12.22.2018
ELVIS COSTELLO, CAROLE KING AND A SONG 20 YEARS IN THE MAKING
A song Elvis Costello and Carole King wrote in the 1990s, “Burnt Sugar Is So Bitter,” is finally being released on Costello’s new album, “Look Now.”
New York Times: Jim Farber: October 9th 2018. Photo by Erik Tanner exclusively for The New York Times.
Two decades ago, Elvis Costello and Carole King kept running into each other at a Japanese restaurant in Manhattan. “It was the lure of the sea urchin,” Costello said. And the meals paid off: Over the course of several omakase dinners, the musicians developed a friendship that led to a writing collaboration — but not before they went through a harrowing experience.
In 1995, the two were performing with Bob Dylan and Van Morrison in Dublin. “At the end, it was too dark and when everyone went offstage left, I went stage right,” said King. “Boom! I fell 15 feet onto a concrete floor.” Costello said it was “truly horrifying.” King broke her right wrist and left thumb in the accident. “I think I was saved by landing on a pile of cables,” she said.Not long after, the two musicians decided to write a song together. For more than 20 years, the piece, “Burnt Sugar Is So Bitter,” only existed as a demo, though Costello performed it live on several occasions. But the track finally has a home on “Look Now,” his new album with the Imposters, out Friday.
Several weeks ago, the two met at Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village (where he recorded the album’s strings) to talk about their work together, as well as their separate histories as collaborators, writers and performers. Settling down on a plush red sofa, King, 76, kept referring to her collaborator by his birth name.“Do you mind if I call you Declan?” she asked Costello, 64, who was looking healthy several months after revealing that he had undergone successful surgery for cancer.
“Anything but Gladys,” he answered. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.