November 2003 Esquire Interview

Pretty self-explanatory
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Mr. Misery
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November 2003 Esquire Interview

Post by Mr. Misery »

Last year an extremely nervous boy appeared at my door selling magazine subscriptions. I shocked and delighted him by agreeing to buy one, and chose Esquire because it used to feature interesting writers. My purchase did wonders for the kid's self-confidence. I heard him give a much more convincing pitch to my neighbor, even though he was turned away by that grim personage.

Six months later (!) my first issue of Esquire arrived. It is no longer a literary magazine. Reaching for a description I would borrow a phrase and say it's a print version of "the fine windows of shameless and plunder." I thought I'd have to be content with my good deed in the way of rewards but in this year's November issue I stumbled across an interview with Elvis Costello. I don't recall whether John Foyle already posted it so my apologies if this is redundant. Here is my transcript:

(What I've Learned) Elvis Costello [Songwriter, 48, Dublin]
Interviewed by Tom Junod

What have I learned? Well, you can answer that on so many levels, can't you? You can answer it on a philosophical level, or you can say 'I know this restaurant,' or 'Always get the foam pillow.'

I was in a room with Chuck Berry once. I said to myself, I don't want to meet you. I just want to look at you. He was scary.

We're all just animals. That's all we are, and everything else is just an elaborate justification of our instincts. That's where music comes from. And romantic poetry. And bad novels. Sometimes when I finish a bad novel, I say, 'You wrote seven hundred pages just to say that? Couldn't you just have said, 'I want to f***?'

Fruit helps in the middle of the day.

Happiness isn't a fortune in a cookie. It's deeper, wider, funnier, and more transporting than that.

I'm not very good at joyful.

You need to meet Sting. He's a totally charming guy. He's always been a nice guy, very good looking, he's got a good voice--it's not a voice I like particularly, but he's written one or two really beautiful songs, and he's been extraordinarily fortunate in many ways. He's some people's idea of sophisticated. He plays the corporate events; maybe nobody invites him to any better parties. But there's always somebody in music who's equivalent to that role, and I think he's easy to hold up as a kind of an Aunt Sally. I don't think he's an insincere musician. He just doesn't seem to value the same things about music that I do.

Songs are more powerful than books.

Elvis probably had a little more curiosity than the average kid, and that's why he was him.

In John Lennon's songs, people tend to isolate the lines that sound like epitaphs or greeting cards. It's very odd to drive by the Liverpool airport and see the logo with his drawing and the words 'Above us only sky.' The sky is full of planes! But everybody becomes a mass-produced tablecloth in the end.

I've seen a lot of exotic places in my work and all my traveling. But the place I still want to see is the place in somebody's eyes. You know: Travel less, see more.

I don't like that idea,eye surgery. I won't be getting that. It's like penile enlargement or something.

Living a very long time would be a very scary thing.

Eventually we'll need jet packs to get around and space helmets with Ventolin in them to allow us to breathe. Do you know what Ventolin is? It's what asthmatics take. A lot of kids have asthma now. We've done a good job at mucking things up.

Read the magazines at the margins of the music industry. That's where most of the interesting music is.

They used to just get on with things, didn't they? They had the blues then. They understood the idea of the blues.

I used to wear these blue lenses all the time. You really do get depressed if you wear blue lenses. When people say, 'You're looking at the world through rose-colored glasses,' well, I have no idea what rose ones do, but I know what blue ones do. They make you sad.

I didn't even own a Bob Dylan record until 1971. To me, he was a great singles artist. You heard him on the radio. What a shocking thing to live in a world where there was Manfred Mann and the Supremes and Engelbert Humperdinck and here comes 'Like a Rolling Stone.' That was a great world, a very exciting time.

The assumption that something is not for you is an assumption that can be undone in time.

It's very important to allow yourself the ability to have a second thought. Because if you put everything into breaking down the door, what are you going to say when you get in there?

Singing with Emmylou Harris: If there is a heaven, that's what it's like.

People don't know that music can affect your sense of smell, but it can.

All songs are motivated by revenge or guilt? Did I say that? I must have been full of Perod.

There are about five things to write songs about: I'm leaving you. You're leaving me. I want you. You don't want me. I believe in something. Five subjects, and twelve notes. For all that, we musicians do pretty well.

Elvis Costello has just released North, his twenty-fourth record.
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lapinsjolis
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Post by lapinsjolis »

Not Elvis at his most insightful. :? Who should we blame? :twisted:

What have I learned:Even a man of genius has laspes in being brilliant. Also I'm cranky when I'm ill and prone to unkind words. :(
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sulkygirl
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Post by sulkygirl »

Yeah, but I gotta admit....

a lot of those sentiments really hit home.

:shock:
"Love can be stranger than fiction..."
Mr. Misery
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Post by Mr. Misery »

I had the same reaction as Lapinsjolis, though I didn't want to editorialize in the initial post. EC is usually brilliant in interviews, I think this was just an off day.

He says that we are merely animals with instincts, but it completely lacks logic to say that that's where music and romantic poetry and (even?) bad novels come from, as animals don't produce any of those things, it is precisely our cerebral and emotional and spiritual dimensions as human beings that make art possible.

On the up side it is true that fruit helps in the middle of the day.
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whtesde
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Post by whtesde »

It's college-dorm style philosophizing. I imagine it drunkenly scrawled on a beer-soaked bar napkin; it goes down better that way.
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A rope leash
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Happy Sunday!

