Today’s slow drag is with “Room with No Number” from “Goodbye Cruel World,” released in 1984. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. It’s a sultry scenario that feels as if it’s from another time and another place. It’s a funny little piece that has us checking to see if we have the title right, since it differs from what is sung in the chorus. Is it a down to a lack of concentration? Is there a hidden meaning we’re meant to search for? Or, is it a simple case of, “it’s our last album, so who cares?” It seems like a cruel joke to hear it told now, but this, the ninth of Mr. Costello’s releases, was meant to be his last, or so the rumors went. I can attest first hand that it would have been a colder world without a Brilliant Mistake, a Deep Dark Truthful Mirror, or a Brutal Youth. Instead, we have all these to keep us company as we look forward to a “Magnificent Hurt,” come January. Picture a hotel room Clothes scattered across the floor Covers pulled back from the pillow A sign hung on the door Two lovers locked up tight Through the endless days and nights Hiding something they can't show Something no one else must know This piece starts as you’d expect, with this first verse put down as a keen work of poetry. The rhymes are there, and clever alliteration will abound throughout this piece, just not in an exactly structured manner, it seems. Floor/door, tight/night, show/know; they all find their place at the end of each line in a pleasing way that couldn’t really be considered a pattern. The introductory line, “picture a hotel room” has no rhyming pair. It stands alone as a simple appeal to immerse yourself in story that’s going to be told from the inside out. From the scattered clothes, the crumpled bed, and a “do not disturb” sign that’s presumably been on the door for days, there seems to be little left to the imagination. As this is an Elvis Costello piece, however, looks can very much be deceiving. There's a room without a number While the sign outside says there's no vacancy As you take your key, they smile at you so understandingly It’s imprudent to use words such as “effortless,” to be sure, because this chorus exemplifies the genius ear behind the pen. This incredible turn of phrase, certainly, is the culmination of mulling and polishing a singular voice. “While the sign outside says there’s no vacancy” blends seamlessly into the conspiracy that comes with these sorts of establishments. “They smile at you so understandingly.” Effortless, but from how much work did it take to get there? It is, or at least it should be, an inspiration to every poet and writer to extend every writing exercise to the point they might find this sort of perfection. She cried out in the night Woke the porter from his sleep He grinned slyly to himself As he went to fetch his keys Look what love has brought them to This terrible nightmare His or hers, he could not tell As they were still sleeping there The seemingly straight forward scenario painted in the first verse is down to vignettes of a grisly evening here in the second. The clever use of pronouns and indeterminate locations keep our story in the shadows as it does it best to not further the plot. Slant rhyme is peppered throughout, such as sleep/keys, ending with the rhyming pair of nightmare/there. There's a room without a number While the sign outside says there's no vacancy As you take your key, they smile at you so understandingly And I wish you could be The man he was before he was me The sound of drum-induced fireworks being set off and then exploding add a sweet para-linguistic fanfare to the end of the hook, “and I wish he could be the man he was before he was me.” Here’s one of the great attributes of poetry, in my opinion. This clever string of rhymes and contradictions may very well have been borne of gibberish. Nevertheless, it’s just the sort of catchy refrain that keeps us chasing its meaning. It could very well be a sly reference to a name change, as there seems to be many occasions to bring this up, but that would be pure speculation on my part. A girl arrived at first light And enquired if they'd been seen And why the numbers ran from twelve Missing out thirteen And they said oh my darling Put it down to superstition Try to avoid a scandal And don't arouse suspicion They re-arranged the furniture They even papered over the door A syntactic feast, including starting a few sentences with the word “and,” this verse isn’t a third act, it isn’t a conclusion, or even a plot point. What it is is delightful in every messy way. There are too many players that have been introduced and not dealt with, or perhaps even more characters have been introduced without our knowledge. We don’t know who “they” are who advise the mysterious “my darling,” or who exactly moves the furniture and papers over the door, or why. All of a sudden it seems to have turned into some sort of ghost story. There's a room without a number While the sign outside says there's no vacancy As you take your key, they smile just so so you know With the action still reverberating yet not quite resolved, the chorus comes in at the end, with the last line changed from “they smile at you so understandingly,” to the more scheming and further alliterative, “just so so you know.” It’s the attention to detail I admire most. — Dig it Again, this has been a slow drag with “Room with No Number” from 1984’s “Goodbye Cruel World.” No doubt now an intrepid world traveler with a passport that probably has more ink in it than the average full back tattoo, Mr. Costello has nevertheless written about at least two harrowing sleepless nights in far-flung accommodations brought on by naivety and/or inexperience. Famously, one was at the Tropicana Motel in Las Angeles, as detailed in “Motel Matches,” and the other, as a child on a car journey with his parents through France. As he wrote about in “Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink,” “a cage elevator lurched ominously between floors on the way to my own dingy bedroom. Later, I would dream of lovers being walled up in such a room after seeing a television mystery play that proposed this fate. The morning couldn’t come soon enough.” I can imagine a similar fate eventually befalling the lovers in “Room with No Number.” And that’s it for today’s slow drag, my friend. Thank you for listening. Other gems from “Goodbye Cruel World” you’ll enjoy a slow drag with are episode 6, “Don’t Let Them See You Crying that Way,” a slow drag with “Joe Porterhouse,” episode 30, “The Bells Take Their Toll,” a slow drag with “Peace in Our Time,” episode 57, “Your Affectionate Fingerprints,” a slow drag with “Worthless Thing,” and episode 74, “Talking Shop,” a slow drag with “The Deportee Club.” As always, thank you for helping to get the word out about this little passion project. Truly, it means the world. 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, “Room with No Number”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Room_With_No_Number “Room with No Number”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg0XPZVQiso 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.
|
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 |