Today’s slow drag is with “Coal Train Robberies,” from “Spike,” released in 1989. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello’s birth name. With its 264 pleasingly placed words, “Coal Train Robberies” is an oblique opus of much larger proportions than its scant 3:12 running time might suggest. Yesterday's coal train came to rest in the bitter cutting And while the signals took an age to change, it was easy pickings So you go to the movies where they smash it up You want to feel your heart pumping, it makes you feel good All through the karaoke, girls were squealing the hits While another Mercedes-Benz gets blown to bits Told from what seems to be the coal train robber’s perspective, it’s all in a day’s work. Barely break a sweat. Just wait for the signals to change, then hide out like they said Oswald did that day in Dallas. It’s all the action you’ll need for a day. Remarkably, along with a smattering of alliteration, this flowing verse is anchored only by one ending rhyme pair, hit/bits, as it goes into poetic detail of how to pull off the perfect heist, complete with singing girls and exploding cars. While all the time in the camptown theatres of Piccadilly They're going to throw a black-face minstrel show For the barefoot children that they're always selling They'll say "It's quaint" as the guilty ones faint And claim they ain't underneath this paint We interrupt these liberal saints with their whips and watermelon This is certainly a dense verse that is full of imagery yet blissfully short on any sort of expressed comprehension. As I am certain many of us have done, I’ve poured over these lines for years, only to garner a fleeting understanding that keeps coming in and out of focus. Whips and watermelon? Indeed. In addition to this abstinent, finished 6-line second verse, there is an alternate 4-line verse that hints at many of the same notions that are found throughout the finished piece. Outside a khaki-covered river oozes by And still they say that there’s a big important world out there to try "What’s yours is yours, what’s yours is mine," so say those City of London swine "So let’s steal something that’s really worth it" Reports are coming in of a coal-train robbery It's like another world, or it had better be Mind you, it’s quite fine by me, but it seems we’ve gone through two verses and an alternate verse without gleaning much insight past common thievery: not linguistically, poetically, or otherwise. That’s why our slow drags are as much appreciation as they are exploration. Do you think the third verse will provide clarity? Or will it be as wonderfully and as maddeningly perverse as its antecedents? On a side note, how do you feel about rhetorical questions? So we return to whitewash pout of his committed lips Since he was declared the long lost fountain of youth that drips and drips and drips They'll be sending him round from door to door to sell you back what's already yours "So many good deeds, so little time," say the advertising agency swine When man has destroyed what he thinks he owns I hope no living thing cries over his bones If you don't believe that I'm going for good You can count the days I'm gone and chop up the chairs for firewood Lips/drips, owns/bones, good/firewood. These end rhyme create a nice flow through a complicated maze of corporate conniving, ending with a truly perplexing proclamation. To “whitewash” means to cover something over, such as crimes or scandals. If this piece were to have a thesis statement, then, it might be the grotesque virtue signaling subversion of “so many good deeds, so little time.” “Chop up the chairs for firewood” is such a bleak outcome to someone else’s departure. The act of smashing up the place seems a fitting way to cope with this final realization and as a continued desperate act of survival. As with the second verse, the third verse also has alternative lyrics, with only the last two lines surviving the final shuffle: Come down the banks where you used to court, your heart pumping You know where she kissed you as the sweating trains pulled in A scrap of grime for a glimmer of heat beneath the rails between your feet You used to pick rags from the workhouse floor You don’t want much, you just want more You waited fifteen years for the whistle to blow When they say "work," when they say "no" If you don’t believe that I’m going for good You can count the days I’m gone and chop up the chairs for firewood Detailing the mundane work-a-day world seems to project a much more wholesome, proletarian slant to these words. The revision process is well on display between these two alternative verses and the final version. Strategic lines are kept, moved around, and repurposed to what I might call perfection if only I could actually wrap my arms around the meaning of each line. These expressive yet guarded lines are a large part of why “Coal Train Robberies” remains seemingly relevant as well as timeless. Reports are coming in of a coal train robbery It’s like another world, or it had better be — Dig it Again, this has been a slow drag with “Coal Train Robberies” from 1989’s “Spike.” Dense, complicated, vivid, nearly impenetrable, this piece will never die as long as we continue to decode and affix our own experiences onto each line while letting the essence of it wash over. We intellectually know that it about, well, as the title announces: robbery; outlaws and otherwise. Yet, even with all my linguistic prowess and years of attentive listening, this piece remains a moving target. Or, as Mr. Costello has been quoted as saying about this piece: “I’m never sorry to have a song that maybe puzzles people for a while.” So, in the unique world of Mr. Costello, this piece stands out as an enigma. An enigma that nevertheless blends in well with all the other works of genius from “Spike.” And that’s it for today’s slow drag, my friend. Thank you for listening. I highly encourage you to re-listen to Episode 10 of “Slow Drag with Remedy,” “A Terrible Crime,” a slow drag with “Let Him Dangle,” episode 39, “The Secrets It Arouses,” a slow drag with “Satellite,” episode 55, “A Little Amused,” a slow drag with “…This Town…,” and episode 59, “Even a Scapegoat,” a slow drag with “Miss Macbeth.” They are slow drags with more gems from “Spike.” It’s been reported that “Spike” is five albums in one; these slow drags help highlight this fact of how eclectic these pieces are from each other yet how seamlessly they fit together. 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 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_with_remedy/ Email: [email protected] Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag ---------------------- References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Coal Train Robberies”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Coal-Train_Robberies “Coal Train Robberies”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTw8kM9DFiQ “Unmask Us” Elvis Costello page: https://www.unmask.us/songwriters-c-e/elvis-costello-p3/ 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 |