape anti-Irish prejudice.
3. Pat’s stint in the US is celebrated in the final verse of ‘American Without Tears’ on King Of America, where the singer tenderly evokes his grandfather ‘walking the streets of New York’.
4. The perennially popular Joe Loss Show ran on the BBC light service and later Radio One between 1933 and 1968.
5. Beaulieu Close was firmly within the west London/Middlesex axis within which, two teenage years in Liverpool notwithstanding, Declan would spend the remainder of his formative years and continue well into adulthood: Twickenham, Whitton, Hounslow, Roehampton, Richmond, Chiswick.
6. The purchase is celebrated in the mathematical autobiography of ‘45’, from 2002’s When I Was Cruel.
7. Ross and Sara finally married in 1975, and went on to have four children: Ruari, Ronan, Liam and Kieran, who currently play in London group Riverway.
8. By the time Declan moved to Liverpool, his grandfather Pat had passed away.
9. One poem ran, in part: ‘If you want to be the King/Lying on a bed of gold/Take the sceptre of the Old/Take the sword and wear the crown/You’re in your robes and on the stairway/Looking down.’
10. One of them ‘Maureen And Sam’, co-written with Mayes, would later turn up in rewritten form as ‘Ghost Train’ on the New Amsterdam EP, released in March 1980.
11. So successful was the commercial that a Secret Lemonade Drinker fan club was set up, a R.Whites football team played their matches in pyjamas, and there was even a Secret Lemonade Drinker handicap horse race held at Lingfield Park. In 2000, it was voted the seventh favourite advert ever in the UK.
12. Pronounced ‘Mish’
13. ‘Declan loved that set-up, as we all did,’ says Ken Smith. ‘I always thought The Band were the most convincing white band doing music based on deep soul,’ Declan later agreed. ‘I thought they were the best. They kind of invented their own version of it, almost by accident. They were men, and yet they weren’t dressing up as cowboys or anything. The sexuality was taken for granted. It wasn’t phoney.’1
14. The factory building was directly off the Western Avenue, and his trip on the 105 bus to and from work every day took him past an art deco building which housed a factory that made vacuum cleaners, a journey which later found itself literally transposed into ‘Hoover Factory’.
15. ‘Rick Danko was my absolute hero. He had a unique style,’ Declan later said. ‘It was kind of nasal and it had a little bit of what I now realise to be country in it, but at the same time it was just so unusual to me.’6 He could be describing himself.
16. One night at Dingwalls, Mary had a fight with Pretender’s vocalist Chrissie Hynde. One source claims that ‘Mary could start a fight in a telephone box’, while Bruce Thomas agrees that ‘they used to go at it a bit, sometimes in restaurants and whatever’.
17. The song’s first line is ‘Stop thief, you’re gonna come to grief.’
18. Declan had been a fan of singer-songwriter Jesse Winchester since his Liverpool days, and Ken Smith recalls accompanying him to see Winchester play in London and meeting the singer afterwards.
19. Early on, Declan stated that: ‘I don’t want to be successful so that I get a lot of money and retire. I’m just interested in playing.’10 Indeed, he has never been prone to the traditional rock star trappings of mansions in the country, or fleets of flash cars. ‘I don’t think money has ever been his motivating force,’ says ex-Attraction Bruce Thomas.
20. The significance of the address would not have been lost on Declan. ‘Cypress Avenue’ is a key track on Van Morrison’s classic 1968 album Astral Weeks.
21. In part, this was because he later raided many of the lyrics for future songs and wasn’t particularly keen for anyone to trace the link. ‘Cheap Reward’ would later yield the key chorus phrase for This Year’s Model’s ‘Lip Service’. ‘Jump Up’ was also plundered for lyrics later in his career, when the phrase ‘last night’s obituaries’ turned up amidst the two-minute riot of ‘Luxembourg’ on 1981’s Trust. The lasting legacy of ‘Poison Moon’ was again a snatch of lyrics – ‘starts with fascination, it ends up like a trance’ – which finally surfaced on ‘Party Girl’, while ‘Call On Me’ was used as a launchpad for both ‘Moods For Moderns’ and ‘Lipstick Vogue’.
22. Declan certainly would have been aware of the American singersongwriter; indeed, he nominated Hardin’s 1966 album Hang On To A Dream in his ‘500 Essential Albums’ list for Vanity Fair magazine in November 2000.
23. Ironically, that is exactly what happened. A little over a year later, CBS were alerted by the success of Elvis Costello in the UK and signed him to an American deal.
24. A companion piece to ‘Less Than Zero’, inspired by a late-night discussion with John Ciambotti at the Nashville Rooms. With its ‘Calling Mr Oswald’ refrain, Ciambotti was convinced that ‘Less Than Zero’ was about Lee Harvey Oswald and the assassination of JFK. Suitably inspired by this misreading, Elvis wrote ‘Less Than Zero (Dallas Version)’. Ciambotti later heard the ‘Dallas Version’ in concert and allowed himself a small amount of credit. ‘Maybe I put a bug in his ear.’
