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From The it Zine issue three (January 1998)
compiled by vu
Well this was written when “The It Girl” was first released. So in case you were wondering what this rubbish is! I’m still excited about “The It Girl” so here is a compilation of what Louise, Jon, and Elvis Costello have said about each song on the second album. Obviously I’m mising some songs, as I don’t have a good quote for them.
Lie Detector
Lou: “It talks about a woman who’s beautiful so she ‘must be stupid,’ and one who’s clever so she ‘must be ugly’ and all
those other cliches that are used about women.
“It has the line, ‘it took a thousand cliches just to scold her’- I think that happed to us last year. I said that I was against
censorship, so to certain journalists, that meant that I must be a racist!”
Sale of the Century
Lou: “Other people have told me it sounds bitter but I don’t really see that there’s any bitterness in it. It’s more lyrical,
more optimistic. I think people try and impose on me a bitter, twisted view at all times rather than accept there’s anything
perhaps just genuine. It’s like that line: ‘you said I was cheap, you were the sale of the century.’ The biggest bargain ever.
Almost everyone I’ve spoken to about it says, ‘you’re just being bitter.’ That’s a typical that happens to us. If there’s any
bitter line in the song, or any more interesting line, it’s ‘I knew we’d go far because we both share the people we hate.’
That’s sometimes a bigger bond than loving the same things.
“I started a new relationship last year and it’s about that point ‘how long until reason makes us small again?’ You’re kind
of insane while it’s all beginning, and that’s a time to be cherished, because after that you get very rational. The insane
time is the time that’s the best ever.”
What Do I Do Now?
Elvis: “I just thought the song ws brilliant. The words, the uncertainty in the relationship. The sadness. Obviously the
advantage of living that little bit longer than some other people- I’m 42- I can use that to some advantage. I know the
feeling that’s on the song very well, but it’s not my direct lyrical experience, it’s Louise’s.”
Good Luck Mr Gorsky
Lou: “He [Neil Armstrong] didn’t tell the story until the last five years, after Mr. Gorsky had died. It turned out that Mr.
Gorsky had been his next door neighbour, and when he was a little kid he had knocked his ball into the next door yard.
“He went to collect it and heard this conversation where Mrs. Gorsky was saying, ‘You’ll get oral sex the day that kid next
door walks on the moon.’”
“The song’s really about this little kid with all his dreams, and the guy next door with his telescope fixed on the stars,
dreaming about it and looking like he’s never achieved anything.”
Feeling Peaky
Jon: “I mean, we did write ‘Feeling Peaky’ together on the new album, which was the poppiest thing we could do at the
time. Where ‘Smart’ was poppy, we wanted ‘The It Girl’ to be massively poppy, and where it was introspective, to make it
really introspective. So ‘Feeling Peaky’ was this jaunty pop thing, and the way Lou made it work was to write about being
ill- this massively poppy tune about getting up in the morning and puking because you’ve drunk too much the night
before.”
Shrinkwrapped
Lou: “I know a lot of people who have gone into therapy, relations and friends, and I just don’t think it’s valid. I think that
they just take an alternative worldview to yours and try to make you believe it. But they don’t know any better. I’ve never
seen a happy analyst!”
Dress Like Your Mother
Lou: “It’s just saying, ‘What is the good of keeping your Smiths records if you’ve lost your sense of humour?’ Everyone
remembers them as being really depressing, but I always thought that Morrissey had a brilliant, ironic sense of humour.”
Statuesque
Glue Ears
Lou: “We obviously spent a lot of last year on tour buses, and we used to keep ourselves occupied by looking at all the
people driving past us on the motorway and imagining what kind of lives they were having, and where they were going to.
The chorus [‘we’re clumsy aren’t we/wrapped in paper and fears/can’t pay attention when you’ve got glue ears.’] is about
how there’s so little human communication.
“Even with people you’re close to, you very rarely really connect. It’s like you hold hands with gloves on. Human beings
are very isolated.”
Nice Guy Eddie
Stop Your Crying
Click... Off... Gone
Lou: “‘Click Off Gone’ is about watching someone die on the television in front of you. You can feel incredibly touched by
it for a moment, and then it just becomes something you’ve seen before. You end up feeling wretched about yourself,
because it’s like you’ve got no feelings left.”
About The it Zine
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As always any comments, suggestions, or contributions are welcomed.
sleeperx@bigfoot.com
Vu Nguyen
16-page fanzine available for only $1 plus 32cent stamp
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issue two of The it Zine (May 1997)
includes:
more! |