The view from our friends in England

[Freddie]

https://tfml.beehiiv.com/p/it-was-a-fine-idea-at-the-time?_bhlid=e9f29c69d376a7aa557a802871cb5a1cf9f46b28&utm_campaign=it-was-a-fine-idea-at-the-time&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=tfml.beehiiv.com

As some of you may know, I’m a huge Elvis Costello fan. He recently released a deluxe box set of his 1986 (I think) album King of America. The end of the review says it all:

“ I started this on Monday and hoped to get it out before Tuesday’s election in the US; it was not meant to be. It’s almost impossible for me not to think about this music as a series of reactions to America, and thus to ponder where we find ourselves today. Somehow, EC himself has prepared us for how his music fits into the modern portrait of a cruel, dying country:
Like slogans painted on banners, songs can only offer consolation or the feeling that you are not alone. LIke a banner, they are only useful for as long as there is someone to hold it aloft; then people’s arms get tired, we fold up the tent or the needle slips into the run-out groove.
The real work is hard and it takes a lifetime.”