An appreciation & exploration of linguists, language, poetry, and clever word play as framed by the peerless poetry of the modern day master, Elvis Costello
Today's slow drag is with “Uncomplicated” from “Blood & Chocolate,” released in 1986. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello's birth name. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA,MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/slowdragwithremedy.com Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com “Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, Podcasts” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Podcasts Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag Slow Drag with Remedy on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1f521a34-2ed9-4bd4-a936-1ad107969046/slow-drag-with-remedy-an-elvis-costello-appreciation References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Uncomplicated” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Uncomplicated “Uncomplicated” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a91_uGPR9_o A bit more about prosody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DUCCSepMbs Heart Murmur: https://www.vulture.com/article/elvis-costello-profile.html Clever Hans: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Clever-Hans The difference between opposition and contradiction: https://jordantimes.com/opinion/ahmad-y-majdoubeh/opposition-vs-contradiction#:~:text=Opposition%20is%20both%20natural%20and,to%20countless%20damages%20and%20crises. Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook of “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y
Today's slow drag is with “Mr. & Mrs. Hush” from the Grammy award-winning “Look Now,” released in 2018. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA,MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/slowdragwithremedy.com Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com “Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, Podcasts” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Podcasts Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag Slow Drag with Remedy on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1f521a34-2ed9-4bd4-a936-1ad107969046/slow-drag-with-remedy-an-elvis-costello-appreciation References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Mr. and Mrs. Hush” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Mr._%26_Mrs._Hush “Mr. and Mrs. Hush” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdHjigna3gI “Blindman's Bluff” https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095512112 The Sapir Whorf hypothesis https://www.simplypsychology.org/sapir-whorf-hypothesis.html Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook of “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y
Today's slow drag is with “TKO (Boxing Day)” from “Punch the Clock,” released in 1983. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA,MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/slowdragwithremedy.com Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com “Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, Podcasts” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Podcasts Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag Slow Drag with Remedy on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1f521a34-2ed9-4bd4-a936-1ad107969046/slow-drag-with-remedy-an-elvis-costello-appreciation References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “TKO (Boxing Day)” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=TKO_(Boxing_Day) “TKO (Boxing Day)” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5yoFjJSlwo Why is it called Boxing Day? https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/46454700 The Origins of Boxing Day https://www.carnivalarts.org.uk/post/the-origins-of-boxing-day Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook of “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "TKO (Boxing Day)" Lyrics You can run all you like from the classroom or the cot From a great big man or tiny tot But from this day, every day will be Boxing Day Don't need your indecision, let there be no doubt Don't need your permission, I can count you out I can count you out TKO They put the numb into number, put the cut into cutie They put the slum into slumber and the boot into beauty But from this day, every day will be Boxing Day It's a fight to the finish, let there be no doubt As the seconds turn into minutes, I can count you out I can count you out TKO You need a back to break or a back to stab Now your birthday suit looks dull and drab Every day will be Boxing Day Now you don't look so glamorous Whenever I feel so amorous I can count you out TKO
Today's slow drag gives voice to an intrepid visual documentarian who puts the face to the name, splashes color in the corners of the nuance, and provides the proof that unicorns like our beloved entertainer truly do walk amongst us. It's more than joy to pour over Tony Sacchetti's evocative images of Mr. Costello in so many different settings. It's an honor to scatter flowers at his feet as he dances us through a glimpse into how he does what he does so well. Cover Art Credit: Anthony Sacchetti Follow Tony Sacchetti on Instagram @Anthony.sacchetti . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA,MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/slowdragwithremedy.com Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com “Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, Podcasts” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Podcasts Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag Slow Drag with Remedy on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1f521a34-2ed9-4bd4-a936-1ad107969046/slow-drag-with-remedy-an-elvis-costello-appreciation
Today's slow drag is with “The Only Flame in Town,” from “Goodbye Cruel World,” released in 1984. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA,MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/slowdragwithremedy.com Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com “Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, Podcasts” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Podcasts Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag Slow Drag with Remedy on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1f521a34-2ed9-4bd4-a936-1ad107969046/slow-drag-with-remedy-an-elvis-costello-appreciation References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “The Only Flame in Town” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=The_Only_Flame_In_Town “The Only Flame in Town” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugcURF7B_gw “The Only Flame in Town” Alternate version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geApcpKSk-4 Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook of “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "The Only Flam in Town" Lyrics I know a girl got my mind in a mess I never heard her say goodnight and God bless She's not the only flame in town And when we're alone, we never quarrel I'm miles away, now here's the moral She's not the only flame in town She's not the only flame in town She's got to stop thinking that I'm carrying this torch around He struck a match and it lit up her face We should have struck a match, girl To burn down the whole place Now you're not the only flame in town But you blew hot and cold Turned my heart to a cinder And with each passing day You're less tender and more tinder Now you're not the only flame in town She's not the only flame in town She's got to stop thinking that I'm carrying this torch around You're not the only flame You're not the only flame Thought I saw your face in the fire But it's so hard to remember Even an inferno can cool down to an ember Now you're not the only flame You're not the only flame You're not the only flame in town
Today's slow drag is with “Poisoned Rose,” from “King of America,” released in 1986. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello's birth name. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA,MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/slowdragwithremedy.com Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com “Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, Podcasts” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Podcasts Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag Slow Drag with Remedy on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1f521a34-2ed9-4bd4-a936-1ad107969046/slow-drag-with-remedy-an-elvis-costello-appreciation References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Poisoned Rose” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Poisoned_Rose “Poisoned Rose” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5ycLSDu7jc “La Vie Bohéme” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYYE_1Br-kE “A Drunken Man's Praise of Sobriety” Elvis Costello Wiki https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=A_Drunken_Man%27s_Praise_Of_Sobriety “A Drunken Man's Praise of Sobriety” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFf-iHQjLNI Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook of “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "Poisoned Rose" Lyrics The poisoned rose That you gave to me It left me half alive And half in ecstasy But if half of your love Is all I can win Give me just a fraction But no more medicine The poisoned rose On a Valentine card That you take straight to the heart That you call my junkyard But if all I can do Is save pieces of you The piece of your mind The piece of your heart Didn't tear me apart Like the poisoned rose I received from you I don't know How we came to grow Into this very sad affair Every time we do the decent thing Somebody spikes the drink And a single becomes a pair The poisoned rose That you wear at your best That I keep pressed between the white sheets Where you lie half undressed I threw away my shirt and shoes You looked and I dived in It's just you and me now 'Cause I threw away the gin I threw away your alibis And all your worn-out clothes I threw myself upon the floor But I couldn't throw away This poisoned rose This poisoned rose This poisoned rose
Today's slow drag is with “Tear off Your Own Head,” from “When I Was Cruel,” released in 2002. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA,MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/slowdragwithremedy.com Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com “Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, Podcasts” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Podcasts Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag Slow Drag with Remedy on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1f521a34-2ed9-4bd4-a936-1ad107969046/slow-drag-with-remedy-an-elvis-costello-appreciation References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Tear off Your Own Head” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Tear_Off_Your_Own_Head_(It%27s_A_Doll_Revolution) “Tear off Your Own Head” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY6iBsjZQhQ “Tear off Your Own Head” The Bangles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwVvf_8oWFk “Shabby Doll” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgKhxZTYtq4 “Puppet Girl” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSmTP4sqGRA Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook of “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "Tear off Your Own Head" Lyrics Who dries your eyes when you cry real tears? Who know or cares what an imitation is? Only you do You can paint his nails Make him wear high heels Why waste time altering the hemline? Or do you? Tear off your own head Tear off your own head It's a doll revolution You can bat your lashes You can cut your strings You can pull his hair with your moveable fingers It looks so real If one won't do it, so collect the set Dress him in pink ribbons Put him in a kitchenette How does this feel? Tear off your own head Tear off your own head It's a doll revolution What's that sound? It will turn you around It's a doll revolution They're taking over And they're tearing it down It's a doll revolution You can pull and pinch him 'Til he cries and squeals You can twist his body 'til it faces backwards Plastic features You could make somebody a pretty little wife But don't let anybody tell you how to live your life Broken pieces Tear off your own head Tear off your own head It's a doll revolution Tear off your own head Tear off your own head Revolution
— Dig it Ballyhoo, my friend. The passion project is back again with another lyrics only episode. My name is Remedy Robinson. And, for fun, let's listen to the brilliant alternate lyrics of “Stalin Malone,” from Spike, released in 1989, off the 2001 Rhino re-issue of Spike. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello's birth name, the recitation is credited to Elvis Costello. "Stalin Malone" Lyrics I'm going to make you even fear the dream you dream Don't even think about it, don't make a wish You think that I don't see you as you trawl those young weak fish Hooked on those poor wonders, till they want you alone Though they can't tell a cuckoo-clock from the squeals of saxophones That's when they'll fear my name I'm telling you the day will come when this man gets what he merits Though people still wear animal skins to ward off evil spirits Only wife-swapping and witchcraft woke the dormitory town 'Til horse's heads up in the trees came dripping down Yes, horse's heads hung in the trees after the bird had flown Did you wonder of my whereabouts as the powder room was blown? Did anybody call my name? In a room called creation, where you all obey my laws Where Seconal is gravity and pain is like applause You think that this phenomenon is some coincidence I've got people everywhere, you're under my surveillance, in the pocket of my pants Okay, she left me, but I'll soon get over that Falling out of the "Blood Tub" and rolling on my back Waking up to the one o'clock gun with a Punch and Judy bird Reaching out for a gelignite beer that fills me up with murder To overhear forbidden songs her lover must have known Between the pity and advice... "There's no one here to help you now, but speak after the tone" Leave for me a message of hope Now the church door is a roller-shutter with padlocks and keys Just like all of the other dispensaries The saloon is like a casket, stained wood and human dust Stale with conversation that hangs on your clothes like smoke The wooden clock set time for her to dance dressed only in a flower As the jazz band drowned the hysterical bird that it spits out on the hour I drop out of sight and disappear, turn up in another town But somehow I can't seem to put it down now, put it down You probably wonder why I'm here, I don't trust myself alone But do I have to see her fall into his arms before I can atone? Get my jacket on, get my story straight I'm leaving on my own Again, this has been a slow drag lyrics only reading of “Stalin Malone” from 1989's Spike. What a joy to read such mastery. Thank you for listening. So, until next time, adieu my little ballyhoo Reference: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource: Stalin Malone https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Stalin_Malone
