Ho avuto sempre un rapporto controverso con Elvis Costello , ho amato tutti i suoi contemporanei (Joe Jackson,Graham Parker,Andy Partridge ad esempio) o almeno riuscivo a farmi di loro un opinione piu' o meno definitiva...di lui no.
Da giorni riascolto buona parte dei suoi album ,apprezzabili ,vari e ben suonati ma ...ma mancano le canzoni! Nelle maggiorparte dei casi sono carine ma nulla di piu',tale critica non tocca i testi ,spesso pregevoli ,come dice Paul McCartney Costello e' "wordy" un fiume di parole...
Un eccezione parziale per "My Aim is True" o per "Imperial Bedroom "completa invece per "Punch the Clock"...che trovo realmente azzeccato.Un piccolo capolavoro POP ,unico nel suo genere ,anche se per alcuni richiama similitudini con i Madness del periodo ,soprattutto per l'uso dei fiati.
Costello non ha mai cantato bene come in questo disco ,rende anche un semplce "la la la la" gustoso ,ma tutto quadra qua'.
Molte canzoni sono piccoli classici ,i fiati, il pianoforte ,il basso ,la batteria tutto top ,la produzione...anche la copertina vintage!
Molti i classici ,sicuramente "Shipbuilding" forse in assoluto il suo brano migliore ma anche i due singoli e "Pills and Soap"
Quest'album fu il mio primo approccio con Costello ,dopo approfondendo non sono piu' riuscito ad apprezzarlo completamente ,anche perche' comprai una raccolta e questo e' spesso il modo piu' sbagliato per approfondire la conoscenza.
Mi lascia sempre un senso di incompiutezza o meglio apprezzi i brani quando li ascolti ,dopo pero' non li ricordi piu'.
Punch the Clock no ! rimane uno dei miei album preferiti di sempre.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
02 Everyday I Write the Book (03:53)
Don't tell me
You don't know what love is
When you're old enough
To know better
When you find strange hands
In your sweater
When your dreamboat
Turns out to be a footnote
I'm a man with a mission
In two or three editions
And I'm giving you
A longing look
Everyday, everyday, everyday
Everyday I write the book
Chapter One
We didn't really get along
Chapter Two
I think I fell in love with you
You said you'd stand by me
In the middle of Chapter Three
But you were up to your old tricks
In Chapters Four, Five and Six
And I'm giving you
A longing look
Everyday, everyday, everyday
Everyday I write the book
The way you walk
The way you talk,
And try to kiss me and laugh
In four or five paragraphs
All your compliments
And your cutting remarks
Are captured here
In my quotation marks
And I'm giving you
A longing look
Everyday, everyday, everyday
Everyday I write the book
Everyday I write the book
Don't tell me
you don't know the difference
Between a lover and a fighter
With my pen and
my electric typewriter
Even in a perfect world
where everyone was equal
I'd still own the film rights
and be working on the sequel
And I'm giving you
A longing look
Everyday, everyday, everyday
Everyday I write the book
Everyday, everyday, everyday
Everyday I write the book
Everyday, everyday, everyday
Everyday I write the book
Everyday, everyday, everyday
Everyday I write the book
06 ShipBuilding (04:53)
Is it worth it
A new winter coat and shoes for the wife
And a bicycle on the boy's birthday
It's just a rumour that was spread around town
By the women and children
Soon we'll be shipbuilding
Well I ask you
The boy said 'DAD THEY'RE GOING TO TAKE ME TO TASK
BUT I'LL BE BACK BY CHRISTMAS'
It's just a rumour that was spread around town
Somebody said that someone got filled in
For saying that people get killed in
The result of this shipbuilding
With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls
It's just a rumour that was spread around town
A telegram or a picture postcard
Within weeks they'll be re-opening the shipyards
And notifying the next of kin
Once again
It's all we're skilled in
We will be shipbuilding
WITH ALL THE WILL IN THE WORLD
DIVING FOR DEAR LIFE
WHEN WE COULD BE DIVING FOR PEARLS
10 Mouth Almighty (03:05)
This town belongs to you and your tricks of confidence
All the pavements for miles around are littered with your footprints
Now every girl I get close to seems to be wearing your perfume
And the clock strikes the letters of your name
Both midnight and noon
But I used to shoot my mouth off
Till you'd had enough of me
Once or twice nightly
I know I've got my faults
And among them I can't control my tongue
But if you didn't believe me
Why did you have to leave me
With my mouth almighty
Mouth almighty that's what I've got
Mouth almighty telling you what's what
Mouth almighty
I wish I'd never opened my mouth almighty
so I threw away the rose and held onto the thorn
Crawling round with my crooner cufflinks and my calling card cologne
But the realization of being replaced starts to tell tales across my face
Without a soul to talk to or a hair out of place
Carico i commenti... con calma
