Today’s slow drag is with “The Other Side of Summer” from “Mighty Like a Rose,” released in 1991. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello’s birth name. Perhaps you’ve noticed that Mr. Costello’s first three albums all begin vocals first. “Now that your picture’s in the paper being rhythmically admired” from “Welcome to the Working Week,” “I don’t wanna kiss you, I don’t wanna touch” from “No action,” and “oh I just don’t know where to begin” from “Accidents will Happen.” There’s a quote from Shakespeare’s “Henry V” that I’ve always felt summed up this seemingly inadvertent phenomenon well: “I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, straining upon the start. The game’s afoot: follow your spirit…” For this lucky 13th album, words from the same passage might also be apt: “Be copy now to men of grosser blood, and teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman, whose limbs were made in England, show us here the mettle of your pasture…” This, of course, could easily be in reference to “How to Be Dumb,” a piece the comes two songs after this beginning piece. Until then, this piece seems to have a very pointed beginning, unlike any other piece of Mr. Costello’s. It starts with an understated T-Bone Wolk bass riff. This cannot be a mere coincidence, can it? What an auspicious start to a world beater album that starts with this plucky little tune. The sun struggles up another beautiful day And I felt glad in my own suspicious way Despite the contradiction and confusion Felt tragic without reason There's malice and there's magic in every season This piece starts with a heavy dose of restraint before the barbs truly come out. It follows an aa/c/bb structure, with a great slant rhyme of confusion/reason to help send it on its way. Captured within is a mention of a dying earth, “the sun struggles up,” a thesis statement if there ever were one, “I felt glad in my own suspicious way,” and a host of conflicting emotions that nevertheless seem to complement one another with a strong sense of logic, “tragic without reason” and “malice and magic.” From the foaming breakers of the poisonous surf The other side of summer To the burning forests in the hills of Astroturf The other side of summer It’s a sing-a-long chorus of Elvis Costello proportions. Jaunty and upbeat sounding, making it feel only reasonable to gloss over the mentions of poisoned waters and devastated landscapes. It continues to confound our feelings for whatever else is about to happen. The automatic gates close up between the shanties and the palace The blowtorch amusements, the voodoo chalice The pale pathetic promises that everybody swallows A teenage girl is crying 'cos she don't look like a million dollars So help her if you can 'Cos she don't seem to have the attention span The stellar rhyme of palace/chalice, and the slant rhyme swallows/dollars are interspersed around the beautiful alliteration of “pale pathetic promises.” This helps to keep making it difficult to see “the other side” that is nevertheless being spelled out for us, so graphically, so determined, and then, so trivially. We don’t have to know what a blowtorch amusement is to know it’s serious fun. This verse features a certain quirk that is rare in all of Mr. Costello’s 600+ songs. You’ve probably guessed it already, I’m sure. It’s the deliberately incorrect usage of the auxiliary verb, “do,” in the third person; “cos she doesn’t seem to have the attention span,” of course, just wouldn’t pack the same punch. Was it a millionaire who said "imagine no possessions"? A poor little schoolboy who said "we don't need no lessons"? The rabid rebel dogs ransack the shampoo shop The pop princess is downtown shooting up And if that goddess is fit for burning The sun will struggle up, the world will still keep turning Perhaps you’d agree that there are few more innocuous yet ultimately incendiary lines in Mr. Costello’s canon. Whatever the intent, it does conjure the immortal words, “I want to bite the hand that feeds me, I want to bite that hand so badly.” As in the verse before, we’re presented with a cascade of alliteration. The r sound of “rabid rebel dogs ransack” flows into s sounds of shampoo shop that goes on to be paired with shooting, with a wonderful transition of more p popping of pop princess, and then finally tied together with the simple sound of up. This is the third verse with a six-line structure; more interestingly though, it’s the third verse where the third and fourth lines are stitched together with a slant rhyme. Confusion/reason from the first, swallows/dollars from the second, and shop/up from this third verse. This will be the last we see of this structure, however, as the rest of the piece seems to feature a series of biting, albeit pleasant sounding bridges. As mentioned, this piece did well to restrain itself in the beginning. Madman standing by the side of the road saying "Look at my eyes, look at my eyes, look at my eyes, look at my eyes" Now you can't afford to fake all the drugs your parents used to take Because of their mistakes, you'd better be wide awake Along with a melody that conjures the Beach Boys, there’s obviously a strong assumption that it’s a piece set in South California. This image comes into sharper view with the repeated line of “look at my eyes.” There’s a bit of SoCal “The Red Hot Chili Peppers” “give it away now” vibe to it that I’ve always enjoyed. What do you think? The mightiest rose The absence of perfume The casual killers The military curfew The cardboard city An unwanted birthday The other side of summer This list devolves into desperation as the melody remains buoyant. There’s consonant dissonance, and then there’s the brilliance of Elvis Costello. It will be another five years before there is a true title track, with “All This Useless Beauty.” Until