Today's slow drag is with “Heathen Town,” from “Out of Our Idiot,” released in 1987. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/slowdragwithremedy.com Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com “Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, Podcasts” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Podcasts Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag Slow Drag with Remedy on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1f521a34-2ed9-4bd4-a936-1ad107969046/slow-drag-with-remedy-an-elvis-costello-appreciation References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Heathen Town” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Heathen_Town “Heathen Town” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udnz2s_k8js “The Fall of Rome” https://www.dictionary.com/browse/fall-of-rome#:~:text=The%20collapse%20of%20the%20Roman,%2C%20Romulus%20Augustulus%2C%20in%20476. “Old hat” idiom: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/old-hat#:~:text=old%20hat%20in%20American%20English,of%20being%20trite%20or%20commonplace John Howard Payne's, “Home Sweet Home,” written in 1822 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqjjfF1Wn-s “Ave Maria” (Ellen's Third Song,” composed in 1825 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqjjfF1Wn-s “Ave Maria” words: https://www.classicfm.com/composers/schubert/ave-maria-schubert-lyrics/ Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook of “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "Heathen Town" Lyrics They used to call it Sin City Now it's gone way past that Painting the town and then burning it down Now even that's old hat Now there's a choir of angels at the fall of Rome Singing "Ave Maria" or "Home Sweet Home" It's just a heathen town I hear only evil as my tongue is tightened I used to be god-fearing, now I'm so frightened Cos the devil will drag you under By the shark tail fin of your checkered cab And I can't sit down, I'm going overboard in this heathen town It starts as a flirtation And ends up as an expensive habit With one eye on her place in debtor's prison And the other on a girl dressed as a rabbit Now you can live forever Endure fits and starts But the only stake you cannot raise Is the one driven through your heart It's just a heathen town I hear only evil as my tongue is tightened I used to be god-fearing, now I'm so frightened Cos the devil will drag you under By the shark tail fin of your checkered cab And I can't sit down, I'm going overboard In this heathen town And I can't sit down, I'm going overboard In this heathen town In this heathen town In this heathen town In this heathen town In this heathen town
— Dig it Ballyhoo, my friend. The passion project is doing something a little different today. My name is Remedy Robinson. And, for fun, this inaugural lyrics-only slow drag, let's listen to brilliant lyrics of “The Boy Named If,” from the album of the same name, released in 2022. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. I'm a lucky so and so A fortunate stiff You said you never knew me but I'm the one you want to be with If I tumble from a tightrope or leap from a cliff I won't be dashed to pieces I'm the boy named "IF" If I disappear and I slipper from your view I just step upon a crack and I won't come back Imagine me And I'll imagine you too In a hollow of the bed sheet Or a picture in a frame I'm vivid as a summer's day Then never seen again Who'll pay the taxman? Who'll place the blame? Who'll point into an empty room And whisper my name? If I disappear and I slipper from your view You will step upon a crack and I won't come back Imagine me And I'll imagine you too Take my hand We'll go to "Magic Lantern Land" Take my hand See the pictures they've projected Take my hand We'll fill our pockets up with sand Dance in frantic passes 'Til the grains all turn to glasses Drums begin to navigate, the band strikes up a riff No one will believe you but the Boy Named If Who'll pay your entrance fee? Who'll leave a tip? Who'll say, "Listen here, Sunshine Don't you give me no lip" Who broke your favorite heart? Who stops and never starts? Who kiss you stupid? It must be something you did Who'll keep you satisfied after a lover's tiff? It must be some other guy not… The Boy Named If If I disappear and I slipper from your view You will step upon a crack and I won't come back Imagine me And I'll imagine you too Take my hand We'll go to "Magic Lantern Land" Take my hand See the pictures we've projected Take my hand We'll fill our pockets up with sand Dance in frantic passes 'Til the grains all turn to glasses . . . Again, this has been a slow drag lyrics only reading of “The Boy Named If” from 2022's album of the same name. Thank you for listening. And, of course, until next time, adieu my little ballyhoo Reference: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource: The Boy Named If https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=The_Boy_Named_If_(song)
Today's slow drag is with “Country Darkness,” from “The Delivery Man,” released in 2004. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/slowdragwithremedy.com Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com “Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, Podcasts” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Podcasts Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag Slow Drag with Remedy on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1f521a34-2ed9-4bd4-a936-1ad107969046/slow-drag-with-remedy-an-elvis-costello-appreciation References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Country Darkness” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Country_Darkness “Country Darkness” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwp42y6I8m8 Blade definition: https://appzaza.com/dictionary/blade Filament: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/filament#google_vignette Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook of “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "Country Darkness" Lyrics This tattered document A mystery you can solve Some burnt out filament Flies buzzing around the bulb Country Darkness He thought of traveling Heard an approaching train Drown out his desperate pulse A song with no refrain Country Darkness She daydreams of forbidden sins There must be something more The prison she lives in The one with the open door A veil is covering A glistening cruel blade Suffer little children Repent, unfaithful maid Country Darkness She daydreams of forbidden sins There must be something more The prison she lives in The one with the open door A veil is covering A glistening cruel blade Suffer little children Repent, unfaithful maid Country Darkness
Today's slow drag is with “Tears before Bedtime,” from “Imperial Bedroom,” released in 1982. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/slowdragwithremedy.com Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com “Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, Podcasts” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Podcasts Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag Slow Drag with Remedy on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1f521a34-2ed9-4bd4-a936-1ad107969046/slow-drag-with-remedy-an-elvis-costello-appreciation References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Tears before Bedtime” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Imperial_Bedroom “Tears before Bedtime” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v_inbXiPLQ “Tears before Bedtime” Alternative version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA8uLxyBF9I “Give up The Ghost” meaning https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/to-give-up-the-ghost#:~:text=Definition%20of%20'to%20give%20up%20the%20ghost'&text=If%20someone%20gives%20up%20the,what%20they%20are%20looking%20for. A chorus versus and hook: https://emastered.com/blog/hook-vs-chorus#:~:text=A%20chorus%20is%20usually%20preceded,make%20for%20a%20catchier%20tune. Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook of “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "Tears before Bedtime" Lyrics I know the name on the tip of your tongue And I know that accusing look Everybody knows I've been so wrong That's the problem and here's the hook Chorus: Tears before bedtime There'll be trouble tonight I don't want to talk about it anymore I don't want to have another fight I don't want to talk I don't want to fight How wrong can I be before I am right For the tears that you boo hoo hoo There can be no defense You say you'll forgive and forget But it's only a pretense (Chorus) Either you can leave the past behind Or give me something to disconnect my mind I sleep with my fists clenched tight When I don't lie awake all night I guess time gave up the ghost too late And the balance of our love Very soon turns to hate Darling your suspiciousness Tortures me at night But I can't excuse the cruel words That I use whenever we fight (Chorus) How wrong can I be before I am right Alternate Version Lyrics I see that strange look in your eyes once again And the name on the tip of your tongue is of a woman and not a man There'll be tears before bedtime, they'll be trouble tonight I don't want to talk about it anymore, oh I don't want to fight How wrong can I be before I am right? The pain that I've given you there is no defense You say you'll forgive and forget but it's only a pretense There'll be tears before bedtime, they'll be trouble tonight I don't want to talk about it anymore, oh I don't want to fight How wrong can I be before I am right? Either you can leave the past behind or give me something to discount mind I sleep with my fists clenched tights when I don't lie awake all night I guess time gave up the ghost too late And the balance of our love Very soon turns to hate Suspicion and silence still torture my night And the cruel words of anger that run through all our fights They'll be tears before bedtime, I'll be trouble tonight I don't want to talk about it anymore, I don't want to fight How wrong can I be before I am right?
Today's slow drag is with “Stella Hurt,” from “Momofuku,” released in 2008. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/slowdragwithremedy.com Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com “Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, Podcasts” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Podcasts Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag Slow Drag with Remedy on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1f521a34-2ed9-4bd4-a936-1ad107969046/slow-drag-with-remedy-an-elvis-costello-appreciation References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Stella Hurt” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Stella_Hurt “Stella Hurt” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W93e5f6py9U “Chekhov's Gun” https://screencraft.org/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-chekhovs-gun/ “Arcadia” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/arcadia#:~:text=Now%20English%20speakers%20often%20use,%2C%20simple%2C%20or%20untroubled.%22 Blue Birds Songs: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_Bluebird/sounds# “The Other End of the Telescope” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grIxnYllZxk Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook of “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "Stella Hurt" Lyrics You should wear your red galoshes Walking o'er the city pride Streets are paved with heaven's pennies Gutters full of suicides Teddy steadily fell from grace Somewhere near Arcadia Once she overheard a voice she didn't hear on the radio Velvet gloves and country clubs Were never going to hold her Ringing the necks of silly Southern belles Who wanted to scold her Don't bring me down I'm trouble bound Blue song Red Alert Who made Stella Hurt? Teddy soon dropped out of sight Turned up in another town Changed her name for the spotlight Singing like a blue bird in a sequin gown She finally fell and married well But I knew it wouldn't last Reversing back into the limelight No one ever saw her even half-plastered Don't bring me down I'm trouble bound Blue song Red Alert Who made Stella Hurt? Then she saw those soldier boys Throw their bonnets in the air Self-made men would pledge their fortunes And dream of her And dream of her... Generals in the commissary opened up a case of wine Checked the perfume of the cork Said "Made in 1929"... They used her up, to raise morale for money And Old Glory Her voice was shot beyond repair But this is not the last act of this story The night is black as cracked shellac Abandoned in an attic Stella is silent as the grave Until the needle drags her through the static Don't bring me down I'm trouble bound Blue song Red Alert Who made Stella Hurt?
