Records
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CloseTracks
Disc 1- Watching The Detectives
- I Hope Youre Happy Now
- This Years Girl
- Lovers Walk
- Pump It Up
- Strict Time
- Temptation
- (I Dont Want To Go To) Chelsea
- High Fidelity
- Lovable
- Mystery Dance
- Big Tears
- Uncomplicated
- Lipstick Vogue
- Man Out Of Time
- Brilliant Mistake
- New Lace Sleeves
- Accidents Will Happen
- Beyond Belief
- Black & White World
- Green Shirt
- The Loved Ones
- New Amsterdam
- (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
- King Horse
- Big Sisters Clothes
- Alison
- Man Called Uncle
- Party Girl
- Shabby Doll
- Motel Matches
- Tiny Steps
- Almost Blue
- Riot Act
- Love Field
- Possession
- Poisoned Rose
- Indoor Fireworks
- I Want You (Single Version)
- Olivers Army
- Pills and Soap
- Sundays Best
- Watch Your Step
- Less Than Zero
- Clubland
- Tokyo Storm Warning
- Shipbuilding
Liner Notes
GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS
This is a collection of songs recorded between 1976-86. Rather than being placed in a chronological order I have arranged the songs in four parts so as to try and tell a number of different stories. I will leave it to the listener to make what they will of each section but this is an opportunity to include a few actual “hits” and a few “lost” songs while others, both good and bad, seem better left in their original context. The deciding factor in making these choices is contained in the obscure arithmetic of the title, although I must caution against taking it too seriously, unless you are considering a career in the legal profession. The majority of the selections feature Pete Thomas, Bruce Thomas and Steve Nieve who were shrewd enough to recognize a cryptic advertisement in the music press as an invitation to FUN EXCITEMENT AND TRAVEL as “Elvis Costello & the Attractions” and without whom this would be a blank record.
“Watching The Detectives”: Written after thirty six hours of drinking coffee and trying to listen to the 1st Clash album in a slumbering block of flats. Recorded a couple of weeks before “turning professional” at the tiny (but mighty) Pathway Studios in Islington, where “My Aim Is True” had been made in a total of 24 hours spread over “sick-days” and “holidays” from my lovely “day job”. Andrew Bodnar and Steve Goulding from The Rumour played bass and drums and a little while later Steve Nieve added his low budget tribute to Bernard Hermann. Produced by Nick Lowe.
“I Hope You’re Happy Now”: “My Lady said ‘the baby’s dead’. You gentlemen all work for me”. Recorded live in the big, old studio at Olympic (before it was vandalized), after three different attempts at the song. In the long run I’m happier to live with it being humorous, rather than murderous. Produced by Nick Lowe with Colin Fairley.
“This Year’s Girl”: Clandestine exposure to “Aftermath” resulted in this alarming piece of fortune telling. Produced by Nick Lowe.
“Lover’s Walk”: Tells more of a story than the repetition of lyric might suggest. The band sounds wound up and off hand at the same time, very typical or our attitude at that point. Produced by Nick Lowe & Roger Bechirian.
“Pump It Up”: Scrawled on the fire stairs of a Newcastle hotel in an amphetamine and vodka frenzy. The sex and drugs and rock and roll life beckoned, amply demonstrated both day and night during the infamous Live Stiffs package tour. This anti-rock ‘n’ roll song was my last stand before I gave in to it completely. The painful morning brought a large but simple editing job allowing us to learn to play the song the next evening, in Lancaster. In this spirit the recording is a “genuine” 1st take. Produced by Nick Lowe.
“Strict Time”: You know that moment when you want to kiss someone and they just won’t be distracted from their fag, well then they’re “smoking the everlasting cigarette of chastity” Funny how such ideas seemed crystal clear to me at the time. Produced by Nick lowe & Roger Bechirian.
“Temptation”: This started out as a holier-than-thou snipe on a VERY FAMOUS ROCK STAR, who I imagined to be breathing his own artificial atmosphere. However by the time we came to record it I’d had a good lungful of the same poison, but had also located that slippery addictive feeling that you get just before giving in to something wicked. It proved to be the saving of the song, together with a few pints of beer and a riff borrowed from Booker T and the M.G.s. Produced by Nick Lowe.
“(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea”: Might have been just a poor relation to “All Of The Day (And All Of The Night)”. “I Can’t Explain” or even “Clash City Rockers” had it not been for Bruce Thomas’ great bass-line. Meanwhile I was trying to fit in this lick from an old Pioneers record, though which one I can’t recall. “Ha bloody ha” said the first taxi driver that I asked to take me there after the record came out. Produced by Nick Lowe.
