Watching the Detectives (song)

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"Watching the Detectives"
CostelloWatching.jpg
Single by Elvis Costello
Released14 October 1977 (1977-10-14)
Genre
Length3:45
Label Stiff (UK)/Columbia (US)
Songwriter(s) Elvis Costello
Producer(s) Nick Lowe
Elvis Costello singles chronology
"(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes"
(1977)		"Watching the Detectives"
(1977)		"(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea"
(1978)
Music video
"Watching the Detectives" on YouTube

"Watching the Detectives" is a 1977 single by English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello. Inspired by the Clash and Bernard Herrmann, the song features a reggae beat and cynical lyrics.

Contents

Costello's fourth single overall, "Watching the Detectives" was his first hit single on any national chart, peaking at number 15 in the UK and also charting modestly in Canada and Australia. The song featured on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time at number 363.

Background

The song, with a lyric about a lover who would rather watch TV, sung over a simple reggae beat, [3] was described by Rolling Stone as "a clever but furious burst of cynicism", and they also described the song as "indisputably classic". [4] [5] Allmusic's Mark Deming described the song: "a skeletal minor-key melody that slowly but effectively wound itself into a solid knot of fierce emotional tension, pushing the bitter lyrical atmosphere further into the darkness". [6] Costello described how he wrote the song:

I was in my flat in the suburbs of London before I was a professional musician, and I'd been up for thirty-six hours. I was actually listening to another inductee's record, the Clash's first album. When I first put it on, I thought it was just terrible. Then I played it again and I liked it better. By the end, I stayed up all night listening to it on headphones, and I thought it was great. Then I wrote "Watching the Detectives". [7]

Costello considers "Watching the Detectives" his favourite song from the first five years of his career. [8] He later performed the song with a big band arrangement, which he admitted was "a desecration to people who love the tenseness of the original recording", but explained that "the story that's going on, and the musical allusions in the original arrangements, relate very much to the realization of this song as an orchestral piece using the film music feeling and the swing rhythms of '50s detective shows." [8]

Recording and release

The single, produced by Nick Lowe, was recorded in May 1977. The backing band on the song were Steve Goulding on drums and Andrew Bodnar on bass guitar, both from Graham Parker's band, The Rumour. [9] Keyboard overdubs were added later by Steve Nason (later better-known as Steve Nieve). [9] Costello recalled,

When we did "Watching the Detectives," it was the first record that Steve Nieve played on. He was 19, straight out of the Royal College, and we'd only just met. I said, "This is about detectives, I want a piano thing that sounds like Bernard Herrmann," and, of course, he didn't know what I'm talking about, so I go [makes staccato, sharp sound], and what you hear on the record is this galloping piano thing that rushes the beat and it sounds like one of those sudden jarring gestures that Hermann would use a lot. But we didn't have 19 clarinets or whatever he used [in] Torn Curtain ; we just had a battered upright in an eight-track studio. What you imagine you have to render whether you use a fuzz-tone guitar or a symphony orchestra and everything in between. What learning to write gave me was I did have the choice. Sometimes I still want the fuzz-tone guitar to do that dramatic gesture, sometimes I want a real bass clarinet, not a synthetic sound. [10]

Cash Box said that it has "a subtle reggae beat and a sinister James Bond/Secret Agent guitar." [11]

"Watching the Detectives" was the first top 40 hit in the UK Singles Chart for Costello, reaching number 15 and spending a total of eleven weeks in the chart. [12] It also charted in several other countries including Australia, where it reached number 35, and Canada, where it reached number 60. In the United States it reached number 108 on the Hot 100.

The UK and US singles (released in October and November 1977 respectively) had different B-sides. The UK single was backed by two live tracks from an August 7 performance at the Nashville Club, and these live tracks were credited to Elvis Costello and the Attractions. (This was the first appearance of The Attractions on a record; the A-side is billed solely to Costello.)

The US single is backed by "Alison", the lead track from Costello's second UK single.