Today's slow drag is with “The Difference,” from “The Boy Named If,” released in 2023. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/slowdragwithremedy.com Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com “Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, Podcasts” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Podcasts Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag Slow Drag with Remedy on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1f521a34-2ed9-4bd4-a936-1ad107969046/slow-drag-with-remedy-an-elvis-costello-appreciation References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “The Difference” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=The_Difference “The Difference” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tvg-OfP1LA Octameter: https://poemanalysis.com/poetic-meter/#:~:text=Octameter%20Octameter%20refers%20to%20a,patterns%20in%20English%20language%20verse. The difference between undertone and overtone https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/eb/qa/undertone-and-overtone What is an appositive: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/appositive Fiddlehead Reel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDYe6ZMs3K4 Fiddlehead: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fiddlehead The Male Gaze: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-male-gaze-5118422 Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook of “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "The Difference" Lyrics I pulled a petal from the flower to tell just where my fortune fell About a boy beyond my caution before I lay beneath his spell And he said, "Do you know, do you know, do you, by chance, know wrong from right?" "Do you know, do you know, do you know what turns pleasure to plight? If you trust me, I know it may seem strange I'll show you the way down into the underworld" I did just what he asked me to Lifted my skirt to show him my shoe Upon a reel of the finest fiddlehead Light as the dance around Milady's bed The steps came faster at his insistence 'Til he showed me all about the difference "It's not about the things I promised, it's not about the vow we broke If I am faithless or dishonest it's just the gaze that you provoke" And he said, "Do you know, do you know, do you, by chance, know wrong from right?" "Do you know, do you know, do you know what turns pleasure to plight? If you kiss me, at first it may seem strange I'll show you the way into another world" My father shamed me just like you Buried my name in a glass or two 'Til he came to me in his darkest house He mistook me, took me for his spouse And my cries for a woman in the distance So, I took this knife to show him the difference 'Til he came to me in his darkest house He mistook me, took me for his spouse And my cries for the woman in the distance So, I used this knife to show him the difference
Today's slow drag is with “Lipstick Vogue,” from “This Year's Model,” released in 1978. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/slowdragwithremedy.com Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com “Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, Podcasts” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Podcasts Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag Slow Drag with Remedy on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1f521a34-2ed9-4bd4-a936-1ad107969046/slow-drag-with-remedy-an-elvis-costello-appreciation References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Lipstick Vogue” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Lipstick_Vogue “Lipstick Vogue” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3sqZUMgcX4 Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook of “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "Lipstick Vogue" Lyrics Don't say you love me when it's just a rumor Don't say a word if there is any doubt Sometimes I think that love is just a tumor You've got to cut it out You say you're sorry for the things that you've done You say you're sorry but you know you don't mean it I wouldn't worry, I had so much fun Sometimes I almost feel just like a human being It's you Not just another mouth in the lipstick vogue It's you Not just another mouth in the lipstick vogue Oh yeah Get to the slot machine almost dead on arrival Just hit me one more time with that live wire Maybe they told you you were only a girl in a million You say I've got no feelings This is a good way to kill them Select the control and then insert the token You wanna throw me away but I'm not broken You've got a lot to say, well I'm not jokin There are some words they don't allow to be spoken Sometimes I almost feel just like a human being It's you Not just another mouth in the lipstick vogue It's you Not just another mouth in the lipstick vogue Not just another mouth lost in the lipstick vogue (repeats)
Today's slow drag is with “The Spell That You Cast,” from “National Ransom,” released in 2010. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/slowdragwithremedy.com Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com “Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, Podcasts” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Podcasts Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag Slow Drag with Remedy on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1f521a34-2ed9-4bd4-a936-1ad107969046/slow-drag-with-remedy-an-elvis-costello-appreciation References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “The Spell That You Cast” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=The_Spell_That_You_Cast “The Spell That You Cast” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEYZTE8BDuE The Difference between You Got and You Have: https://preply.com/en/question/you-got-youve-got-43032#:~:text=“You%20have%20got”%20fully%20correct,missed%20too%20many%20days%20already.”&text=“You%27ve”%20(short,”%20(have%20is%20missing). Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook of “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "The Spell That You Cast" Lyrics The spell that you cast Well, it seems to be wearing off fast (The spell that you cast) Come back baby, cos I don't think that I can last (The spell that you cast) And I wonder whether You got some other kind of lover < grammar That you like to please Better than me Don't think I can take it How am I gonna break it? The spell that you cast The spell that you cast The spell that you've woven Well, it seems to be coming undone (The spell that you cast) Come back, Baby or at least tell me where you are going (The spell that you cast) And you know quite well That I'm not the jealous kinda fella But they look in your eyes And they're all hypnotized I'm gonna miss you madly 'Cos I love you sadly The spell that you cast The spell that you cast Jimmy, come quickly ‘cos I feel quite sickly (Oh, the spell that you cast) You're like a gangster's Molly with a cannonade volley (Oh, the spell that you cast) (Oh, the spell that you cast) Here we go… Don't think I can take it How am I gonna break it? The spell that you cast .
Today's slow drag is with “Blame It on Cain,” from “My Aim is True,” released in 1977. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/slowdragwithremedy.com Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com “Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, Podcasts” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Podcasts Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag Slow Drag with Remedy on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1f521a34-2ed9-4bd4-a936-1ad107969046/slow-drag-with-remedy-an-elvis-costello-appreciation References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Blame It on Cain” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Blame_It_On_Cain “Blame It on Cain” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfHaI7rVp9g “The Ticker's Rise and Fall” https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2008/02/01/the-tickers-rise-and-fall/ “Shallow Grave” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN5qkhNHEKg “Good Luck Grin” https://stirredblog.com/2017/03/13/baldwin-bar/ Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "Blame It on Cain" Lyrics Once upon a time, I had a little money Government burglars took it long before I could mail it to you Still, you are the only one Now I can't let it slip away So, if the man with the ticker tape, tries to take it, this is what I'm gonna say Blame it on Cain Don't blame it on me Oh, oh, it's nobody's fault but we need somebody to burn Well, if I was a saint with a silver cup and the money got low we could always heat it up or trade it in then the radio to heaven will be wired to your purse And then you can run down the waveband, coast to coast, hand in hand Bad to worse, curse for curse, don't be dissatisfied So, you're not satisfied (Chorus) I think I lived a little too long on the outskirts of town I think I'm going insane from talking to myself for so long Oh, but I never been acute But when they step upon your face, they wear that good look grin I gotta break out one weekend if I do somebody in But every single time I feel a little stronger they tell me it's a crime Well, how much longer? (Chorus) Blame it on Cain Please don't blame it on me It's nobody's fault, but it just seems to be his turn
Today's slow drag is with “American Gangster Time,” from “Momofuku,” released in 2008. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/slowdragwithremedy.com Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com “Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, Podcasts” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Podcasts Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “American Gangster Time” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=American_Gangster_Time “American Gangster Time” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnRIKlVsk1w Flag Etiquette: https://www.vfw.org/community/flag-etiquette Flatter to Deceive idiom meaning: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/flatter-to-deceive#:~:text=to%20give%20the%20appearance%20of,just%20a%20lull%20in%20hostilities. Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "American Gangster Time" Lyrics: One, two, three, four Somewhere downtown a pretty girl kneels Offers her soft lips and a handful of pills Peels off her dress and then the rest of her skills It buys what she wants and the rest she just steals He speaks between deep swallows of rum While her head is beating like a big bass drum And she wishes he were mute and not just dumb When the trick asked her quick, "Did you come?" It's a drag Saluting that starry rag I'd rather go blind For speaking my mind Or use it just like a gag So, raise it in anger Just let it hang American Gangster Time He sits back and starts to invent All about some Saigon correspondent "'Til the carbine fell silent and spent I never knew it could be so eloquent" Next week there'll be some fashionable new sin For each harlot and each Puritan Pull off their wings stick them on a pin And just watch the money roll in It's a drag Saluting that starry rag I'd rather go blind For speaking my mind Or use it just like a gag So, raise it in anger Just let it hang American Gangster Time What you got hidden up your sleeve? The tracks of the train that were bidding you to leave When they say that you should flatter to deceive Don't count on any reprieve The hands of the helpless are raised Your dead little secrets are praised The people stand dumbstruck and dazed By the inches that you have erased It's a drag Saluting that starry rag I'd rather go blind For speaking my mind Or use it just like a gag So, raise it in anger Just let it hang American gangster time Committing the perfect crime In American Gangster Time Here we go Bye bye American Gangster Time
Today's slow drag is with “Lip Service,” from “This Year's Model,” released in 1978. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/indoorfirewords.bsky.social Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag “Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, Podcasts” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Podcasts References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Lip Service” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Lip_Service “Lip Service” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE6oRbX4CLc “Grice's Maxims” https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/dravling/grice.html “Sharp Practice” meaning: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/sharp-practice Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "Lip Service" Lyrics You left the motor running But I know you're so attractive Getting in some sharp practice You better not do anything reckless But if everybody is going through the motions Everybody is going through the motions Are you really only going through the motions? Lip service is all you'll ever get from me Lip service is all you'll ever get from me Lip service is all you'll ever get from me But if you change your mind You can send it in a letter to me Don't make any sudden movements These are dangerous amusements When did you become so choosy Don't act like you're above me, just look at your shoes But if everybody is going through the motions Everybody is going through the motions Are you really only going through the motions? Lip service is all you'll ever get from me Lip service is all you'll ever get from me Lip service is all you'll ever get from me But if you change your mind You can send it in a letter to me But if you change your mind You can send it in a letter to me But if you change your mind You can send it in a letter to me