“High Fidelity”: Beginning with a line from a Supremes record, this amoral tale might have overdone the self pity had it not been for the comical drunkenness of the singer. Nice dance routine with this one! Produced by Nick Lowe.
“Loveable”: Written by the authors during a transatlantic telephone call, which they are still hoping to pay for with the royalties. Also features the meanest bass drum fill ever from the “Rev” Jim Keltner. Produced by T-Bone Burnett & Declan MacManus.
“Mystery Dance”: Finding ourselves without a piano player Mr. Lowe ran a drumstick down the keys, while I banged away wherever my fingers fell. Produced by Nick Lowe.
“Big Tears”: The story line is borrowed from the film Targets, while guest guitarist Mick Jones (of the Clash) answers the musical question ‘Are you punk’ or ‘new wave?’. Those were the days. Produced by Nick Lowe.
“Uncomplicated”: I asked for water in a Parisian bar. My “French” was not working any miracles. They gave me Rosé wine. That’s how the trouble begins. Produced by Nick Lowe with Colin Fairley.
“Lipstick Vogue”: Here are the bones of it; the rhythms of the Metropolitan line (on which it was written) colliding with a song by The Byrds called ‘I see you’. I didn’t mention this bit to Pete Thomas at the time, so what you hear is all his own work. I stand by every word. Produced by Nick Lowe.
“Man Out Of Time”: Began with just a chorus that I sang to the cold coach window one brilliant moonlit Swedish night. Sometime later I found myself with a haunted feeling in the grounds of a country mansion hotel. A scene for a scandal in fiction or in the newspapers (if that isn’t the same thing). A picture of decay, corruption and betrayal. At the time it all seemed to suit rather well. On a happier note the intro and ending of the track are, of course, edited from another version of the song. My contribution is a tribute to ‘free’ alto players everywhere. Produced by Geoff Emerick.
“Brilliant Mistake”: At best this might be called the title track of the collection. Produced by T-Bone Burnett and Declan MacManus.
“New Lace Sleeves”: From the dissolute and sometimes hysterical sessions for the Trust, we somehow managed these brief moments of clarity. It is my favourite group performance of a song that at the time of the recording was already seven years old. It’s all about the dubious nature of a civilized façade. Very timely. Produced by Nick Lower with Roger Bechirian.
“Accidents Will Happen”: Near the end of over two years of non stop
FUN EXCITEMENTANDTRAVEL, we have entered the most frantic three months that follow the release of Armed Forces (‘a day off what’s that?’). Consequently everything in the café opposite the Brighton Top Rank seems very bright; the lights dancing in the greasy café, the day-glow yellow eggs, even the congealed bit on the stalks of the ‘sauce: tomatoes’. I only paint this disgusting picture, as it is the only time that I recall the Attractions and I being in the same mundane location while a record of ours was being played on the radio. For a moment it was like being in ‘Expresso Bongo’, but, alas, never to be repeated.
Produced by Nick Lowe.
“Beyond Belief”: In its original form of ‘The Land Of Give And Take’ I felt that while the playing was fine, the vocal was just a lot of high-pitched ranting. The decision to lower the register the voice by an octave and thereby re-write both title and song was taken after leaving AIR studios for a bracing stroll along Portland Place. Staff from the nearby BBC would hurry past as they saw me mumbling to myself. Produced by Geoff Emerick.
“Black And White World”: A view from a place in the stalls. I think there is a girl somewhere in the picture. Produced by Elvis Costello.
“Green Shirt”: For better or for worse, when things were going very fast the world seems to fly straight through the moving window and come out of my mouth or my pen. At first glance or so, America seemed like another planet, full of disturbing landmarks. I would wake up and somebody would tell me ‘That’s the lake where Otis Redding went down’… ‘Thanks for telling me’. Now none of this really appears in the song, it all takes place in some alarming place, that might not really exist, except in your head, when some idiot has left an outboard motor – boat running in the corner of the studio. Produced by Nick Lowe.
“The Loved Ones”: A tale about the morbid practice of refusing to leave a nice clean corpse by contriving the legend of your decline. Perhaps a little over-ambitious for a three-minute pop song. On the other hand it contains one of Steve Nieve’s most scene-stealing piano parts.
Produced by Geoff Emerick.