The song was also used as the theme for the PBS program History Detectives .[ citation needed ]

Personnel

Track listing

UK Stiff Records release

  1. "Watching the Detectives"
  2. "Blame it on Cain (live)"
  3. "Mystery Dance (live)"

US Columbia Records release

  1. "Watching the Detectives"
  2. "Alison"

Inclusion on albums

The song was not included on the original UK releases of either My Aim Is True , which preceded it, or This Year's Model , which followed in March 1978. It was, however, added to the US release of My Aim Is True (March 1978) and to the Scandinavian release of This Year's Model the same year. [13] Two live versions of "Watching the Detectives" from 1978 were released, one from 6 March on the Canadian promotional album Live at the El Mocambo , and another from 4 June on the Live at Hollywood High EP, which came with initial copies of the Armed Forces album (January 1979). A later live version was included in the Costello & Nieve box-set in 1996. A live medley of "Watching the Detectives" and "My Funny Valentine" recorded in Tokyo was included on the Cruel Smile album by Elvis Costello & the Impostors in 2002. The studio version was also included on several 'best of' compilations of Costello's work, including Ten Bloody Marys & Ten How's Your Fathers (1980, Stiff), The Best of Elvis Costello – The Man (1985, Telstar), Girls Girls Girls (1989, Demon), The Very Best of Elvis Costello and the Attractions (1994, Demon), and The Very Best of Elvis Costello (1999, Universal TV). [12] It was also included on the Argentinian print of This Year's Model in 1978.

Cover versions

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elvis Costello</span> English singer-songwriter (born 1954)

Declan Patrick MacManus, known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television presenter. Per Rolling Stone, Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical traditions of Bob Dylan and Van Morrison with the raw energy and sass that were principal ethics of punk", noting the "construction of his songs, which set densely layered wordplay in an ever-expanding repertoire of styles." His first album, My Aim Is True (1977), is widely regarded as one of the best debuts in popular music history. It spawned no hit singles, but contains some of Costello's best-known songs, including the ballad "Alison". Costello's next two albums, This Year's Model (1978) and Armed Forces (1979), recorded with his backing band the Attractions, helped define the new wave genre. From late 1977 through early 1980, each of the eight singles he released reached the UK Top 30. His biggest hit single, "Oliver's Army" (1979) sold more than 400,000 copies in Britain. He has had more modest commercial success in the US, but has earned much critical praise. From 1977 through the early 2000s, Costello's albums regularly ranked high on the Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll, with This Year's Model and Imperial Bedroom (1982) voted the best album of their respective years. His biggest US hit single, "Veronica" (1989), reached number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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Andrew Bodnar is an English bass player who grew up in Clapham, South London. He and drummer Steve Goulding met and began playing together as a rhythm section while still at school. They spent their teenage years auditioning and busking whenever they could, and were gigging around London with a cajun-influenced band called Bontemps Roulez just prior to forming The Rumour in 1975. Bodnar is probably best known for his membership with Graham Parker and The Rumour (1975-1980), for playing the distinctive reggae-flavored bassline on "Watching the Detectives" by Elvis Costello, and for bass playing and co-writing "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass" by Nick Lowe.

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References

  1. ↑ Canale, Larry (1 November 1986). Digital Audio's Guide to Compact Discs. Bantam Books. p. 34. ISBN   978-0-553-34356-4.
  2. ↑ Bourgoin, Suzanne (9 September 1994). Contemporary Musicians: Profiles of the People in Music. Gale. p. 38. ISBN   978-0-8103-8553-5.
  3. ↑ Larkin, Colin (1998) The Virgin Encyclopedia of Indie & New Wave, Virgin Books, ISBN   0-7535-0231-3, p.101
  4. ↑ "Watching the Detectives – Elvis Costello", Rolling Stone , 9 December 2004
  5. ↑ Conner, Shawn (1999) "Elvis Costello Shows Maturity in Vancouver [ dead link ]", Rolling Stone , 2 June 1999
  6. ↑ Deming, Mark "Elvis Costello – Watching the Detectives", Allmusic , Macrovision Corporation
  7. ↑ Crandall, Bill (2003) "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Elvis Costello [ dead link ]", Rolling Stone, 28 February 2003
  8. 1 2 Harrington, Richard (2006) "Elvis Costello's (Really) Big Band", Washington Post , 14 April 2006
  9. 1 2 Gimarc, George (2005) Punk Diary: The Ultimate Trainspotter's Guide to Underground Rock 1970–1982, ISBN   0-87930-848-6, p.95
  10. ↑ Newman, Melinda (3 January 2018). "Elvis Costello Talks 'Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool' Song, Playing Vegas & Making More Music With Burt Bacharach". Billboard. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  11. ↑ "CashBox Singles Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. 25 February 1978. p. 18. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
  12. 1 2 Strong, Martin C. (2003) The Great Indie Discography, Canongate, ISBN   1-84195-335-0, p.36-39
  13. ↑ Anon. (1978). This Year's Model (LP sleeve notes). Elvis Costello. Scandinavia: Smash Records. SLEPT 2.
  14. ↑ Richardson, Derk (2001) "It's 'Dirty Work,' But Jenna Mammina's Got To Do It: Bay Area jazz vocalist reworks new rock standards", SF Gate , 30 August 2001
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