Today’s slow drag is with “Crimes of Paris,” from “Blood and Chocolate,” released in 1986. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello’s birth name. Drawing upon suspense, accusation, sex appeal, and wit, it’s an escalating piece with a tremendous musical crescendo built into it. As for the title, I’d always assumed “Crimes of Paris” was a reference to actual events, much like how “Let Him Dangle” is based on the Derrick Bentley case, and “Shipbuilding” the Falklands War. An internet scour, however, returns only links to this song itself, and to a 2009 book of nearly same name. So, if the term is entirely an Elvis Costello concoction, Kudos, sir, kudos (as if he needs mine, but still). “Crimes of Paris” is a piece that sweeps the listener up in its intrigue. The lines are sophisticated and course at the same time. I thought it was you with your optimist's view of the clock And how it's always another day / Just after twelve o'clock's struck Said "Now I only want you so I don't have to promise" But tiny children in grown-up clothes whispered all the Crimes of Paris These near rhymes are absolutely exquisite: clock/struck/clothes, optimist’s/promise/Paris, and of course the familiar rhyming words with themselves, this time, clock with o’clock. This is the exposition. ^^^^^ Each of these lines flow together nicely, yet can almost stand on their own as well. An optimist’s view of the clock seems like a wonderfully opened-to-interpretation exercise. Is it someone young who doesn’t fear getting old? Coupled with the additional information in the next line, however, it’s as if there’s someone just trying to make it through the day. We’ve barely begun, and already there’s a hint of squandered youth and quiet desperation on view. Love and logic. One seems to always betray the other. The third line posits an excellent yet perilous quandary, “now I only want you, so I don’t have to promise.” The logic is, if we know something to be true, why do we have to take the additional step of forever promising, of continually confirming its very existence? The love of it, on the other hand, much like checking a bank balance, seems to only serve to help us confirm that something so easily taken away from us, is, indeed, still there. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was quoted as saying: “if somebody says ‘I love you’ to me, I feel as though I had a pistol pointed at my head. What can anybody reply under such conditions but that which the pistol holder requires? ‘I love you, too’.” I’ve always admired this quote, but assumed, incorrectly, that it was attributed to Hunter S. Thompson. It’s not unreasonable to think that the mad architect of the quote “sex without love is as hollow and ridiculous as love without sex,” was responsible for such a love and logic connection. Probably one of my favorite quotes by Thompson is from “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” “No point in mentioning these bats, I thought, the poor bastard will see them soon enough.” But I digress. The last line of this first verse, “but tiny children in grown-up clothes whispered all the Crimes of Paris,” is a beautiful, confounding anchor to this far flung, flowing, and provocative mindscape. And that’s just the first of four verses this piece ultimately unfurls. But before the next verse, the chorus, repeated three times throughout this piece, shades in the lines and shadows nicely. You're not the girl next door or a girl from France Or the cigarette-girl in the sizzle hot-pants All the words of love seem cruel and crass When you're tough and transparent as armored glass You're an everywhere girl in an everyday mess Who'll pay for the Crimes of Paris? With the revelation that she’s an everywhere girl in an everyday mess, a girl who is not from France, or even next door, the notion that there are crimes in Paris creates a noir scene of mystery and intrigue of things so salacious they can only be mentioned in code and spoken about in out of context snippets. Interestingly, the first two and the last two lines of the chorus flank a soon-to-be familiar turn of phrase in a different piece that would go on to be released in 1995, 10 years after it was originally written. It landed in this chorus 1 year after it was lifted from the Elvis Costello penned “Suffering Face.” And I quote: “But if I seem so preoccupied / it’s just my alibi / I’m all broken up inside / Even the words of love seem cruel and crass / when you’re tough and transparent as armored glass.” It is sung as a lament in “Suffering Face,” as opposed to a mere observation in this piece. Of course, I have no way of knowing if “I’m all broken up inside” came from a deep personal place, but as we see, any sort of overt self-pity or introspection might have been circumnavigated by focusing the action outward, on a peculiar girl whose face you just can’t place, instead of on the narrator of the previous piece where these two repurposed lines came from. I heard that you fell for the "Hell or to Hammersmith Blues" In the tiny torn up pieces of his mind, he's irresistible too It's hard to say now if he's only stupid or is smart As he crawled through the door And poured out more of his (weeping) creeping-Jesus heart It’s such a crushing yet familiar rebuke, isn’t it, typically directed inward: “It’s hard to say now if he’s only stupid or is smart.” He’s come back for more, pleading his case, it seems, “and drunk as well.” This is the rising action. ^^^^ And it's all here and now She hits him with that paper-weight Eiffel Tower And I tried to hold on to you, but I don't know how And I find it hard to swallow good advice Like going down three times to only come up twice Come up twice This is the climactic scene, the crescendo I mentioned at the beginning. ^^^^ It’s at this point where it becomes clear that this is more than just a song, it’s a drama, playing out in classic dramatic style. I’ve been pointing out the narrative arc as I have gone along. According to the observations of Gustav Freytag, a 19th century German novelist, in drama there are 5 plot points: first comes the exposition, then it moves to the rising action, and then, of course, to the climax. This climactic verse references a story within the story. The mention of hitting him with that paper-weight Eiffel Tower is pulled straight from a French New Wave film. It’s a Truffaut film, I am almost certain. But, sadly, I am not able to recall the exact film. I just remember watching it, long after I’d heard this song, and felt giddy when correctly predicting that the woman in the scene would pick up the paperweight on a desk between her and a man, bashing him on the head with it. The final two plot points come in quick succession, existing within one verse. Here is the falling action: She's so convenient, he's always stiff as hair-lacquer It's hard to discover now he's in love with her It was her way of getting her own back The fifth plot point, right on time, is the denouement, the beginning of the end, or simply, the resolution: He never did anything she couldn't do on her own You're as good as your word and that's no good to her You'd better leave that kitten alone Here we recognize the familiar through line found in so much of Mr. Costello’s writing. The objectification of women is a fleeting and futile endeavor. In the end, she’ll emerge victorious. Or if not victorious, at least in a better position than anyone else in the piece wanted her to be in. “Crimes of Paris” is a 4:18 dramatic piece that hits all five points of the narrative arc cleanly and sharply. And if that weren’t enough, at the very end, it makes a deft reference to the song “Leave My Kitten Alone,” a song that Elvis Costello would go on to cover on his 1995 album, “Kojak Variety.” “You better leave my kitten all alone. I love my little kitten, well, like you hound-dogs love your bone.” And while this last reference isn’t strictly germane to the topic, what it does is remind us how deep and diverse Mr. Costello’s musical knowledge is, and how, through him, hidden passageways slide open to reveal worlds within worlds. Even without knowing the Eiffel Tower paperweight reference, or knowing that the last line corresponds with a favorite song title of his, or even that this whole piece follows a crisp 5-point dramatic arc, “Crimes of Paris” stands alone as an infectious ditty that is a joy to find stuck in your head. You're not the girl next door or a girl from France Or the cigarette-girl in the sizzle hot-pants All the words of love seem cruel and crass When you're tough and transparent as armored glass You're an everywhere girl in an everyday mess Who'll pay for the Crimes of Paris? — Dig it Again, this has been a slow drag with “Crimes of Paris” from 1986’s “Blood and Chocolate.” It’s a whip smart piece, so elegant, yet so brutal, laid out in a classic narrative arc of drama with embedded references to other works of art. So, until next time, adieu, my little ballyhoo. 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 |