Passion Is No Ordinary Word

Sometimes I just get a line from a song stuck in my head. Fortunately, they tend to be good lines from good songs, so it's generally not a bad thing. Today's comes from a song by Graham Parker Ambiguous and goes, "the meek shall inherit the Earth from their friends the scum." Though I've liked that turn of phrase since I first heard the album the song comes from, Don't Tell Columbus, it initially struck me as almost a throwaway shot from Parker, whose jabs may not be quite as cleverly worded as his contemporary Elvis Costello but frequently bite just as hard. However, when I think about the tone that the Republican nomination campaign has taken and the undercurrent of self-righteous Bible-thumping that's infused it, especially from Rick Santorum, those words from five years ago feel a little sharper and a bit less funny, which is probably why they're sticking in my head now. As skilled as Parker is at envisioning the most dishonest and hypocritical of human behavior, I have no idea if he envisioned anything like the current climate when he wrote those words, but their continued relevance is just another reminder for fans like me of how enduring his songs are.

The Square Root of Elvis Costello?

Sometimes as a fan of a particular artist, there are things you know about them that are simply there and only come into full focus many years later. Among the most famous comments Costello ever put on record was in an early interview where he said main motivations were revenge and guilt.

Listening to the song God Give Me Strength today finally made that quote something more than an abstract fact of his biography. The key moment is the lyric, "Maybe I was washed out like a lip-print on a shirt. See I'm only human, I want him to hurt."

Hearing Costello sing those lines and the way his voice wrenches every bit of anger and pain out of those words, it's clear that he understands the darker sides of human feelings. As much as I admire his wordplay and the craft that enables him to go from torch-songs to rock to bluegrass, that understanding is where his true greatness lies.