“New Amsterdam”: Recorded in a fifteen quid-an-hour demo studio (back when fifteen pounds was a lot of money I can tell you). As you might guess I did not use a metronome but I did employ the owners exotic equipment: vibes! A fretless base! A very nasty synth! Even God forbid, DRUMS!!! the first in an occasional series; a bewildered lad, alone in New York, except for his rhyming dictionary. Produced by Nick Lowe.
“(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes”: Dreamed up during the kind of hallucination that you can only have between Runcorn and Liverpool Lime Street (travelling time approx. 10 mins). Later banged into shape on the ancient Spanish guitar that I had left at my mother’s house.
Produced by Nick Lowe.
“King Horse”: The Armed Forces are the only other line of work that encourages such unsuitable people to travel the World. Chaos reigns at 35,000 feet over the Pacific. In my notebook I stumbled on some lyrics about tawdry compromise and desperate fun, mostly the work of a very naive 19-year-old. Now I am looking to hang it all on the best insult to the strutting male that I can find. The cult of the stallion with the medallion is in full flower. I look at all the silly school boys making the stewardess’ life a misery. I look at myself in the toilet mirror… ‘King Horse’.
Produced by Nick Lowe.
“Big Sister’s Clothes”: Features some borrowed tympani and the world’s first backwards accordion. The mood of this one-man show owes much to being recorded on the eve of total collapse at the end of making Trust. Production: Nick Lowe not to blame for this one.
“Alison”: Much could be undone by saying more, but this track does contain a secret tribute to The Detroit Spinners. Produced by Nick Lowe.
“Man Called Uncle”: An amused look at true love and romance as offered (at a discount) in the nightclubs of America. Produced by Nick Lowe.
“Party Girl”: Then again you might start to believe it all. Somebody is calling ‘Time’. Somebody else clearly isn’t listening.
Produced by Nick Lowe.
“Shabby Doll”: There was a musical hall bill on the wall of a Lancashire Hotel, under one name, it read ‘She’s just a shabby doll’, no further explanation. Perhaps it referred to a song or a costume, but has nothing more in common with the pathetic soul in this song. He is a man for one thing. Well almost. On the other hand check out Bruce’s bass figures on the
fadeout. Produced by Geoff Emerick.
“Motel Matches”: Upon my first motel night in Los Angeles I was hoaxed into believing that I had been assigned the very room where Sam Cooke had been murdered. I didn’t sleep much until I found out in the morning that it had occurred in an entirely different location. Such innocence was short-lived but the infamous Tropicana became the sight of many less serious crimes, indiscretions, and comedies. Produced by Nick Lowe.
“Tiny Steps”: The scenario is borrowed from an old Hitchcock television episode about a little girl who insists her doll is an imaginary friend. When her neurotic mother, breaking her promise, intrudes on their private games, she finds her daughter lifeless in the toy’s box, while the doll escapes into the rushes at the bottom of the garden. Possibly carrying a ticket to South America. Produced by Nick Lowe.
“Almost Blue”: Admiring Chet Baker’s reading of “The Thrill Is Gone”, I wanted in my own way to write something similar. Later, when by good fortune he came to record his trumpet solo on “Shipbuilding”, I gave him a copy, not so much to suggest the song to him, but to repay a debt he knew nothing about. I don’t imagine he rushed home to hear it, he didn’t live like that. Still, seven years later and I’m in an M.G.M. screening room in New York, watching the last reel of Bruce Webers movie biography of Chet, Let’s Get Lost. A sequence near the end shows him struggling to be heard above a crowd of drunken film-festival free-loaders. The song is “Almost Blue”, a poignant surprise revealed to me shortly after Chet’s death. Though my version seems tentative by comparison I re-dedicate it to him with belated thanks. Produced by Geoff Emerick.
“Riot Act”: From the wiped-out sound of this track you’d never guess that these dark thoughts were written on a beautiful beach at dawn.
Produced by Nick Lowe.
“Love Field”: Sounds to me as if it has been translated, rather badly, from some other language, perhaps French. It would make a great duet for Isabelle Adjani and Percy Sledge. Produced by Langer and Winstanley.
“Possession”: Another drunken composition (or is it decomposition). On the run from a cleverly isolated Dutch studio, we sought excitement in a small café. Sure enough I started to fall “in love” with the waitress, but was hustled back to work before the trouble began. I began my protestations of desire in the taxi and although other grim thoughts came to mind the song was “complete” by the time we reached the studio. Naturally we recorded it right away and in a childishly literal gesture I insisted on playing organ (very badly). Produced by Nick Lowe.
