Today’s slow drag is with “13 Steps Lead Down,” from “Brutal Youth,” released in 1994. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello’s birth name. It’s a weighty title that tends to conjure a slew of biblical or superstitious references, as well as many other veiled meanings passed down through the ages. Of the myriad contenders, I favor the 13 steps to the gallows reference. The flow of condemnation that wends its way through this piece seems to align itself well with such idle brutality. When nobody knows she puts on secret clothes And lies in the meadow with her hands tied behind her back I won't refuse / If you know how to use it Just stop playing that ugly drug music The rhymes that surround the stark imagery of cinematic bondage in this first verse provide a melodic feel to an otherwise transactional scene. The strategically placed triads of Knows/clothes/meadow and refuse/use it/music seem to bury the notion of exploitation as it sprinkles enough blame on everyone. The mention of “ugly drug music” is situated in such a way that, I believe, we’re able to affix our own definition of what this type of music could be. For example, there’s a 1969 “The Guess Who” song, “Friends of Mine” that might fit the bill. It’s a 10-minute-long psychedelic piece with a soothing bass featured throughout. Among its many free associations, there’s the verse, “up the 13 steps to the gallows walked the condemned man/and time passes very quickly when death is near/After having completed the first step, the condemned man knew there were but 12 left.” Ugly drug? Or just drug? Thirteen steps lead down Thirteen steps lead down There's commoners and kings And everyone's a prisoner Of paper and glue and a decent pair of scissors So, tonight I'm drinking to your health Because I just can't stand myself The near rhymes of prisoner/scissors and health/myself help to subvert the silly attempt at self-flagellation. Going back to my notion of condemnation, everyone’s a prisoner, no one is spared, not at least in this papier-mâché world. The arts and crafts conjured by the paper, glue, and scissors seem to go on to be remembered in Mr. Costello’s 2002, “Tear off Your Own Head.” She stands and fails on fashion fingernails Her lovers have her walking 'round On instruments of torture And one of them is poisonous The other is a thief they say So, what one could give to her The other cannot take away As with the first line of the first verse that rhymed knows with clothes, the first line of this second verse mirrors this construction with fails/fingernails, adding a flourish of alliteration by mentioning that they are fashion fingernails. Then again, I always thought the word was “flails.” It’s a balancing act that is augmented by the spiky double entendre of “instruments of torture.” Like commoners and kings, her lovers live different lives from each other. A thief is powerless to take away the poison of another. The breadth of what is poisonous and what can be stolen seem to be as boundless as the meadow she’s tied up in. When nobody knows she puts on secret clothes And lies in her splendor for a picture opportunity Cover up that bruise, put on patent leather shoes Just stop playing that bad mood music The rhyming pair of knows/clothes are paying dividends in this piece. Bruise/shoes is an admirable nod to the piece’s overall structure of rhyming within the lines. I’ve always been taken by how it’s unclear who is bruised and what exactly the shoes are for. The request to stop playing “Ugly drug music” has now been extended to “bad mood music” as well. What kind of music would you play when you are in a bad mood? And, importantly, would that music be to alleviate the mood, or to intensify it? Thirteen steps lead down There's commoners and kings And everyone's a prisoner Of paper and glue and a decent pair of scissors So, tonight I'm drinking to your health Because I just can't stand myself Everyone’s a prisoner of an arts and craft world. The dual effect of toasting someone, and then drinking to hate yourself in morning (Man Out of Time) puts me in mind of “The Comedians,” I should be drinking a toast to absent friends instead of these Comedians…” What do you think? Is there a lot of this sort of overt self-pity found in other Mr. Costello pieces? That’s what makes it so enjoyable; it simply can’t be true. Thirteen steps lead down — Dig it Again, this has been a slow drag with “13 Steps Lead Down” from 1994’s “Brutal Youth.” As with so many other pieces on “Brutal Youth” There’s something both familiar and opaque about this piece that attracts the listener’s attention and sustains it for long amounts of time. There’s a thread of a meaning that can be followed, only to dead end, leaving imagery to splinter into many melodic broken pieces. Interestingly, the title is repeated throughout the piece a total of 12 times. Does this speak to superstition? Would you consider that there are 13 of them if you count the title? And that’s it for today’s slow drag, my friend. Thank you for listening. Other gems from “Brutal Youth” that you’ll enjoy a slow drag with are episode 08, “The Word She Wanted,” a slow drag with “20% Amnesia," episode 26, “Before You Start to Cry,” a slow drag with “You Tripped at Every Step,” and episode 45, “The Gallery of Attempted People,” a slow drag with “My Science Fiction Twin.” 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, “13 Steps Lead Down”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/13_Steps_Lead_Down “13 Steps Lead Down”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C31mUTzAmhA “Friends of Mine” By the Guess Who: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geLuIb4oic4 “Friends of Mine” lyrics: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/guesswho/friendsofmine.html “The Hanging Judge’s Hangman Discusses Hanging”: https://truewestmagazine.com/hanging-judges-hangmen/ Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” https://www.amazon.com/Most-Terrible-Time-Life-Thursday-ebook/dp/B07XLXS5PL/ref=sr_1_1?crid=Y4SGCT62WPEK&dchild=1&keywords=the+most+terrible+time+in+my+life+ends+thursday&qid=1608873405&sprefix=The+Most+Terrible+Time+in+%2Caps%2C195&sr=8-1 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 |