From: marck@nwu.edu (Jater & Co.)
Subject: EC's _Juliet Letters_ (was Re: Elvis Costello [brief pointer])
Followup-To: rec.music.cd,rec.music.misc
Organization: NU ACNS
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 22:07:58 GMT

In article <2049@heurikon.heurikon.com>, gtaylor@vme.heurikon.com (Gregory
Taylor) wrote:
> It's a song cycle with a string quartet (the Brodsky quartet)
> called "The Juliet Letters." It's Costello in his Cole Porter/Steven
> Sondheim mode, and while the writing for quartet isn't groundbreaking,
> the lyrics and the whole flow of the thing strikes me as an incredibly
> brave thing to try. The view of life, love, and relationships has spun
> up much from "Imperial Bedroom" forward (some of the writing here also
> reminds me of "Spike"), and that's just fine with me. I fully expect
> that a legion of Elvis Costello fans may wind up hating this disc as
> badly as EC's first foray with T-Bone Burnette ("too KUNTREE, man....")...

interestingly, no one i know who is an EC fan has had any strong hatred of
this album.  i'm on the EC mailing list (you might be too, greg) and i was
surprised to see people who were convinced they were not going to like this
admitting that they can't stop playing the disc and they can't get the
songs out of their heads.

i *was* surprised ... but now that i have the disc, i understand perfectly
why this is.  somehow, he manages to make this 63-minute disc stand up.  i
thought it would be an interesting experiment, but _The Juliet Letters_ may
turn into one of my fave CDs in the past few years.

greg's comment above about Cole Porter/Stephen Sondheim is on the money --
and may i add the smell of George Gershwin in a couple of places?  (i'm
speaking musically, not lyrically.)

one interesting note about the "single," "Jacksons, Monk and Rowe": 
judging from the list of songwriters on the liner notes, Dec had less to do
with the writing of this song versus most of the other ones.  if this is
actually true, i think it's interesting that the most pop-oriented song on
the CD was mainly written by the people who spend less time writing pop
music.
 
[and how pop-oriented is it?  well, i'm working on an arrangement for
acoustic guitar and i'm going to be covering it at my own upcoming gigs. 
it's an immensely memorable pop ditty, not unlike the MacManus/McCartney
collaborations from the past few years.]

> but I'd much rather pick through a courageous failure ...

now, does this mean that you have concluded that it's a courageous failure,
or are you just making a general comment about music listening principles? 
i mean, i agree with you, but _The Juliet Letters_ *works* for me (and
apparently for a lot of other EC fans as well).

> P.S. The Brodsky Quartet's tone fits the performance perfectly, and it'd
> be positively *horrible* IMHO to have handed these texts off to another
> voice - particularly one that was more ah...classically trained.

i was thinking about this the other evening as i listened to "The Birds Are
Singing" (the closing song on the CD).  i think i agree with you on 80% of
the material, Greg, but other songs (particularly this one) might lend
themselves well to other treatments.  (i'm not saying *better*, but i would
love to hear other interpretations.)

any other thoughts about _The Juliet Letters_ out there?


mlb

P.S. "Fresh Air," an arts radio program carried by many NPR stations, did
an interview with Elvis last week, discussing _The Juliet Letters_.  i am
going to transcribe it for electronic distribution.  PLEASE don't ask for
this now -- i'll post a note here on rec.music.misc. (and on the elvis
mailing list) when it's ready.  stay tuned ...


*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* marck@nwu.edu +*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+
m l bailey                           || Zorg: "I don't see the connection
flagrant poseur                      ||        between demolition and 
northwestern university              ||        writing."
"Ceci n'est pas une .sig."           || Betty: "I'm not surprised."
               -- Rene Magritte      ||
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