Today’s slow drag is with “Honey, Are You Straight or Are You Blind?” from “Blood and Chocolate,” released in 1986. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello’s birth name. It’s a frenetic, hard driving, narratively confusing piece that fits the entire vibe of “Blood and Chocolate” like a black patent leather glove. A scant three havoc wreaking verses in total, two minutes and seven second in total, it’s a piece that’s worthy of “Get Happy!” from six years earlier. The question of straight or blind is as cockeyed as who she is, and who you are. Mr. Costello and his pronouns. My golly he knows how to make a meal out of these tasty morsels. Who do you see when you turn your eyes down? Who do you see when I'm not seeing you? The news is out all over town And all these girls are taking turns at being you Setting in stone the motif that began with its title, this verse starts with a question. Unlike the title, however, perhaps these questions are less rhetorical and more accusatory. This verse has a deceptively simple ab/ab structure, especially if you factor in the identical rhyme of “you” on the second and fourth lines. Deceptive, that is, because the rhyme starts long before the end of the line. It’s not just “you,” it’s “not seeing you?” that rhymes with “at being you,” providing a nice slant rhyme of at/not while we’re at it. So, who is being addressed exactly? We should answer this seemingly obvious question in order to restate it when the second verse goes flying by. Clearly the “you” being grilled is also the “you” being informed everyone knows she is being replaced, however temporarily it may be. In a stroke a genius, the narrator betrays their vulnerability by exulting rather than replacing her. These little flourishes are so pleasing. “All these girls are taking turns at being you” puts me in mind of the brilliant turn of phrase, only in the opposite direction, in one of my favorite Elvis Costello metaphor minefields, “The Town Where Time Stood Still,” explored in episode 97 of Slow Drag with Remedy, “no amount of darkness could ever turn her into you.” Both of these lines, again, speak to Mr. Costello’s proficiency in word economy. Well, well, well You'd better make up your mind Honey, are you straight or are you blind? And speaking of word economy, here again, another great example of Mr. Costello’s ability to convey so much with just a single stroke. Three repeated words: well, well, well, when one might have sufficed? Not a chance. “Well, well, well” could stand in as the shortened version of “well, well, well, what do we have here?”, a wonderfully catty, mocking, and sarcastic expression typically uttered by the one with the upper hand. Then, of course, we have the disconcerting honorific, “honey,” that begins a seemingly rhetorical question, but apropos of what? More to the point, which do you think the narrator would prefer? There are many avenues the collocation of straight and blind can lead us down, sexuality being a prominent contender, of course. For now, though, I’m going to ponder the difference between sober and black out drunk, the kind of drunk that makes us do things we wouldn’t ordinarily do, like flirt, cheat, or at least use it as an excuse to justify actions that take place within the confines of inebriation. So, which one are you? A cheater? Or the innocent victim of a night out drinking? And, not for nothing, why do you think it’s so important to “make up your mind?” She walked in and your eyes flew out the door You squeezed my hand until the circulation ceases She's just a doll like so many more She's the kind of doll that you'd like to pull to pieces With a textbook ab/ab rhyme scheme, this final verse looks and sounds fantastic. But, what on Earth is he on about? Let’s take the first line. Eyes flying out the door nearly sounds like an idiom, and if it is, I’ve failed to find corroboration from Mr. Google, but the guess is “she” looked quite nice and that was the result. Ok, so I’m with him so far, sort of. But then in the second line, even if we can guess at why, who exactly squeezes his hand? This speaks to a love triangle, but it’s so wonderfully convoluted that it’s best left to whatever interpretation strikes your fancy on any particular listening. This verse ends in more familiar territory. She’s just a doll. Party girl, anyone? I’ve always loved the final line of this verse for a few reasons. Namely because Elvis Costello wrote and he is my hero. But more to the point, at first blush it might sound harsh, destructive, deliberate. Upon reflection, however, it could be the simple consequence of playing with something too hard and for too long. Call it an innocent yet predictable outcome of all the tumult that has come before it. Then along came “When I Was Cruel’s” “Tear off Your Own Head” and recontextualized everything. Striving poets take notice; nothing is sacred, anything can be turned on its ear. — Dig it Again, this has been a slow drag with “Honey, Are You Straight or Are You Blind” from 1986’s “Blood and Chocolate.” Sometimes even a slow drag can’t help coax the meaning or cohesion out of a piece, especially a seemingly simple piece such as this. It reveals itself to be enigmatic, cheeky, contradictory, oblique. Here’s the great part, though, I am nearly certain that you have your own theories, suspicions, and conclusions about “Honey, Are You Straight or Are You Blind?” that you hold dear on an intrinsic level. And I think that nearly begins to get to the heart of why Mr. Costello is so dear yet so inscrutable to so many of us. Other gems from “Blood and Chocolate” you’ll enjoy a slow drag with are episodes episode 1, “Just Like the Place Where They Take Your Spine,” it’s a slow drag with “Poor Napoleon,” episode 25, “Tough and Transparent,” it’s a slow drag with “Crimes of Paris,” episode 51, “Blue Becomes You,” a slow drag with “Blue Chair,” and episode 67, “Like a Matador,” a slow drag with “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” and episode 90, “This Velvet-Line Purgatory,” a slow drag with Next Time ‘Round.” And as always, thank you for helping to get the word out about this little passion project. Truly, it means the world. So, until next time, adieu, my little ballyhoo. Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/indoorfirewords.bsky.social Email: [email protected] Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Honey, Are You Straight or Are You Blind?” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Honey,_Are_You_Straight_Or_Are_You_Blind%3F “Honey, Are You Straight or Are You Blind?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqeSNPJ1bIY Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y Comments are closed.
|
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 |