Today's slow drag is with “The Man You Love to Hate,” from “The Boy Named If,” released in 2022. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/indoorfirewords.bsky.social Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “The Man You Love to Hate” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=The_Man_You_Love_To_Hate “The Man You Love to Hate” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZU9b4NOQBQ Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "The Man You Love to Hate" Lyrics I went to a theatre on Silhouette Street It had a taste of decay, and a scent of defeat All of the patrons in the pews were people that I'd killed or used The actors on the stage were equally skilled The players took turns in lighting the fuse One of them said "Now you must choose" A man of infamy or ill-repute And that's the one that we will execute None of that mob had turned up late They said, "You'd better concentrate” So, start the show, 'cos we can't wait for The Man You Love to Hate All of the patrons sitting on pews Were the shades of the ghosts of the once accused There was music that dragged in line and word Not a penny was spent, or a conscience was spared The hero's motives were never in doubt We laughed at the speeches that he would spout Suddenly there arose a shout Confessions simply tumbled out And marriage vows, that someone mumbled about None of that mob had turned up late They said, "You'd better concentrate” So, start the show, 'cos we can't wait for The Man You Love to Hate The closing act The first one billed Into the limelight thrilled The tale of a ship lured onto the rocks under The cover of darkness, the hold was plundered My mouth was parched my eyes red-rimmed My false light shone And my ghost light dimmed I went to a house on Silhouette Street Where I lived once and died once more Awoke a woman I once adored Her husband came to the door In a masquerade of dignity He said, "I'm pleased to meet you but you don't know me" She took my money and handed me the key The number on the fob was "999" She whispered that's your room and this is mine But that's a chamber that you can't afford It's one door down, next to the Emergency Ward None of that mob had turned up late They said, "You'd better concentrate” So, start the show, 'cos we can't wait for The Man You Love to Hate The Man You Love to Hate I'm a one party state The Man You Love to Hate The girl you used to care for Without a why or wherefore The country that I loved Is just a problem to solve Until we all disintegrate before The Man You Love to Hate
Today's slow drag is with “Green Shirt,” from “Armed Forces,” released in 1979. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/indoorfirewords.bsky.social Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Green Shirt” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Green_Shirt “Green Shirt” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilN9SpD6Y_Q The Somerton Man Mystery: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/have-scholars-finally-identified-the-mysterious-somerton-man-180980540/ Quisling Clinic Photo https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM51270 Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "Green Shirt" Lyrics There's a smart young woman on a light blue screen Who comes into my house every night And she takes all the red, yellow, orange and green And she turns them into black and white But you tease, and you flirt And you shine all the buttons on your green shirt You can please yourself but somebody's gonna get it Better cut off all identifying labels Before they put you on the torture table 'Cause somewhere in the "Quisling Clinic" There's a shorthand typist taking seconds over minutes She's listening in to the Venus line She's picking out names I hope none of them are mine But you tease, and you flirt And you shine all the buttons on your green shirt You can please yourself but somebody's gonna get it Never said I was a stool pigeon I never said I was a diplomat Everybody is under suspicion But you don't wanna hear about that 'Cause you tease, and you flirt And you shine all the buttons on your green shirt You can please yourself but somebody's gonna get it Better send a begging letter to the big investigation Who put these fingerprints on my imagination? You tease, and you flirt And you shine all the buttons on your green shirt You can please yourself but somebody's gonna get it You can please yourself but somebody's gonna get it You can please yourself but somebody's gonna get it
Today's slow drag is with “The First to Leave,” from “The Juliet Letters,” released in 1993. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello's birth name. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/indoorfirewords.bsky.social Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “The First to Leave” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=The_First_To_Leave “The First to Leave” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS0dPEacnTY “The Dark Ensemble: Voice and String Quartet https://interlude.hk/the-dark-ensemble-voice-and-string-quartet-20th-century/ Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "The First to Leave" Lyrics I should open with a kiss For if you're reading this You must have opened up your case And found this letter where I placed it In between the silk and lace There were other clues, like your walking shoes But I still refused to believe That you were meant to be the first to leave Everybody here sends you their love How could I forget you still walk above Or below Perhaps you'll never know this Purgatory We never could agree There's a thought, there's a pause No time to repent Eternally yours in a permanent Lent But if I should give you up If you're right and life just stops And I never see your face again Then from unearthly pleasures, proud and plain I shall abstain 'Til you realize, my loss is your surprise Unless you know otherwise, then don't grieve You see I had to be the first to leave
Today's slow drag is with “God's Comic,” from “Spike,” released in 1989. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello's birth name. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/indoorfirewords.bsky.social Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “God's Comic” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=God%27s_Comic “God's Comic” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajjBxMCMQQs “God's Comic” Live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0N6TfU54o8 “Requiem” by Andrew Lloyd Webber https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3CG8pUpVjg “God is dead”: What Nietzsche really meant”: https://bigthink.com/thinking/what-nietzsche-really-meant-by-god-is-dead/ Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "God's Comic" Lyrics I wish you'd known me when I was alive, I was a funny fella The crowd would hoot and holler for more I wore a drunk's red nose for applause Oh yes, I was a comical priest "With a joke for the flock and a hand up your fleece" Drooling the drink and the lipstick and greasepaint Down the cardboard front of my dirty dog-collar (Chorus:) Now I'm dead, now I'm dead, now I'm dead, now I'm dead And I'm going on to meet my reward I was scared, I was scared, I was scared, I was scared He might've never heard God's comic So, there he was on a waterbed, drinking a cola of a mystery brand Reading an airport novelette, listening to Andrew Lloyd-Webber's "Requiem" He said, before it had really begun, "I prefer the one about my son" "I've been wading through all of this unbelievable junk And wondering if I should have given the world to the monkeys" (Repeat Chorus) I'm gonna take a little trip down Paradise's endless shores They say that travel broadens the mind, till you can't get your head out of doors I'm sitting here on the top of the world, I hang around in the longest night Until each beast has gone to bed and then I say "God bless" and put out the light While you lie in the dark, afraid to breathe And you beg and you promise and you bargain and you plead Sometimes you confuse me with Santa Claus It's the big white beard, I suppose I'm going up to the Pole, where you folks die of cold I might be gone for a while if you need me Now I'm dead, now I'm dead, now I'm dead, now I'm dead And you're all going on to meet your reward Are you scared? Are you scared? Are you scared? Are you scared? You might have never heard, but God's comic
Today's slow drag is with “The World and His Wife,” from “Punch the Clock,” released in 1983. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/indoorfirewords.bsky.social Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “The World and His Wife” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=The_World_And_His_Wife “The World and His Wife” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4wgrLmdVaI “The World and His Wife” Live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KJTTmA_vvs “The World and His Wife” idiom: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/world-and-his-wife#:~:text=a%20great%20many%20people%2C%20especially,his%20wife%20will%20be%20there. “It's a Living” idiom https://www.englishforums.com/English/ItsALiving/mkphd/post.htm “This is the life” idiom https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/this-is-the-life “Score Draw” https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/score-draw#:~:text=Word%20forms%3A%20plural%20score%20draws,the%20same%20number%20of%20goals. Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "The World and His Wife" Lyrics The family circle gathers 'round from very far and near To pass around the same remarks they passed away last year The little girl you dangled on your knee without mishap Stirs something in your memory and something in your lap Chorus: But it's a living This is the life For the world and his wife The world and his wife The kissing cousins slip outside to cuddle and confess She says sweet nothing at all, it's much more of a mess The conversation melts like chocolate down their open jaws As the juniper berry slips down just like last night's drawers (Chorus) To tell the truth our Mum ran off with someone else's father Went for two weeks' holiday in Taramasalata Daddy went out with the rubbish and he kept on walking Between Mum and the walls God only knows who does the talking (Chorus) But late time in the evening through the tears and fol-de-rol Come the sentimental feelings for the lure of vitriol Longing thoughts go hankering for the old home overseas With a blindfold and a national anthem sung in different keys
Today's slow drag is with “Black and White World” from “Get Happy!”, released in 1980. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/indoorfirewords.bsky.social Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Transcription: https://slowdragwithremedy.weebly.com/ Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Black and White World” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Black_And_White_World “Black and White World” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRDl6YvXhiw “Black and White World” Demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMLZi9v-RFM Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "Black and White World" Lyrics: I was looking at the black and white world It seemed so exciting If you'd only put me back-to-back with that girl When the night's inviting With just a little lighting There'll never be days like that again When I was just a boy and men were men You never go from moment to moment You're the living double of a single fiction You're very colorful with your compliments As you feel the finger's friction It's a freeze-frame till it's real life You don't want to look 'Cause you've seen the film and you've read the book I was looking at the black and white world Trying to name some pin-up Those days she was just a beautiful girl Now she's framed and hung up I thought she was young Up until I saw her last night in close detail Though they all fade away when you're so pale It's more than just a physical attraction It starts with a face and ends up a fixation But you're never gonna feel a fraction Of the way it used to work on your imagination When you were looking at the black and white world
Today's slow drag is with “Honey, Are You Straight or Are You Blind?” from “Blood and Chocolate,” released in 1986. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello's birth name. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/indoorfirewords.bsky.social Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Honey, Are You Straight or Are You Blind?” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Honey,_Are_You_Straight_Or_Are_You_Blind%3F “Honey, Are You Straight or Are You Blind?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqeSNPJ1bIY Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "Honey, Are You Straight or Are You Blind?" Who do you see when you turn your eyes down? Who do you see when I'm not seeing you? The news is out all over town And all these girls are taking turns at being you Chorus: Well, well, well You'd better make up your mind Honey, are you straight or are you blind? She's coming in between us, you know that she is I'm not holding on to her but one of us is My hands are in my pockets, my face is in a book She could walk 'round naked and I wouldn't sneak a look (Chorus) Honey, are you straight or are you blind? Honey, are you straight or are you blind? Honey, are you straight or are you blind? Honey, are you straight or are you blind? She walked in and your eyes flew out the door You squeezed my hand until the circulation ceases She's just a doll like so many more She's the kind of doll that you'd like to pull to pieces (Chorus) Well! Well, well, well You'd better make up your mind Honey, are you straight or are you blind?