25. He was fined £5 by the magistrate for the incorrect charge of ‘selling records in the street’. Not having enough money with him, Elvis asked for time to pay, which he was granted.
26. His clothes may not have helped. ‘Elvis was wearing this kind of biker outfit,’ says Wreckless Eric. ‘It got described in one of the reviews as a “poofy biker outfit”, some sort of leather jacket and trousers combination. He only wore that once!’
27. Elvis and The Attractions also played versions of Bacharach and David’s ‘I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself’to work again!’” ; Richard Hell’s ‘Love Comes In Spurts’; and The Lovin’ Spoonful’s ‘Six O’Clock’ on the Stiff tour.
28. The tour provided Steve Na
son with his enduring stage name, after he wondered aloud what a groupie was. ‘The first few tours we did, I was just out of school and looking for a wild time,’ he said. ‘I can’t really recall much about them.’13 He didn’t stay naive for long, but he would be ‘Nieve’ from then on.
29. The US version included ‘Watching The Detectives’.
30. The real-life protgaonists of ‘Party Girl’ never had sex, apparently because the girl’s skin lotion smelt of coconuts and Elvis’s ardour was dimmed.
31. Two of the songs would end up on the New Amsterdam EP in June 1980, while ‘Hoover Factory’ would appear on the B-side of the ‘Clubland’ maxi-single in December 1980.
32. These can be found on the Sisters album, released in 1982. The Bluebells later had a No. 1 single with ‘Young At Heart’.
33. Only his work on the Various Artists soundtrack for The Courier has ever been credited to his real name, although a one-off single was credited to The MacManus Gang in 1987.
34. The line, ‘If you’ll wear it proudly through the snakepits and the cat-calls’ seems to draw on Elvis and Cait’s on-tour experiences with the band.
35. The US tour between 15 April and 2 May again involved the Spectacular Spinning Songbook. In Washington, Elvis rigged the wheel: ‘If you can’t cheat in Washington, D.C. where can you cheat?’, he joked.
36. They came up with at least a dozen new songs in all: ‘My Brave Face’, ‘You Want Her Too’, ‘Don’t Be Careless Love’, ‘That Day Is Done’, ‘Mistress And Maid’ and ‘Lovers That Never Were’ appear on McCartney’s Flowers In The Dirt and Off The Ground. ‘Playboy To A Man’, ‘So Like Candy’ and ‘Shallow Grave’ made it onto Elvis’s Mighty Like A Rose and All This Useless Beauty. In addition, ‘I Don’t Want To Confess’, ‘25 Fingers’, ‘Tommy’s Coming Home’ and, in all probability, several more exist, but have never been officially released.
37. Steve Nieve and Pete Thomas became part of the house band on Jonathan Ross’s weekly TV show The Last Resort, while all three Attractions were involved in session work with the reformed Madness and Andy White, among others.
38. Spike Jones was a ‘musical comedian’ who worked in the ’30s and ’40s, assembling a group of fine musicians whom he trained to play toilet seats or tune gunshots to C-sharp. Mixing learned instrumental virtuosity with sonic hi-jinks, they blended comedy and music in a way that was unique, funny and sometimes slightly disquieting. Elvis seemingly recognised a similar quality in his own recent music.
39. In the mid-’80s, Elvis stated categorically that he ‘wasn’t Irish’, but later changed his view to one of ambiguity. ‘I talk about “we Irish”,’ he later said. ‘I love to tease by virtue of my mixed nationality. I say that the problem with you English is that we’re younger, smarter, better educated and eventually will be richer than you, because we’re not insular like you are.’16 On 13 May, 2001 he played U2’s ‘Please’ and his own ‘Heart-Shaped Bruise’ at the Irish Festival at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, introducing himself as an ‘accidental Englishman’.
40. A form of ballad.
41. Elvis also cut a version of the Grateful Dead’s ‘Ship Of Fools’, which would be left off the final album, appearing instead on Deadicated, a tribute record released in 1991.
42. The film finally appeared in 2001 with both songs on the soundtrack. Elvis’s small role as a ‘despairing teacher in a leaky school’ seemed to have been cut at the editing stage.