then, we were titillated with fractions of lines and fleeting glimpses of each album’s title embedded in the lines contained within. “The mightiest rose” conjures “this year’s girl” from “This Year’s Model.” That is to say, close yet iconoclastic enough to be willfully inaccurate. This structure will be seen again with 2018’s “Don’t Look Now” from the Grammy Award winning album “Look Now.” The dancing was desperate, the music was worse They bury your dreams and dig up the worthless Goodnight God bless And kiss "goodbye" to the earth The other side of summer Worse/worthless/bless; the ability to fuse sentiment and sound are on full display in this jaunty yet cheerless piece. More alliteration splashes over in this last verse, or is it a bridge? Dancing/desperate/dreams/dig, ending with the refrain that has so much pop song glitter on it that it couldn’t be dulled, not even by the truth raining down on its parade. As an addendum to this piece’s sentiment, there’s also “Earthbound,” written the same year, but then released in 1993 on Wendy James’ “Now Ain’t the Time for Your Tears.” There is more inverted joy found in lines such as “and it’s not safe to even venture outside,” and “The forgotten rapture of sun-drenched days / pray you didn’t stay out in those poisonous rays.” — Dig it Again, this has been a slow drag with “The Other Side of Summer” from 1991’s “Mighty Like a Rose.” I can only imagine the perplexed faces of the uninitiated who’ve stumbled upon this remarkable piece. It would be in stark contrast to our smug faces, of course. What a great piece to remind ourselves how we truly “get it.” It's a small thing of course, but I couldn’t have anticipated that I’d find three slant rhymes in the same position in three consecutive verses lurking in “The Other Side of Summer.” Just another good reason to dance a slow drag with Mr. Costello’s material. Other gems from “Mighty Like a Rose” you’ll enjoy a slow drag with are episodes 5, “Heaven Knows What Fills the Heart,” a slow drag with “Georgia and Her Rival,” episode 34, “Lost Legs and Fingernails,” a slow drag with “Invasion Hit Parade,” episode 50, “Sharp and Ideal,” a slow drag with “After the Fall,” episode 71, “Across a Crowded Room,” a slow drag with “Sweet Pear,” episode 87, “So Easy to Corrupt,” a slow drag with “Harpies Bizarre.” So, until next time, adieu, my little ballyhoo. Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: [email protected] Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “The Other Side of Summer” http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/The_Other_Side_Of_Summer “The Other Side of Summer” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR_9f1xuloo “The Other Side of Summer” Music Video Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww0hN-puTdA “Stand Like Greyhounds…” https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/191850.html “Give It Away Now” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr_uHJPUlO8 Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Earthbound”:http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Wendy_James:_Now_Ain%27t_The_Time_For_Your_Tears http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Earthbound “Earthbound” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9Xs6Mhe9tU Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Comments are closed.
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AboutSlow Drag with Remedy is an Elvis Costello podcast appreciation. It's an exploration of linguistics, language, poetry, and clever wordplay as framed by the peerless poetry of the modern-day master, Elvis Costello. Slow Drag by Song
Poor Napoleon Alibi Church Underground The Big Light Georgie and Her Rival Joe Porterhouse No Hiding Place 20% Amnesia All This Useless Beauty Let Him Dangle King of Thieves Damnation's Cellar Stripping Paper Pidgin English Riot Act Bedlam The Quickening Art Luxembourg Chemistry Class Living in Paradise My Mood Swings Waiting for the End of the World Little Atoms Two Little Hitlers Crimes of Paris You Tripped at Every Step Needle Time Men Called Uncle Peace in Our Time The Loved Ones I Almost Had a Weakness Our Little Angel Invasion Hit Parade Turpentine Miracle Man A Voice in the Dark The Greatest Thing Satellite Hand in Hand Clubland Tart Glitter Gulch Stations of the Cross Science Fiction Twin Possession This Sad Burlesque Flutter and Wow Soul for Hire After the Fall Blue Chair Monkey to Man Mouth Almighty Watch Your Step ...This Town... Distorted Angel Worthless Thing No Dancing Miss Macbeth Charm School Poor Fractured Atlas Brilliant Mistake My Little Blue Window Suspect My Tears Coal Train Robberies Fish 'n' Chip Papers I Hope You're Happy Now Man Out of Time 13 Steps Lead Down Go Away Sweet Pear The Name of This Thing is Not Love Jimmie Standing in the Rain The Deportees Club The Birds Will Still Be Singing Starting to Come to Me Pay It Back Five Small Words Pretty Words Radio Silence Human Hands Night Rally I'll Wear It Proudly Motel Matches Drum and Bone Harpies Bizarre Nothing Clings Like Ivy Why Won't Heaven Help Me Next Time 'Round The River in Reverse A Room with No Number Clown Strike The Invisible Man My Most Beautiful Mistake All the Rage The Town Where Time Stood Still Episode of Blonde e of Blonde No Flag A Slow Drag with Josephine That Bridge I Burned Sour Milk Cow Blues You Little Fool Spooky Girlfriend Suit of Lights There's a Story in Your Voice Dishonor The Stars The Other Side of Summer Mischievous Ghost They're Not Laughing at Me Now White Knuckles Honey, Are You Straight or Are You Blind? Black and White World The World and His Wife
God's Comic The First to Leave Green Shirt The Man You Love to Hate Lip Service American Gangster Time Blame It on Cain The Spell That You Cast Lipstick Vogue The Difference Stella Hurt Tears before Bedtime |