Today's slow drag is with “White Knuckles” from “Trust,” released in 1981. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slow_drag_remedy/ Bluesky Social: https://bsky.app/profile/indoorfirewords.bsky.social Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “White Knuckles” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=White_Knuckles “White Knuckles” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbZ6TkpflKc Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Wave a White Flag” https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php?title=Wave_A_White_Flag “Wave a White Flag” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJwALX5riiU “I need him like the axe needs the turkey” saying from “The Lady Eve.” https://melanienovak.com/2020/09/02/the-lady-eve-i-need-him-like-the-axe-needs-the-turkey/ Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "White Knuckles" Lyrics: White knuckles came down to put the frighteners on I believe she's the one that he's got his heart set on It doesn't matter if your face doesn't fit There's no charge for changing it Oooh ooh What are you doing You see right through him You don't have to take it when he gets cruel White knuckles on black and blue skin You don't have to take it so you just give in White knuckles sweatin' on the headboard Never found out what the kisser was for Losing face with the boys while she's whispering in his ear They never found out why they called it laughing gear Maybe they weren't loved when they were young Maybe they should be hung by their tongues Oooh ooh Under the blankets with the body jerk He needs her like the axe needs the turkey Thinking of après of this fancy footwork White knuckles on black and blue skin Didn't mean to hit her but she kept laughing White knuckles sweatin' on the headboard Never found out what the kisser was for There's always someone new to toy with when the penny drops in the slot Now it's a petty crime on the news at nine But it's all she's got Love on the never never dreams don't come cheap I don't close my eyes when I go to sleep Oooh ooh It gets right under your skin It makes you as miserable as sin You don't have to take it so you just give in White knuckles on black and blue skin Didn't mean to hit her but she kept laughing White knuckles sweatin' on the headboard Never found out what the kisser was for White knuckles on black and blue skin You don't have to take it so you just give in White knuckles sweatin' on the headboard Never found out what the kisser was for Why you don't come round anymore Mother said He's using you Sister said I told you so too When he goes to your head You took it to be true
Today's slow drag is with “They're Not Laughing at Me Now” from “Hey Clockface,” released in 2020. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Instagram: slow_drag_remedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Bluesky: @indoorfirewords.bsky.social Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “They're Not Laughing at Me Now” http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/They%27re_Not_Laughing_At_Me_Now “They're Not Laughing at Me Now” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_uR6jvQKAI Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "They're Not Laughing at Me Now" Lyrics: Tell me, how does it feel? In the hour of deception and the moment of pretend To be scorned by those rank and those unkind strangers You were fool enough to call your friends Will you say as the curtain descends? "They're not laughing at me now" When the last of the garlands and laurel crowns and fine bouquets have all been swept away You were lost in the smokescreens and cavalcades and accolades instead of traitor's pay Where will you find the courage to say? "They're not laughing at me now" You could shake my hand If I could unfold my fist If I were a gentleman If I were a Christian But I wouldn't risk it Why would you? You know my name now And it's "Mister" to you. Now we're back at the start, no forgiveness in your heart, you turned your coat and asked me to turn my cheek And it's all in a language that I can understand but never bring myself to speak I'll leave it to you, if you dare It's a peal too appalling to bear I wonder if you're here or you're there They're not laughing at me now
Today's slow drag is with “Mischievous Ghost” from the Rhino reissue of “Mighty Like a Rose,” released in 2002. It was originally released as part of the “Bringing It All Back Home” soundtrack, released in 1991. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello's birth name. This episode has been requested by a loyal and astute fan who believes “Mischievous Ghost” was the impetus for Mr. Costello's dalliance with long hair, as he seems to have spent much time “in the blank hillsides” of Ireland himself at the time. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Mischievous Ghost” http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Mischievous_Ghost “Mischievous Ghost” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfbsGZvdNbk Unmask Us, Elvis Costello on “Mischievous Ghost” https://unmask.us/songwriters-c-e/elvis-costello-p5/ The Vibrato Debate: https://www.newsounds.org/story/43709-the-vibrato-debate/ The Scottish Bagpipes, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl9240HWXBU Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Listen to the audiobook for free at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7n1pN8D1Y "Mischievous Ghost" Lyrics She came dancing right before my eyes She said she came to warn me Before it dawned on me I went walking on the blank hillside Where the sunset falls Where the sunset dies She gave me love / she told me lies That most mischievous ghost She was in disguise, she was in disguise, she was in disguise He started to whistle, they bought him a flute He was talking in tongues, they swore he was mute He scoffed and blasphemed, they said it was beautiful Busted a button, they bought him a suitcase full They colored him cricket and laced him up tight As he drew on their days, resurrected his nights He raved in the dark, he went out in a blaze "There you go," they said, "he's good for nothing and lazy" With scandal and shame, they slandered his name They told him to freeze, they damned him to roast Disappointed that he passed away peacefully Never dying to be a mischievous ghost They dug him up quick with a polish and lick They powdered him up till he only looked sick The hinge in his backbone would bend to applause But his dancing was not quite as lively of course These are the rewards immortality affords Bullied and bribed and beaten to bliss Parroting slack sentimental laments Of going away and not being missed With scandal and shame, they slandered his name They told him to freeze, they damned him to roast Disappointed that he passed away peacefully Never dying to be a mischievous ghost With the green beer and the shamrock tattoos Singing his songs of the battles we lose And "Will ye come home again," so we can murder you What would you do if they took his word With forty-eight million to join in the toast Move over my darling mischievous ghost Mischievous ghost
Today's slow drag is with “The Other Side of Summer” from “Mighty Like a Rose,” released in 1991. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello's birth name. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “The Other Side of Summer” http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/The_Other_Side_Of_Summer “The Other Side of Summer” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR_9f1xuloo “The Other Side of Summer” Music Video Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww0hN-puTdA “Stand Like Greyhounds…” https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/191850.html “Give It Away Now” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr_uHJPUlO8 Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Earthbound”:http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Wendy_James:_Now_Ain%27t_The_Time_For_Your_Tears http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Earthbound “Earthbound” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9Xs6Mhe9tU Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” "The Other Side of Summer" Lyrics The sun struggles up another beautiful day And I felt glad in my own suspicious way Despite the contradiction and confusion Felt tragic without reason There's malice and there's magic in every season (chorus): From the foaming breakers of the poisonous surf The other side of summer To the burning forests in the hills of Astroturf The other side of summer The automatic gates close up between the shanties and the palace The blowtorch amusements, the voodoo chalice The pale pathetic promises that everybody swallows A teenage girl is crying 'cos she don't look like a million dollars So help her if you can 'Cos she don't seem to have the attention span (chorus) Was it a millionaire who said "imagine no possessions"? A poor little schoolboy who said "we don't need no lessons"? The rabid rebel dogs ransack the shampoo shop The pop princess is downtown shooting up And if that goddess is fit for burning The sun will struggle up, the world will still keep turning Madman standing by the side of the road saying "Look at my eyes, look at my eyes, look at my eyes, look at my eyes" Now you can't afford to fake all the drugs your parents used to take Because of their mistakes, you'd better be wide awake (chorus) The mightiest rose The absence of perfume The casual killers The military curfew The cardboard city An unwanted birthday The other side of summer The dancing was desperate, the music was worse They bury your dreams and dig up the worthless Goodnight God bless And kiss "goodbye" to the earth The other side of summer
Today's slow drag is with “Dishonor the Stars” from the Grammy Award winning “Look Now,” released in 2018. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.coms Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Dishonor the Stars” http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Dishonor_The_Stars “Dishonor the Stars” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E18wcuJYxRM Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” "Dishonor The Stars" Lyrics If you wake and chance to look above you There's one that I named to show how much I love you Hanging up high Poets long have written and have sung of moonlight and some distant satellite and when we're young we wish upon them Other men may only dream to kiss you But it's not a thrill like this Put your lips a little closer to my cheek then whisper, then speak So, tell me if you know How deep can this thing go? Honey will still desire the flowers And there will be a love like ours Until the sky dishonors the stars What in the world would all this amount to? If I can't tell you how much I want you On such a night the sky might dishonor the stars Disown and dishonor the stars Poets long have written and have sung of moonlight and some distant satellite and when we're young we wish upon them Other men may only dream to kiss you But it's not a thrill like this Put your lips a little closer to my cheek then whisper, then speak So, tell me if you know How deep can this thing go? Honey will still desire the flowers And there will be a love like ours Until the sky dishonors the stars What in the world would all this amount to? If I can't tell you how much I want you On such a night the sky might dishonor the stars Disown and dishonor the stars
Today's slow drag is with “There's a Story in Your Voice” from “The Delivery Man,” released in 2004. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello, with the guest vocal of Lucinda Williams. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.coms Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “There's a Story in Your Voice” http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/There%27s_A_Story_In_Your_Voice “There's a Story in Your Voice” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6dXZNT-Sd4 Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” "There's a Story in Your Voice" Lyrics Once upon another time If you had the need I'd step right in the shoes that you've been walking 'Cos someone put the hurt in you For everyone to see And you only have to speak to tell your fortune There's a story in your voice Both by damage and by choice It tells of promises and pleasure And a tale of wine and woe The uneasy time to come And the long way 'round we go to get there Once you told me fairytales Everybody knows But I didn't care for their prediction Now you say you're leaving me And packing up your clothes I finally see you were a work of fiction There's a story in your walk Then you crumble just like chalk And I could say that I was sorry But I wouldn't mean it much There are pages I can't touch And something that's been torn out of this chapter Far away, not far enough 'Cos I can still recall How it felt when I read that last sentence Now I go inside some rooms with Gideon in them all And hide myself from all hope of repentance There's a story in your eyes Cheap sunglasses might disguise But when the bedroom light reveals All that bravado and that fright That you cover up in spite Attempts to strip away this fabrication There's a story in your voice Both by damage and by choice It tells of promises and pleasure And a tale of wine and woe The uneasy time to come And the long way 'round we go to get there
