The new album "North" is out and it is beautiful. Elvis Costello has been getting some prime play, Letterman, CNN, A&E. I love this guy. I truely think he's a genius. I feel like we've grown up together. When we were both kids, his fuzzy, angry, catchy songs made perfect sense to me. All the twists along the way, this new music is right there too. That's rather amazing.
I think about the impact of Cash passing and I know this guy will leave an equally huge mark-at least for me. Here is a great
interview Talking about the amazing sweep of his songwriting and how it has changed as he has:
"... I don't think there's been a single pun on any of my records for 10 years and yet I'm known for that because of the first few albums. And the same with irony - it's an overplayed hand and it's also a juvenile hand. The deliberate seeking of darkness and the sardonic, and the denial of feeling and the denial of trust and belief, it's something that you do when you're younger and it's something that is right - part of it's genuine and part of it is insecurity. I'm not saying that was all wrong. I love a lot of the songs I wrote then, I still sing them, but there's room in the world for lots of different points of view, lots of different types of expression, even inside the repertoire of one songwriter and singer."
And here's another great quote about lyrics:
"I don't see any reason why you should have to understand them. I would always defend the right to create a vague picture, or a blurred picture with words that adds up differently to different people because I've done it countless times. It's like the chance Polaroid that is better than the sharp-focus, well-taken photograph.
I hope Elvis keeps writing and singing for a long time to come.