“Poisoned Rose”: There was something reliable about the ten years of in-jokes and eccentricities with the Attractions, so each session for King Of America presented small, but crucial adjustments. Not only meeting and being at ease with new players almost every day, but also translating from “English” into “American”. Now while I had no desire to hire “legends” and “history” it comes to the studio with some players whether you or they like it or not. On the session for “Poisoned Rose” it was very hard to forget that Earl Palmer played the drums on most of the great Little Richard records or that Ray Brown played bass with, among others Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, not to mention once being married to Ella Fitzgerald. Feeling more than a little unqualified we set up and then called a brake for weird sandwiches and A BIG BOTTLE OF GLENLIVET! Suddenly we all got on really well, cutting the track and then going on to play “Eisenhower Blues” until the whisky was gone.
Produced by T-Bone Burnett & Declan MacManus.
Next day I paid the price, but ironically my fragile state actually seemed to bring home a clearer understanding of a song like “Indoor Foreworks.” It was about all I could manage, assisted by a sympathetic circle of Messers, Scheff, Burton, and Froom. They probably suspected that it would be like this all along. Produced by T-Bone Burnett & Declan MacManus.
“I Want You”: The sound of this track was always going to be the aural equivalent of a blurred Polaroid, so no apologies for the lack of fidelity. None are needed, it’s just a pornographic snapshot; lots of broken glass, a squashed box of chocolates and a little blood on the wall.
Produced by Nick Lowe with Colin Fairley.
“Oliver’s Army”: Written on the plane back from Belfast, but looking at the song’s itinerary that might just have been a coincidence. However history lessons die hard, hence the title. This was going to be exiled to a b-side until illuminated by Mr. Nieve’s “Dancing Queen” piano part. Thanks Steve.
Produced by Nick Lowe.
“Pills And Soap”: Released and then deleted, with satirical intent, on the eve of the ’83 General Election. When it appeared in the charts without warning the B.B.C. was perflexed by a possible threat to their cherished “political balance.” I was questioned about its content by a B.B.C. producer (who was clearly illiterate as a lyric sheet had to be provided for his approval). I replied cryptically, but honestly: It’s about the misuse of animals. For his part he threatened me with banishment from the national airwaves if I ever revealed any hidden motive behind the song and then boasted about it. I’m not sure which was supposed to be the bigger sin, but by now the joke’s on all of us. Produced by Colin Fairley & The Imposter.
“Sunday’s Best”: Written with Ian Dury in mind (in case you couldn’t guess). Not so much a song as an attack on the small-ads page of “The News Of The World” with a big pair of scissors.
Produced by Nick Lowe.
“Watch Your Step”: A slow dance number.
Produced by Nick Lowe with Roger Bechirian.
“Less Than Zero”: After watching the decrepid Oswald Mosley excusing himself on television I placed a Mr. Oswald in this warped and lurid fantasy. No more than he was trying to do with his own past.
Produced by Nick Lowe with Roger Bechirian.
“Clubland”: I intended this to be a poisoned version of “On Broadway,” which the recording, at least, falls a long way short. I think we improved upon it many times in concert, but the song says its piece and the record has its moments, particularly Steve’s “Rhapsody In Blue” hit in the piano solo.
Produced by Nick Low with Roger Bechirian.
“Tokyo Storm Warning”: Fatigue can play cruel tricks upon your perceptions, but arriving early one violent morning, among the frenzied commuters, with the storm clouds down beneath the tops of the tallest building, Toyko DID seem like the setting for a particularly brutal science-fiction story (perhaps something by Philip K. Dick). So thinking “Why stop there, let’s trash the world,” I recalled twenty years of nightmares, actual or altered, to present this thug’s-eye view of the planet.
Produced by Nick Lowe with Colin Fairley.
“Shipbuilding”: Clive Langer gave me a tape of a melody that he had written for Robert Wyatt, so that I might write some words for it while I was away on tour. “Something about time” was his only instruction. In a way it was, for as I began work on it, the lurid reports of the Falklands war, in the ever sensitive Australian press, brought to mind this barely futuristic story. Robert’s version will always be the “original” and mine the “cover” but while I know I’ve sung it better many times since, the mood and the playing are strong. From the severity of Steve’s introduction to David Bedford’s string harmonies at the end and perhaps most of all Chet Baker’s trumpet solo. Produced by Langer & Winstanley.
Personnel