Today's slow drag is with “Suit of Lights” from “King of America,” released in February, 1986. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello's birth name. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.coms Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Suit of Lights” http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Suit_Of_Lights “Suit of Lights” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Ke3f6yfI8 “Welcome to the Club” Nat “King” Cole: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=todFZrhmMc4 “Welcome to My World” Jim Reeves, 1963: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOCCvN8YDuc “Workin' Man Blues” Merle Haggard” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EwK0NsKdDY “Everyday I Write the Book” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1d4r9awjKE “It's a Dog's Life” Idiom: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/its-a-dogs-life 1987 Lasse Hallstrom Film, “My Life as a Dog” Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxzO8Qx96O4 Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” "Suit of Lights" Lyrics: While Nat King Cole sings "Welcome to My World" You request some song you hate, you sentimental fool And it's the force of habit If it moves then you fuck it If it doesn't move you stab it And I thought I heard "The Working Man's Blues" He went to work that night and wasted his breath Outside there was a public execution Inside he died a thousand deaths And they pulled him out of the cold cold ground And they pulled him out of the cold cold ground And they pulled him out of the cold cold ground And they put him in a suit of lights In the perforated first editions Where they advocate the hangman's noose Then tell the sorry tale of the spent Princess Her uncouth escort looking down her dress Anyway, they say that she wears the trousers And learnt everything that she does And doesn't know if she should tell him yes Or let him go And they pulled him out of the cold cold ground And they pulled him out of the cold cold ground And they pulled him out of the cold cold ground And they put him in a suit of lights But, it's a dog's life in a rope leash or a diamond collar It's enough to make you think right now But you don't bother For goodness sake as you cry and shake Let's keep your face down in the dirt where you belong And think of all the pleasure that it brings Though you know that it's wrong And there's still life in your body But most of it's leaving Can't you give us all a break Can't you stop breathing And I thought I heard "The Working Man's Blues" I went to work that night and wasted my breath Outside they're painting tar on somebody It's the closest to a work of art that they will ever be And they pulled him out of the cold cold ground And they pulled him out of the cold cold ground And they pulled him out of the cold cold ground And they put him in a suit of lights And they put him in a suit of lights
Today's slow drag is with “Spooky Girlfriend” from “When I Was Cruel,” released in 2002. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.coms Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Spooky Girlfriend” http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Spooky_Girlfriend “Spooky Girlfriend” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMBmd6m7h-c “Spooky Girlfriend” Cruel Smile, Live on KFOG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJsRa4XojFs “London's Brilliant Parade” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZmNE964rmk Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” "Spooky Girlfriend" Lyrics: I want a girl to make a mess To do no wrong she must confess And then perhaps hitch up her dress 'Cos when the flashbulbs explode She's such a sensitive soul I want a girl who is helpless and frail Who won't pull on my ponytail I want a girl who has no past She's made up now But that won't last 'Cos when she sits on my knee And then she whispers to me "Can't you see could be could be Your spooky girlfriend… I could be, I could be your spooky girlfriend” And the broken toys are scattered in the attic And the Newspapers play in the words of the fanatic And the greeting cards are your most poetic lyric And the flat champagne is sweet sugar syrup I want to paint you with glitter and with dirt Picture you with innocence and hurt The shutter closes Exposes the shot She says, "Are you looking up my skirt?" When you say "No" She says "Why not?" I want a girl to turn my screw To wind my watch, to buckle my shoe And if she won't, her mother will do 'Cos when she does as she's told We'll all turn platinum and gold But when she sits on my knee I hear her whispers to me "Can't you see?" "I could be your spooky girlfriend"
Today's slow drag is with “You Little Fool” from “Imperial Bedroom,” released in 1982. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.coms Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “You Little Fool” http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/You_Little_Fool “You Little Fool” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYmVfF3WX_Q “You Little Fool” Demo version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEo40X9_HUs Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” Daddy's best girl in the world is not supposed to have a boyfriend But she's never wanted at home Other girls are allowed to wear their makeup She sneaks out her lipstick, powder and comb She surrounds his name with hearts and flowers Talks on the telephone for hours and hours But with a bird in his hand And two on a string The words of love have an imitation ring Chorus: You little fool, you little fool I suppose that you're going to stay all night You little fool Don't look at me that way, you know it isn't right You little fool They say no news is good news The little girl wants information Mother just gives her some pills to choose And says go and use your imagination Daddy's best girl in the world says just look what I got As she sits beside him on the high stool With his arm around her neck, snowball in one hand And the other full of imitation jewels She fingers a string of pearls An imitation but he'll never know it Imitation lashes flutter above Looking for an imitation of love (Chorus) Alternative second verse intro lyrics: And you're so surprised she's up to hijinks out on the high stools Sitting with a snowball in one hand, the other full of imitation jewels
Today's slow drag is with “Sour Milk Cow Blues” from “Goodbye Cruel World,” released in 1984. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.coms Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Sour Milk Cow Blues” http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Sour_Milk-Cow_Blues “Sour Milk Cow Blues” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_yk1GoVMMY “Milk Cow Blues Boogie,” 1954 Elvis Presley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruWHWXRkHHk “Milk Cow Blues,” 1934 Kokomo Arnold: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B944jMtu6Qc Willie Nelson – Milk Cow Blues, 1981: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GnEpw-A0to “Parade of Pleasure,” Geoffrey Wagner: https://www.amazon.com/Parade-pleasure-popular-iconography-U-S/dp/B00IY0JJNM Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” "Sour Milk Cow Blues" Lyrics: You like coffee and you like tea Much more than you like me And everybody says watch out, yeah For the sour milk-cow blues You like your coffee just a little too sweet Without your sugar, life is incomplete And everybody says watch out, yeah For the sour milk-cow blues I think about you everyday Something about you is not the same Something about the things you say Sounds like a different woman with a different name Sour milk-cow blues Sour milk-cow blues You wear a different size and style of shoe I think that someone must be poisoning you To replace you with a living double Get out of my life right now and save them all of the trouble They changed your complexion and your personality Somebody's putting ideas in your head They took the girl of my dreams and left you here instead Sour milk-cow blues Sour milk-cow blues You take your place in this parade of pleas You dial a number and they offer relief All alone with just your own device They give you something and it isn't advice To break the hearts of a million listeners Start out as lovers and you end up as prisoners Somebody's suffering from the things that you do Somebody's suffering but you're glad it isn't you Put your fingertips up to the screen Repeat after me, wake at the count of three Now I don't know which is worse What they're doing to you or what you're doing to me Sour milk-cow blues Sour milk-cow blues Sour milk-cow blues Sour milk-cow blues
Today's slow drag is with “That Bridge I Burned” from “Extreme Honey: The Very Best of the Warner Bros. Years,” released in 1997, and then again on the “All This Useless Beauty” Rhino re-issue, released in 2001. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: ---------------------- Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.coms Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag ---------------------- References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “That Bridge I Burned” http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/The_Bridge_I_Burned “That Bridge I Burned” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPdCavy9z_s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGhlUBtY8_I Marsilio Ficino: https://iep.utm.edu/ficino/ Prince's “Pop Life”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56Hvoqgdlfk Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” "That Bridge I Burned" Lyrics: I'm walking in Times Square in the Electric Daylight The sailors on shore leave stand out in their perfect white I'm up here with my spying glass at the window up above For better or for worse - it's a perverse universe, my love Now I know, I should have never walked over the bridge I burned Now I know, somehow I don't feel so alone "And remember to flee far away from the unbridled, and the impudent, the malicious, and the unlucky. For these being full of bad demons or rays are maleficent, and like lepers and people stricken with plague, they harm not only by touch but even by proximity and by sight." (Dig it!) (Quote from Marsilio Ficino, Italian philosopher [1433-1499]) You mutter underneath your breath - IT ECHOES ROUND THE WORLD Everybody comes from nowhere There is hope, it loops up in the air Now I know, I should have never walked over the bridge I burned Now I know, somehow I don't feel so alone You said I used to be handsome if you screwed up your eyes Professors and vampires drank up all the tears I cried Now there's a bird at my window, he beats upon the pane And sometimes he sings to me - a mocking bird in the twilight of infamy Now I know, I should have never walked over the bridge I burned Now I know, some how I don't feel so alone Now I know, I should have never walked over the bridge I burned Now I know, they've burned one sinner and the others are selling firewood Now I know Now I know Now I know
Today's slow drag is with “A Slow Drag with Josephine” from “National Ransom,” released in 2010. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: ---------------------- Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Linguist Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.coms Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag ---------------------- References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “A Slow Drag with Josephine” http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/A_Slow_Drag_With_Josephine “A Slow Drag with Josephine” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1II-SELD9k Gavotte, Baroque Dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0tB2rGh1kM Gavotte definition: https://www.britannica.com/art/gavotte Garrotes Dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C32zAHaIJt4 Garrote (method of torture by strangulation) definition: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/garrote Cotillions, definition and difference: https://www.astoriabanquets.com/difference-between-a-cotillion-and-a-debutante-ball.htm Cotillion Dance example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvItgHeD2EU Arabesque: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmRrfm1ihGg Arabesque in Dance, definition: https://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3farndo.htm Farandole dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzUeMwM9CCQ Farandole dance definition: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/farandole Slow Drag Dance Moves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lFWWheBVuA A bit of The Slow Drag Dance history: https://atomicballroom.com/blog/2011/05/17/slow-it-down-with-slow-drag/ “Tango Till You're Sore, Tom Waits from the seminal “Rain Dogs”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjLBWJutzEI “Flirtation – Dominica's Traditional Dance”: https://dominicaexplorer.com/dominica/dominica-traditional-dances/flirtation-dance/ “Flirtation Two Step: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtj-SFouB6o Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” "A Slow Drag with Josephine" Lyrics: The snitch, the snoop, the tattletale Lead a threadbare up the stairs Adieu, my little ballyhoo You broke my heart in two And now I haunt the bars and scent those trite affairs She went home to gather her comb And caught him unawares And there was a man enjoying the lay of the land He took a walk in the dark with a dish from the stand Girls and their creations Tied in the brightest grenadine But I'd take all that I've seen For a Slow Drag with Josephine Josephine, Josephine But I'd trade all that I've seen for a Slow Drag with Josephine Gavottes, garrotes, Cotillions and slow Arabesques Drum-rolls and Farandoles were all made in jest But when you make that move I can't resist When will you declare your armistice? Josephine, Josephine But I'd trade all that I've seen for a Slow Drag with Josephine In another time and place a different fate was cast He tried to skeddle-daddle-do She might have slapped him Just for saying "Grant one more chance before you pass" "Then curse the nurse that named me the first or bury me at last" And in three-quarter time The true and the false Dancing the "Hesitation Waltz" Then comes the "Flirtation" And temptation Hip, hip hooray Listen to what I say Then you can take it away…
