Today’s slow drag is with “Starting to Come to Me,” from “All This Useless Beauty,” released in 1996. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello’s birth name. Finding its well-deserved place in the journeyman collection of “All This Useless Beauty,” “Starting to Come to Me” is a highly polished and refined piece that is so natural sounding, it feels as if we’re overhearing a conversation, or perhaps even an internal monologue, rather than the lovely piece of poetry is truly is. The gamut it runs is simply spectacular. As you will hear, his use of what is the same and what is opposite create a crackling showbiz world where anything is possible. It started to come to me Your new career would probably end like this All that professional lipstick pressed into an amateur kiss Farewell to the studied lines and carefully broken hearts The overpowering perfume and the glimpse of her garter Mingling with the sweet smoldering scent of the martyr Well, it's starting to come to me (come to me, come to me) Starting to come to me This piece seems to come close to beginning in the unusual fashion of leading with the chorus. Since this is ostensibly a ballad, however, the line “it started to come to me” is just a good introduction, as well as an excellent mirroring devise with the line at the end of verse. The exquisite progressive rhyme off hearts/garter/martyr anchors a series of opposites that will flow throughout what could be categorized as a Hollywood tale of stardom. Well, I say stardom, but I know it’s always a good idea to save judgment, as this is an Elvis Costello piece, so it is more than likely much more than the sum of its parts. Professional lipstick/amateur kiss is the first of many polarizing vignettes that help bring this story to life. As well, there are many events that feel as if they have the same emotions; the reaction to an overpowering perfume, for instance, might just be the same as stealing a tantalizing glimpse of a garter. Farewell to the expected, welcome to the chaos that is sure to follow. So, you began to recognize the well-dressed man that everybody loves It started when you chopped off all the fingers of those pony skin gloves Then you cut a hole out where the lovelight used to shine Your tears of pleasure equal measure crocodile and brine You try to laugh it off saying "I knew all the time... But it's starting to come to me" (come to me, come to me) Starting to come to me The quoted line of the one laughing it off, “I knew all the time, but it’s starting to come to me” brings us closer to understanding its meaning, and at the same time, takes us miles away. I knew but I didn’t know. Brilliant. Maddening. Refreshing. Typical Elvis Costello. Even with the metered rhyme of love/glove and shine/brine, this chorus reads less like poetry and more like conversation, so matter of fact. Those pony skins gloves mark what might be the first mention of this fashion accessary since the patent leather gloves of “No Dancing” from “My Aim Is True.” Cutting them off for a little skin to skin action, marring one of the defining features of the man everyone loves. What is created is literal cutting juxtaposed with the figurative cutting out of “where the lovelight used to shine.” A lovelight, in British English, is the “a brightness of the eyes characteristic of someone in love.” More touching, less loving, it seems. It’s all pretend anyway, just a case of crocodile tears. Sometimes you bring me down to play reluctant confidant You say you may reward him if he gives you what you want But these are days to treasure and to hold They are much too precious to be sold You'd probably play the pirate if you weren't so busy digging up the gold This verse is shorter than the two that have come before it. It keeps to an aa/bbb structure that again sounds more conversational and less overtly poetic. What an amazing feat to pull off. The notion of a pirate and a gold digger as one in the same is truly inspired. If the person weren’t a gold digger, meaning if they haven’t snared a rich person, then they’d probably be out searching for person whose gold they can dig, with the implication being that acting is at the heart of both of these endeavors. So cutting, so inviting, so clear-eyed in its observation. Now you could tell he wanted you 'cause you could almost taste it on his breath But you always cheated life just like the bold dare-devil cheated death Incidentally, late last night your understudy finally got what you deserve In private she's seductive but in public she's prim, porcelain and nervous Afraid someone will recognize the shame in her eyes You've still got your dignity or the next best disguise You never know when to say no and when to compromise But it's starting to come to me (come to me, come to me) Starting to come to me (come to me, come to me) Starting to come to me With a slightly different rhyme scheme from each of the proceeding verses, this final verse continues to employ what is the same and what is opposite as seen throughout. Dignity cast as the same as any other disguise. The shame in her eyes offset where the lovelight once was. Private versus public now joins the professional and the amateur, real tears and crocodile tears, the difference between holding onto something versus selling it, cheating life as opposed to cheating death, when to compromise, when not to. All these polar opposites flow into a nearly impossible assertion that it’s “starting to come to me.” — Dig it Again, this has been a slow drag with “Starting to Come to Me” from 1996’s “All This Useless Beauty.” Expert, in the way only Mr. Costello can be, of course he isn’t going to tip his hand so easily. It’s up to each listener on each retelling to affix a meaning of what each similarity and opposition he’s concocted culminates to, and what it is exactly that’s “coming” to him. It’s a cutting piece that can jar you as easily as it could lull you to sleep. That’s it for today’s slow drag, my friend. Thank you for listening. Other gems from “All This Useless Beauty” you’ll enjoy a slow drag with are episodes 9, “Grace and Virtue,” a slow drag with “All This Useless Beauty,” episode 23, “False and Lovely Modesty,” a slow drag with “Little Atoms,” episode 56, “Pure Illuminated Sweetness,” a slow drag with “Distorted Angel,” and episode 61, “A Pirate’s Cutlass,” a slow drag with “Poor Fractured Atlas.” 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, “Starting to Come to Me”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Starting_To_Come_To_Me “Starting to Come to Me”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOM-9qBHoAs “Lovelight” definition: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/lovelight 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 |