Today’s slow drag is with “The Birds Will Still Be Singing,” from “The Juliet Letters,” released in 1993. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello’s birth name. Strategically placed that gives it a lovely feeling of serendipity, it’s the piece that closes out the meticulous collaboration between Mr. Costello and the Brodsky Quartet. It’s an ominous sounding piece of either resignation or acceptance, depending on your mood while listening. There truly is so much to be thankful for in what we can take for granted. Summertime withers as the sun descends He wants to kiss you, will you condescend? Before you wake and find a chill within your bones Under a fine canopy of lover's dust and humorous bones Banish all dismay, extinguish every sorrow The structure of this first stanza could perhaps reflect the welcome inclusion of Mr. Costello into the well-established Brodsky Quartet. It is structured as a poetic quintain, or a quintet; five lines that, in this instance, features a rather unusual aabbb rhyme scheme. Whereas this sort of structure usually pairs the first and last line together in an aabba scheme, Mr. Costello has gone one better: he’s rhymed the first two lines, descends/condescend, the third and fourth lines with an identical rhyme, bones/bones, and then through deft articulation, sorrow not only forms an internal rhyme with bones in the fourth line, it also calls back to the first line through its alliteration: summertime/sun/descends, and as we hear, sorrow. In addition to this journeyman structure, the words that are sprinkled throughout the verse are not left up to chance. It’s a cold place on the other side of Summer, it seems. A “canopy of lover’s dust” connotes a star-filled night, far away from big cities that threaten to drown out their radiance. Humorous bones, a homophone for the humerus bone, or the funny bone, situates the farce suggested just before, when asked if you will “condescend,” if you will lower yourself to kiss him. We’re left with a touching and harrowing scene of lovers intertwined at what could be the end of their lives, or maybe just the beginning. Following the conceit of this entire album, we know that this is a letter. Is it an obituary? A funeral service? A séance? A haunting? Wedding vows? Eternity stinks, my darling, that's no joke Don't waste your precious time pretending you're heartbroken There will be tears and candles, pretty words to say Spare me lily-white lily with the awful perfume of decay Banish all dismay, extinguish every sorrow If I'm lost or I'm forgiven, the birds will still be singing This majestic second verse goes back to a more recognizable rhyme structure of aabb, joke/heartbroken, say/decay. What was the fifth line of the first verse now becomes the first line of a chorus that does not rely on an end rhyme, but rather continues with the alliteration that finds a slow puncture forming from the long /s/ sound. Banish/dismay/extinguish/sorrow/lost/still/singing. Seven of the 18 words in the chorus connect phonetically with each other. With the mention of a decaying lily-white lily, this verse places itself in both a funeral and wedding setting, pointing out, perhaps, how closely linked these two types of ceremonies truly are. The mention of eternity, tears and candles, and pretty words become indistinguishable between the different sorts of ceremonies. “Don’t waste your precious time pretending you’re heartbroken” is a sentiment cast upon onlookers; both the mourner and the lovelorn. It's so hard to tear myself away Even when you know it's over It's too much to say Banish all dismay, extinguish every sorrow If I'm lost or I'm forgiven, the birds will still be singing This plaintive refrain ends the way it began by taking us back to the first five-line verse. Only, this time is there no assonance, consonance, or end rhyme to be found, just one last impassioned plea; it’s as if the speaker has left their own body, hovering above a chapel scene, lingering before the last glimpse is taken away. Death, like marriage, is not an ending, it’s simply yet another beginning. Is it possible to find solace in these subdued yet highly charged situations? Don’t be sad, for in the end, if I’m gone, or otherwise unavailable, life goes on. — Dig it Again, this has been a slow drag with “The Birds Will Still Be Singing” from 1993’s “The Juliet Letters.” As I’ve mentioned before a time or two, I love to not know what each of Mr. Costello’s songs are “about,” preferring instead to wiggle my own mindscapes and situations into each well-turned line and each unpredictable world view. That said, it’s impossible to stay wholly ignorant. Just as we know “Veronica” is about his grandmother, so too do many of us know that this piece was written not long after a serious road accident, the details of which I remain ignorant of. After such a shock it seems only reasonable to take stock of one’s life. The conclusion drawn from my own imagination, therefore, is that whatever happens, women all over will continue to sing along with the singular talents of Mr. Elvis Costello. That’s it for today’s slow drag, my friend. Thank you for listening. Other gems from “The Juliet Letters” you’ll enjoy a slow drag with are episode 12, “The Maddening Smile,” it’s a slow drag with “Damnation’s Cellar,” and episode 32, “Pass the Vinegar,” it’s a slow drag with “I Almost Had a Weakness.” 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 Birds Will Still Be Singing”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/The_Birds_Will_Still_Be_Singing “The Birds Will Still Be Singing”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0L0FTBIvbg “Quintain Rhyme Scheme”: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/grammar/rhymes/quintain-rhyme-scheme.html 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 |