Today's slow drag is with “No Flag” from “Hey Clockface,” released in June, 2020. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. . . . Show Notes: ---------------------- Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.coms Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag ---------------------- References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “No Flag”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/No_Flag “No Flag”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7aQtVfB-88 Elvis Costello Drops Second “Helsinki Sound” https://www.977theriver.com/2020/07/10/elvis-costello-drops-second-helsinki-sound-track-hetty-ohara-confidential/ “My Dark Life” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw9boaOLnvI Definition of collocation: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/collocation Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” "No Flag" Lyrics I've got no religion I've got no philosophy I've got a head full of ideas and words that don't seem to belong to me You may be joking but I don't get the gag I sense no future but time seems to drag No time for this kind of love No flag waving high above No sign for the dark place that I live No God for the damn that I don't give I've got no illusions I've had no epiphany Why should anybody listen to me She said I'm tearing up the sheets that your love letters stained All of your magic powers have drained No time for this kind of love No flag waving high above No sign for the dark place that I live No God for the damn that I don't give There's a line in the sand A word or two in the aftermath I'm an arrow that shoots up and down on an advertising graph I could write you verses and recite more than one But they're not worth the paper that they're written on No time for this kind of love No flag waving high above No sign for the dark place that I live No God for the damn that I don't give We want everything and we don't want to share Out-o space for the faces we fear Look in the mirror and see who I used to be Made out of plastic in a factory No flag No flag
Today's slow drag is with “Episode of Blonde” from “When I Was Cruel,” released in April, 2002. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. Show Notes: ---------------------- Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.coms Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag ---------------------- References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Episode of Blonde”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Episode_Of_Blonde “Episode of Blonde”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoGCWtp4UIY Main Wiki Resource, “Peroxide Side” Blunt Cut: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruel_Smile “Peroxide Side” (Blunt Cut): http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Episode_Of_Blonde “Un Chien Andalou,” (The Andalusian Dog) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB7gd_t6WMQ “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorless_green_ideas_sleep_furiously “Governing English: Prescriptivism, Descriptivism, and Change” https://exhibits.lib.ku.edu/exhibits/show/english-language/governing-english “Skittles – History and Useful Information” https://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Skittles.htm 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 "Episode of Blonde" Lyrics: I spy for the "Spirit of Curiosity" All the scandals of each vain monstrosity I gossip and I pry and I insinuate If the failure is great Then it tends to fascinate A tornado dropped a funnel cloud with twenty tons of rain Though she had the attention span of warm cellophane Her lovers fell like Skittles in a 10-pin bowling lane But nothing could compare with that explosion of fame So you jumped back with alarm Every Elvis has his army Every rattlesnake its charm Can you still hear me? Am I coming through just fine? Your memory was buried in simple box of pine (chorus): Did her green eyes seduce you and make you get so weak? Was there fire engine red that she left upon your cheek? It's such a shame you had to break the heart you could have counted on But the last thing you need is another episode of blonde Revolving like a jeweller's figure on a music box The spangled curtain parted and night-club scene unlocks Pinned and fixed and fastened in a fallow spot Arms thrown out to everyone, she's giving all she's got To the last gasp of a wounded bandoneon A tiny man imploring to the ceiling fan this stolen feeling Amplified up through a busted speaker Blaring, blasting, advertising, distorted beyond reason Into the street where petty crime-coats shadow panic drunkards Half out of the taxi-cab the barker seized my elbow He thought I was another lonely, likely pilgrim looking for St. Telmo (chorus) I tried to keep a straight face but you know it never pays He would stare into those eyes and then vacation in her gaze She was a cute little ruin that he pulled out of the rubble Now they're both living in a soft soap bubble The film producer's contemplating, entertaining suicide The picture crumpled in his fist, his runaway child bride The timepiece stretched across his wrist She couldn't care less cast aside The scent that so repelled him that he swore: "insecticide" And there's farewell note to mother That will conclude "Your loving Son" "Oh, tell your other children not to do as I have done" Did her green eyes seduce you and make you get so weak? Or was there fire engine red that she left upon your cheek? It's such a shame It's such a shame, shame, shame A shame you had to break the heart you could have counted on But the last thing you need Is the last thing you want Is another episode of blonde It's another episode of blonde, oh oh oh It's another episode of blonde So an artist drags a toothbrush across the first thing that he sees And names the painting "Christ's Last Exit into Purgatory" Receiving secret messages from an alien intelligence And Paying off his stalker it's a legitimate expense So paste up pictures of those shrill and hollow girls with puckered lips She's a trophy on your arm, a magnet for your money clip The moral of this story is a sorry tale to say They're pieced with links of chains so they can never run away
Today's slow drag is with “The Town Where Time Stood Still” from, well, a few places: “Imperial Bedroom,” “Goodbye Cruel World,” sans a verse or two, and ultimately released in 1995 on the Rykodisc reissue of “Punch the Clock.” The songwriting, and everything else except for drum loop, is credited to Elvis Costello. Show Notes: ---------------------- Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag ---------------------- References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “The Town Where Time Stood Still”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/The_Town_Where_Time_Stood_Still “The Town Where Time Stood Still”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI69GMlMNVU (demo version) “Almost Persuaded” by David Houston: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbN4r4y3AIY 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 "The Town Where Time Stood Still" Lyrics: I made my selection from the lonely hit parade In the town where time stood still I was feeling very little pain Until some joker played "Almost Persuaded" Now every girl I see Looks so much prettier to me My faithfulness has faded And their looks are sharp as daggers And the conversation heated Since the boys have all been laid off And are walking round defeated In the town where time stood still Somebody in charge must have pretended That the future's been suspended And I say I don't want trouble But I find myself back in it In the town where time stood still I am the man of the minute Teach me to say "I love you" They'll teach you to say "You will do" In the town where time stood still Or maybe I can find a little girl To wind me up with all the usual skills There's nothing else to do but rearrange somebody's features (futures) And trap your figures in the till The bar is full of girls just like the creature with the curse And the food is just like cabaret or vice versa In the town where time stood still Just as my heart went down sinking I found the town was shrinking And suddenly I saw her through the smoke and empty beers In the town where time stood still She might have well have waited years Now I suppose we did some things we used to do But no amount of darkness could ever turn her into you And so I woke up in the town where time stood still With a headache and a heartache And a handful of pills A welcome mat, a scandal rag, and unpaid bills With her head inside her handbag The sign says "please wait to be seated" I only want a cup of coffee I know you can't have your cake and eat it In the town where time stood still Did you hear the news today? It's all bad, did I tell you how I left her so sad? With a headache and a heartache And an hour or two to kill I only wish we were together In the town where time stood still In the town where time stood still In the town where time stood still In the town where time stood still In the town where time stood still
Today's slow drag is with “All the Rage” from “Brutal Youth,” released in 1994. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello's birth name. Show Notes: ---------------------- Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag ---------------------- References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “All the Rage”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/All_The_Rage “All the Rage”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Kf-yeojmjY “Tenderness”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XegL32Btzs 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 The twitching impulse is to speak your mind I'll lend you my microscope and maybe you will find it Is it in that ugly place that's just behind your face? Where you keep my picture still Despite the fact that you had me replaced Say "Goodbye" Baby can't you act your age? You know why I'm going to give it to you straight Although I'll never be unhappy as you want me to be Still it's all the rage I'll probably play along left to my own devices Spare me the drone of your advice The sins of garter and gin confession may delay You know the measuring pole, the merry boots of clay I've heard it all before You'll say it anyway Chorus Alone with your tweezers and your handkerchief You murder time and truth, love, laughter and belief So don't try to touch my heart, it's darker than you think And don't try to read my mind because it's full of disappearing ink Chorus Although I'll never be unhappy as you want me to be Still it's all the rage
Today's slow drag is with “My Most Beautiful Mistake” from “The Boy Named If,” released in 2022. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. Show Notes: ---------------------- Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag ---------------------- References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “My Most Beautiful Mistake”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/My_Most_Beautiful_Mistake “My Most Beautiful Mistake”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn0IWgpzanY 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 "My Most Beautiful Mistake" Lyrics: She was a part-time waitress with a dream of greatness That nobody knew of or even suspected Though it was sometimes reflected in the slant of a mirror It was buried so deep and so dear She caught the eye of a guy passing by who said, "My, if I prove to be faithless, you'll surely know why Oh, why? You'll probably know why" Then again you may say "Mister, you've got a nerve Most of us never get just what we deserve" I'll smile sweetly, "I'm here at your service" And the camera walks us through into a sunlit room Where a one-hit wonder lives And he says, "Action" and "That's a take" You are my most beautiful mistake "It's not your reputation I'm trying to besmirch" "I'm here undercover, I'm writing this screenplay" "You might be my inspiration, it's beyond my control" "So it's my soulful and wounded expression, that you'd like to console?" There's a hand that lingers a little too long There are lies you will hear, that they're singing right now, right here, right here in this song And the lens pulls the focus on his magnum opus He's a one-hit wonder kid And he says, "Action" and "That's a take" You are my most beautiful mistake He made a portrait of her face out of burnt out matches She said "The trouble is, Sunshine, I know what the catch is… You'll offer me nothing, you'll offer me riches I've seen your kind before in courtroom sketches" From the booth in the corner From a different perspective Where a man plays the fool or a private detective He wrote her name out in sugar on a Formica counter "You could be the game that captures the hunter" Then he went out for cigarettes As the soundtrack played The Marvelettes Let me check the script Check the continuity You'll be up on that screen for eternity The billboard will spit: "That look! That's it!" Take a little pill and you will get over it The light will hit you If you drop that hint Now "Cut" and "Print" And the camera walks us through into a low-lit room Where a one-hit wonder lives
