Like A Matador With His Pork Sword

Columbia recording artist Bob Dylan has a new book out, The Philosophy of Modern Song, which appears to be part stream-of-consciousness ramble and part “old man yells at clouds.” But, y’know, fascinating.  

The Elvis Costello chapter covers “Pump It Up,” and it’s a sensational read; I could quote the whole damn thing. "This song has a lot of defects, but it knows how to conceal them all,” Dylan says, in perhaps the most legendary example of “damning with faint praise” yet written. 

I guess he’s not wrong? Maybe? “Pump It Up” is about as subtle as a tack hammer hitting your thumb, all thundering blues chords churning like food poisoning around lyrics that seem bound and determined to approach sex as unerotically as possible. None of it matters much. The total exceeds the sum of its parts. What Dylan might dismiss as “concealing defects” is really Costello reaching beyond the then-current state of punk and new wave and yanking in any number of additional influences, all filtered through his unique point of view. 

I thought of this quote as I was pondering “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” from EC’s 1986 record Blood and Chocolate. You can call it a gift for “concealing defects,” or you can flip the rock over and find a brilliant songwriter working at the top of his craft within the genre limitations of a “fuck you” song. 

I’ve always loved Costello’s description of Blood and Chocolate, “a pissed-off thirty-two year old divorcee’s version of This Year’s Model.” If EC and the Attractions had spent the years since Model carefully backing away from revenge and guilt, then Blood and Chocolate finds them jumping back into the mud. Costello was dealing with the breakup of his marriage and his band at the same time; where else could he go? 

“I Hope You’re Happy Now” may be the platonic ideal of an Elvis Costello song, like if Weird Al did one of those stylistic parodies of an EC tune, he might write this. But it’s not a dulled blade; it’s as sharp in its way as any of the other Elvis Costello songs that Elvis Costello wrote before it or since. 

When you hear EC tackle any number of stylistic shifts, or write with tender observations, or sing in a voice that seems to channel every mercy bestowed upon God’s green earth—all of it makes something like this that much more remarkable. It’s not that he ever turned away from revenge and guilt; those childish playthings are always within reach, and he can tap into their potent toe-tapping capabilities on command.

Stream the song on the service of your choice.