10.14.2018
ELVIS COSTELLO REVIVES AN OLD FRIEND ON HIS NEW ALBUM LOOK NOW
BBC News: Kev Geoghegan: 15th October 2018
Look Now, the bittersweet, elegiac new album from Elvis Costello and his band The Imposters, has been 20 years in the making and sees the prolific songwriter work with his heroes Burt Bacharach and Carole King.It also sees him reintroduce a character from his 2010 album National Ransom, in the opening track Under Lime.
“It’s the continuation of a story that I wrote about a travelling songwriter called Jimmie who appears in a song that I wrote about eight or nine years ago called Jimmie Standing in the Rain and I just picked up the story of this character 20 years on.
“He’s on a TV show, he’s not a very likeable person and he’s put in the charge of a young woman. And, you know, he’s a bit of a liability and given a drink he could be unpleasant.
” They told a young girl with a clipboard/”Just keep him amused”/ “Whatever you do, don’t tell him your name”/ “Whatever you think, don’t let him drink”
While those lyrics – written two years ago – have taken on new meaning in a post #MeToo world and speak to the potential abuse of power between a jaded lecherous old man and a young female production assistant, Costello insists he is not making any judgements.”I’ve known people like that, I’d hate to think I’d actually been that person but this scene is one that I’ve seen played out backstage in the business.
“What I try to do in the song is not make a judgement but try to see the point of view of the young woman and the man in the song, who is beaten down by life. I’m not judging him from the outside.”
It’s the ability to assume the voices of different characters which is perhaps key to the success of a songwriter who first burst onto the scene in 1977 with the international hit Watching The Detectives. Since then, he has recorded in the region of 31 albums – his last one in 2013, a collaboration with US hip hop band The Roots.
But patience, they say, is a virtue and Look Now is the result of two decades of writing and waiting for the right opportunity to tell the stories Costello wanted to tell.