Index
A
Abba ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Abbey Road (Beatles) ref1
Aberdeen, Metro Hotel ref1, ref2
Absolute Beginners (Julian Temple film) ref1
‘Accidents Will Happen’ ref1, ref2
Accidents Will Happen ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13, ref14, ref15, ref16
Ackles, David ref1
Adelaide ref1
Advancedale Management ref1, ref2
Aelita, Queen of Mars (Soviet film) ref1
Afro Blok ref1
Afrodiziak ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
‘After The Fall’ ref1, ref2, ref3
Aftermath (Stones) ref1
Against The Streams (Tabor album) ref1
Agnes Burnelle ref1
Agutter, Jenny ref1
‘Alibi’ ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
‘Alison’ ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13, ref14, ref15, ref16, ref17, ref18
‘All Day And All Of The Night’ (Kinks) ref1
‘All Grown Up’ ref1, ref2, ref3
‘All My Loving’ (Lennon/McCartney) ref1
All-Star Irish Band ref1
‘All The Rage’ ref1, ref2
‘All This Useless Beauty’ ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
All This Useless Beauty, ref1n, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
‘All You Need Is Love’ (Beatles) ref1
‘All You Thought Of Was Betrayal’ ref1
Allen, Woody, ref1
Allison, Mose, ref1, ref2
Almeria, Spain, ref1
‘Almost Blue’ ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11
Almost Blue ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
‘Almost Ideal Eyes’ ref1, ref2
Alpha Band, The ref1
Altman, Robert ref1
Amazing Rhythm Aces, The ref1
American Beauty (Grateful Dead) ref1
‘American Girl’ ref1
‘American Without Tears’ ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7
Americanthon (Al Jean Harmetz film) ref1
Amsterdam ref1, ref2
‘. . . And In Every Home’ ref1, ref2
Andersen, Hans Christian ref1
Anderson, Clive ref1
Andersson, Benny ref1
Andriessen, Louis ref1
Angel Tiger (Tabor album) ref1
Animal House (National Lampoon film) ref1
Animals, The ref1
Anne Sofie Van Otter Meets Elvis Costello: For The Stars
(Deutsche Grammophon), ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
‘Another Saturday Night’ (Cooke) ref1
Anti-Nazi League ref1
Anuna ref1
‘Any King’s Shilling’ ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
‘Anyone Who Had A Heart’
(Bacharach/David) ref1
‘April In Orbit’ ref1
Aquilante, Dan ref1
Arc Angels, The (TV sitcom) ref1
Archipelago studios, Pimlico ref1, ref2
Arden, Don ref1
‘Are You Afraid of Your Children?’ ref1
Armed Forces ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13, ref14, ref15, ref16, ref17, ref18, ref19
Armstrong, Louis ref1
Asbury Park, NJ (Stone Pony at) ref1, ref2
‘At Last’ (James) ref1
Aterballetto ref1, ref2
Atlanta, Georgia ref1, ref2
Atlantic Records ref1
Atlantis Studios, Stockholm ref1
Attractions, The ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6n, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13, ref14, ref15, ref16, ref17
see also Costello, Elvis
‘Armed Funk’ tour, violence of ref1
‘Bedrooms of Britain’ tour ref1
billing concerns ref1
‘Clocking Across America’ tour ref1
collective schizophrenia ref1
death throes ref1, ref2, ref3
debauchery of ref1
drinking ref1
drug use ref1
‘English Mugs’ tour ref1
hedonism at a price ref1
inter-band chemistry ref1, ref2, ref3
last time round the block ref1
Marathon in New York (April Fool’s Day) ref1, ref2
parting from Elvis ref1
rawest and roughest ref1
temptations of women ref1
US, touring in ref1
video promos ref1
‘Wake Up Canada’ tour ref1
well-oiled unit ref1
‘Aubergine’ ref1
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (Jay Roach film) ref1
Australia ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8
‘Autumn Leaves’ (Kosma/Mercer) ref1
‘Awesomeness’ ref1
Azavedo, Robert ref1, ref2, ref3
Aznavour, Charles ref1
B
‘B-Flat Sonata’ (Franz Schubert) ref1
‘Baby, It’s You’ (Bacharach/Costello) ref1
‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ (Loesser) ref1
‘Baby Plays Around’ ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Babyface, ref1
‘Baby’s Got A Brand New Hairdo’ ref1, ref2
‘Baby’s In Black’ (Beatles) ref1
Bach, Johann Sebastian ref1, ref2
Bacharach, Burt ref1, ref2n, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9
‘Back On My Feet’ (McCartney) ref1
‘Backstabbers’ (O’Jays) ref1
Baker, Chet ref1, ref2
Baker, Stephen ref1
Balanescu, Alex ref1
Balkana ref1
Ball, Zoe ref1
‘Bama Lama Bama Loo’ ref1
Band, The ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8
‘Band Played Waltzing Matilda, The’ ref1
Bangles, The ref1
Barbados, Blue Wave Studios ref1
Barcelona ref1
Barnacle, Gary ref1
Bartoli, Cecilia ref1, ref2
‘Baseball Heroes’ ref1, ref2, ref3
‘Battered Old Bird’ ref1
Baz ref1
BBC Maida Vale ref1
BBC Radio London ref1
BBC Radio One ref1
Beach Boys, The ref1, ref2, ref3
Beat, The ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
‘Beaten To The Punch’ ref1
Beatles, The ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8
Beatty, Warren ref1
Bechirian, Roger ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13
‘Bedlam’ ref1