Today's slow drag is with “The Invisible Man” from “Punch the Clock,” released in 1983. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. Show Notes: ---------------------- Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag ---------------------- References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “The Invisible Man”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/The_Invisible_Man “The Invisible Man”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o-iZ_GfTTs Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “I Turn Around”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/I_Turn_Around “I Turn Around”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg4cesm8obI 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 "The Invisible Man" Lyrics I was committed to life and then commuted to the outskirts With all the love in the world Living for thirty minutes at a time with a break in the middle for adverts But it's a wonderful world within these cinema walls Where a shower of affection becomes Niagara Falls And you wish she could step down from the screen to your seat in the stalls ‘Cos if stars are only painted on the ceiling above Then who can you turn to and who do you love I want to get out while I still can I want to be like Harry Houdini Now I'm the invisible man My head is spinning 'round faster and faster Here I stand on the edge of disaster I'm shattered like a piece of crystal, porcelain, or alabaster 'Cos if stars are only painted on the ceiling above Then who can you turn to and who do you love I want to get out while I still can Crowds surround loudspeakers hanging from the lampposts Listening to the murder mystery Meanwhile someone's hiding in the classroom Forging the books of history Never mind there's a good film showing tonight Where they hang everybody who can read or write Oh, that could never happen here, but then again it might 'Cos if stars are only painted on the ceiling above Then who can you turn to and who do you love I want to get out while I still can I want to be like Harry Houdini Now I'm the invisible man And you won't see me
Show Notes: ---------------------- Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag ---------------------- References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Clown Strike”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Clown_Strike “Clown Strike”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0zbZDn7juc “Elvis Costello The Gwendolyn Letters (demos): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQieshbrzpI Erik Jorgensen background: https://www.fredericia.com/stories/erik-joergensen.aspx Flamingo Chair: https://www.danishdesignstore.com/products/ej205-flamingo-chair-by-erik-jorgensen https://www.danishdesignstore.com/products/ej205-flamingo-chair-by-erik-jorgensen 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 "Clown Strike" Lyrics She'll fix you with an iron cross And cover you up with petals And hang you up with some amber beads And four or five precious metals And in that black flamingo chair you'll sit among her trophies And pray to be abandoned 'til you don't know what hope is (Chorus:) But there's one thing That I had to keep inside because I was shaking Why don't you get some pride? There was a clown strike And the clowns threw down their tools But you don't have to play so hard And I'm nobody's fool You don't have to go so far ‘Cos I love you as you are The big top is deserted now and the circus girl rehearses She knows how to turn their heads and not fall between two horses But all that seems a simple step, if only I were able To love you like I want to do And not by some times-table (Repeat Chorus) And it's pandemonium For the humble and the mighty You don't have to tumble for me Even a clown knows when to strike Tell me what you want of me Or are you terrified of failure Put on a superstitious face behind all this paraphernalia We're not living in a masquerade where you only have three wishes It isn't easy to see in a lifetime of mistaken kisses (Repeat Chorus) And it's pandemonium For the humble and the mighty You don't have to tumble for me Even a clown knows when to strike
Show Notes: ---------------------- Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com 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 "Room with No Number" Lyrics: 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 Chorus: 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 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 (Chorus) And I wish you could be The man he was before he was me (fireworks) 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 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 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 (Chorus)
Show Notes: ---------------------- Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag ---------------------- References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “The River in Reserve”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/The_River_In_Reverse_(song) “The River in Reverse”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71YLX4pUMW0 “The River in Reverse” acoustic solo performance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZLZ5H-fjao for the Preservation Hall Foundation in 2020 https://www.preshallfoundation.org “What Does it Mean to Have Grit”: https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/what_does_it_mean_to_have_grit A list of a few Imponderables: http://www.unm.edu/~jerome/imponder.htm “Beware of Nominalization” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNlkHtMgcPQ 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 "The River in Reverse" Lyrics How long does a promise last? How long can a lie be told? What would I take in exchange for my soul? Would I notice when it was sold? Wake me up Wake me up Wake me up with a slap or a kiss There must be something better than this 'Cos I don't see how it can get much worse What do we have to do to send The river in reverse Every man a crawling kingsnake Every girl a half a heartbreak Every woman sold into shame To any son without a name Are your arms too weak to lift? Another shovel on the graveyard shift Here comes the flood if you catch my drift Where the things that they promised are not a gift If man falls through the mirror of a lake They fish him out quick and they call him a fake Give him all the temptations he can take Tie him up high 'til his bones break Wake me up Wake me up Wake me up with a slap or a kiss There must be something better than this 'Cos I don't see how it can get much worse What do we have to do to send The river in reverse I thought I heard somebody laugh Look out your window They're chasing shadows in the dark They're counting widows I felt a sliver of glass Saw a cross in splinters I felt the truce of spring Dig me out of the trench of winter So count your blessings when they ask permission To govern with money and superstition They tell you it's all for your own protection 'Til you fear your own reflection But the times are passing from illumination Like bodies falling from a constellation An uncivil war divides the nation So erase the tape on that final ape running down creation Running down creation Wake me up Wake me up Wake me up with a slap or a kiss There must be something better than this Wake me up Wake me up with a slap or a kiss There must be something better than this
Show Notes: ---------------------- Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag ---------------------- References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Next Time ‘Round”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Next_Time_%27Round “Next Time ‘Round”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgQbf__uOvE 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 "Next Time 'Round" Lyrics As I stepped out upon the landing my heart was already down the stairs She's in the bedroom with that boy of hers Though her face is creased and her eyes seem strange There's a second-hand emotion on battered forty-five My tears were never enough to keep that girl alive Now she seems contrite, will she make the change Chorus: The next time 'round The next time 'round You'll be someone else's baby But I'll be underground The next time 'round Then you took two steps forward and then one step on your back Now it's a future for me and you that I lack You'll be the one who stands out in the dark Even when you're all dressed in black (Chorus) You've got something I want now And I've got something I can't hide I've got too much love for you now You've got too much pride? Sometimes I name and number all the things you gave to me Your elastic love, this velvet-lined purgatory You used to take the breath out of me Now I think you'll be the death of me (Chorus) The next time 'round The next time 'round You'll be someone else's baby But I'll be underground The next time 'round The next time 'round
Show Notes: ---------------------- Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag ---------------------- References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Heaven Won't Heaven Help Me?”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Why_Won%27t_Heaven_Help_Me%3F “Why Won't Heaven Help Me?”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOolSuOkdiY 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 "Why Won't Heaven Help Me?" Lyrics I set off alarms and fire off flares Cause sometimes they answer prayers I'm listening I wait for some distant bell to ring Why won't heaven help me? (Far, far away) Why won't heaven help me? (It's so hard to say) Why won't heaven help me? Hey you out there! Even if you dare Take care of your wishes If you find they do come true You may regret that too Why won't heaven help me? Why won't heaven help me? Remember the thrill that followed praise While dressed for a lover's gaze The moment when You saw through the lies of older men Why won't heaven help me? (Far, far away) Why won't heaven help me? (It's so hard to say) Why won't heaven help me? Hey you out there! Even if you dare Take care of your wishes If you find they do come true You may regret that too Why won't heaven help me? (Why won't heaven) Why won't heaven help me? (Why won't heaven) Why won't heaven help me? (Why won't heaven) I sensed this was wrong but take my word I thought somehow I'd be spared Alone again Believe what you want of me till then Why won't heaven help me? (Far, far away) Why won't heaven help me? (It's so hard to say) Why won't heaven help me? Hey you out there! Even if you dare... Take care of your wishes If you find they do come true You may regret that too Why won't heaven help me? (Why won't heaven) Why won't heaven help me? (Why won't heaven) Why won't heaven help me? (Why won't heaven) Why won't heaven help me? (Why won't heaven) Why won't heaven help me? (Why won't heaven) Why won't heaven help me? (Why won't heaven)
Show Notes: ---------------------- Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag ---------------------- References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Nothing Clings Like Ivy”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Nothing_Clings_Like_Ivy “Nothing Clings Like Ivy”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bs4Sjma6PI “The Pros and Cons of planting English Ivy in the Landscape”: https://blog.gardeningknowhow.com/gardening-pros-cons/pros-and-cons-of-planting-english-ivy/ Hollow: https://artsandsciences.sc.edu/appalachianenglish/node/492 “Southern Gothic Literature”: https://oxfordre.com/literature/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.001.0001/acrefore-9780190201098-e-304 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 "Nothing Clings Like Ivy" lyrics Nothing clings like Ivy Frightened by the dark Though she cuts deep It never leaves a mark No one quite like Ivy Everyone gets it straight What she believes She won't negotiate All the words of tenderness That never quite got through She says, "You know how young girls are From my contempt for you" Outside in the hollow She may dare herself For there may be A serpent in the grass Nothing clings like Ivy Trying to scare herself And it may strike or Wait for her to pass All the words of tenderness That she never possessed "So, what's the use of promises?" "I had my fingers crossed" All the words of tenderness that never quite got through She said, "I laughed behind your back When I told them to you” Nothing clings like Ivy Frightened by the dark Though she cuts deep It never leaves a mark
Show Notes: ---------------------- Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag ---------------------- References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Harpies Bizarre”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Harpies_Bizarre “Harpies Bizarre”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW0-7Kbo5rU “150 Years of Harper's Bazaar” https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a18658/history-of-harpers-bazaar/ “Cultured Pearls vs. Real Pearls” https://www.pearlsofjoy.com/blogs/blog/real-pearls-vs-cultured-pearls “Natural vs. Cultured Pearls: Everything You Need to Know” https://www.diamonds.pro/guides/natural-vs-cultured-pearls/ “Harpyiai” https://www.theoi.com/Pontios/Harpyiai.html “Harpy” https://mythology.net/monsters/harpy/ 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 He selects the plainest face from a spiteful row of girls Elegant insulted women, a flaw of cultured pearls He drops a name or two, she fails to catch At last he's met his match Unspoiled and unaffected, he wants her so much She puts up half-hearted resistance, like she was taught to do She's heard some of those small town playboys but this is something new His promise seems dangerous, she'd like to believe He says "You'd better leave" "You've only got yourself to blame, shame, or deceive" The waiting lines are long They never get too far Everyone wearing that medal with pride Harpies Bizarre I looked on but hesitated, I failed to interrupt You're so hard to tell the truth to, so easy to corrupt I'll memorize your face, your tragic smile The hurt look in your eyes As you betrayed yourself to the part of him that dies The waiting lines are long They never get too far They're shining up their shoes to kick a falling star You think you should be somebody But you don't know who you are Everyone wearing that medal with pride Harpies Bizarre