Post by A rope leash »

What's wrong with this interview? Are you angry that Elvis said we are all animals? Last time I checked, human beings were mammals. Very complex mammals, but also very closely related to other mammals, like monkeys, and dogs, and hamsters.

Elevate yourself if you like, and say that your art comes from something "greater", but actually, it comes from the Earth, just like nearly everything else on this planet. There's hardly a thing that we humans do that can't be chalked up to animal instincts.

Right now, human beings are killing other human beings in the age-old act called "war". If anything, I'd say we are less noble than the average animal. We know better. Any "violent" act coming from an animal is coming right out of a DNA notebook, and is generally considered "natural".

As human beings have evolved, supposedly to something "greater", we have become separate from the natural world, and our allegiance to religious and governmental institutions has fed this separation, until now it appears that we are something different from the average mammal, and semantically we are, but we still share much of the same genetic code, and much of what we do can be attributed to base, animal-like intentions.

I see jealousy in dogs, and spitefulness, and a "yearning" to be free. I also see love among dogs, and hatred as well. There is also a lot of Class A stupidity among dogs, and that really sounds familiar, because the vast majority of human beings are pretty stupid, and many of those spend a lot of time helping each other get elected.

Great interview, Elvis.
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Post by bambooneedle »

Happiness isn't a fortune in a cookie. It's deeper, wider, funnier, and more transporting than that.
Mr. Misery, thanks for transcribing this. Did it also come with the interviewer's questions, or come as is? I'm just wondering how EC was prompted to come up with his responses.
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lapinsjolis
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Post by lapinsjolis »

Sulkygirl-Yes, but we are all afraid of Chuck Berry.

whtesde-It does read better that way! It almost makes sense. . .
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A rope leash
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Afraid of Berry?

Post by A rope leash »

I do not fear Chuck Berry. I don't get why anybody would. I enjoy looking at him, and I would like to meet him. What is it about Chuck that's frightening? I'm more afraid of Jerry Lee Lewis, but I also enjoy looking at him.

What gives, anyway? My ability to start an arguement seems to be slipping. I guess I'll go dig a hole...
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A rope leash
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Ah, the beauty of being human...

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lapinsjolis
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Post by lapinsjolis »

You want to fight? Okay I'll indulge you before my Sunday nap. 'Tis not anger Mr. Leash but disappointment in wanting better, wiser realizations. They could, as a novelty, make sense too. He contradicts himself, which is fine in the space of a day perhaps but not an interview. I guess it's the folly of expecting more from him. I'm an elevated lapin, thank you kindly. I'm not sure Elvis was talking about war but then again I'm not sure what Elvis what tallking about! Maybe you broke the code!
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A rope leash
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No Code

Post by A rope leash »

"We're all animals, and everything else is just an elaborate justification of our instincts".

That's where WAR comes into play, WAR being the most vile and destructive result of our selfish instincts. All creatures have an innate, "selfish" will to survive, and in humans this has evolved into horrific, organized actions in defense of not only individual survival, but of individual human "desires", such as the "desire" of the USA to have all that OIL!

Of course, animals don't create art. They are not intelligent enough, and have not evolved to such heights as humans. But their "spirits", by whatever definition, are certainly no different from ours. It's the same "spark of life" found in all things living, and cannot be called good or evil except in the context of a human perception.

All so-called human "art" comes from our selfish instincts: To be great, to make a difference, to be somebody, to get back at those who said we were not worthy. It comes from the ego more than from the soul, although the soul may be exposed, and by this I do not speak of the soul as something that is separate from the body and the person. The soul is the person, and the person is a result of what has been percieved.

I like what Elvis said about John Lennon. He's been diluted down to a few "sound bites", and most of the folks who say they adhere to his vision don't know what they're talking about.
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A rope leash
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Speaking of war

Post by A rope leash »

O yeah, GWB has a Nazi family history:

http://www.takebackthemedia.com/com-buchanan.html

...and here's even more human instinctual Bushshit:

http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20 ... 1390.shtml
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Post by Mr. Misery »

bambooneedle wrote:
Mr. Misery, thanks for transcribing this. Did it also come with the interviewer's questions, or come as is? I'm just wondering how EC was prompted to come up with his responses.
You're welcome and I appreciate your courtesy, Bambooneedle. I transcribed the article exactly as it appeared in the magazine. Presumably the answers are EC's but the questions that prompted them are not given. It would be interesting to know what elicited that inscrutable vision of a brave new world of jet packs and asthma medication. But I still support Elvis's position vis-a-vis fruit. One wonders how he feels about the vegetable kingdom. I have three words for Mr. Tom Junod: follow-up question!

A Rope Leash, I was not angry that he said we are animals but disappointed that he claimed we are "just" that. In the next breath he mentions poetry, music, and novels. These are three things that are uniquely human, yet he views them as "elaborate justifications" of primal impulses. In fact there are many things we do that cannot be ascribed to instinct: the people who rushed into burning buildings to save strangers during the 9/11 attacks, for instance. Human beings are often worse than animals, we have done unspeakable things to one another throughout history. But we also have inspiring examples of heroism and nobility to look to. It is in reaching to elevate ourselves and to act morally that we achieve great things.

Concerning Chuck Berry, I equivocate. I fear him yet I am drawn to him! :?
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Post by bambooneedle »

... maybe Mr. Junod did have all sorts of follow-up questions to get the responses he got, but he almost makes it all look like a series of uncalled-for comments by EC. He should have better put across the content and dynamic of the "interview".
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