Friday, July 7, 2017

The Echo And Sway


Elvis Costello : (The Angels Wanna Wear) Red Shoes


Oh, oh I said, "I'm so happy I could die" 
She said "Drop dead" then left with another guy


On July 7, 1977 Elvis Costello released his third single, "(The Angels Wanna Wear) Red Shoes". In Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink, Costello writes about the moment a year earlier on a train when the song came to his mind, fully formed. 

What surprised me was this visitation by angels. Who were these cats? Were they gatekeepers to a land of acclaim and immortality that still seemed so unattainable? I can't tell you. I simply wrote it down and heard all the accompanying music playing in my head, The words arrived as fast as I could scribble them down in my notebook as the train juddered to a slower speed on the final approach through the Liverpool suburbs.




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