098 :: It's A Legitimate Expense :: A Slow Drag with "Episode of Blonde"

07/08/2022 18 min
098 :: It's A Legitimate Expense :: A Slow Drag with "Episode of Blonde"

Listen "098 :: It's A Legitimate Expense :: A Slow Drag with "Episode of Blonde""

Episode Synopsis

Today's slow drag is with "Episode of Blonde" from "When I Was Cruel," released in April, 2002. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello. Show Notes: Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy Email: [email protected] Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag References: Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, "Episode of Blonde": http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Episode_Of_Blonde "Episode of Blonde": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoGCWtp4UIY Main Wiki Resource, "Peroxide Side" Blunt Cut: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruel_Smile "Peroxide Side" (Blunt Cut): http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Episode_Of_Blonde "Un Chien Andalou," (The Andalusian Dog) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB7gd_t6WMQ "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorless_green_ideas_sleep_furiously "Governing English: Prescriptivism, Descriptivism, and Change" https://exhibits.lib.ku.edu/exhibits/show/english-language/governing-english "Skittles – History and Useful Information" https://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Skittles.htm Purchase "The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday" https://www.amazon.com/Most-Terrible-Time-Life-Thursday-ebook/dp/B07XLXS5PL/ref=sr_1_1?crid=Y4SGCT62WPEK&dchild=1&keywords=the+most+terrible+time+in+my+life+ends+thursday&qid=1608873405&sprefix=The+Most+Terrible+Time+in+%2Caps%2C195&sr=8-1   "Episode of Blonde" Lyrics: I spy for the "Spirit of Curiosity" All the scandals of each vain monstrosity I gossip and I pry and I insinuate If the failure is great Then it tends to fascinate   A tornado dropped a funnel cloud with twenty tons of rain Though she had the attention span of warm cellophane Her lovers fell like Skittles in a 10-pin bowling lane But nothing could compare with that explosion of fame   So you jumped back with alarm Every Elvis has his army Every rattlesnake its charm Can you still hear me? Am I coming through just fine? Your memory was buried in simple box of pine   (chorus): Did her green eyes seduce you and make you get so weak? Was there fire engine red that she left upon your cheek? It's such a shame you had to break the heart you could have counted on But the last thing you need is another episode of blonde   Revolving like a jeweller's figure on a music box The spangled curtain parted and night-club scene unlocks Pinned and fixed and fastened in a fallow spot Arms thrown out to everyone, she's giving all she's got To the last gasp of a wounded bandoneon A tiny man imploring to the ceiling fan this stolen feeling Amplified up through a busted speaker Blaring, blasting, advertising, distorted beyond reason Into the street where petty crime-coats shadow panic drunkards Half out of the taxi-cab the barker seized my elbow He thought I was another lonely, likely pilgrim looking for St. Telmo    (chorus)   I tried to keep a straight face but you know it never pays He would stare into those eyes and then vacation in her gaze She was a cute little ruin that he pulled out of the rubble Now they're both living in a soft soap bubble   The film producer's contemplating, entertaining suicide The picture crumpled in his fist, his runaway child bride The timepiece stretched across his wrist She couldn't care less cast aside The scent that so repelled him that he swore: "insecticide" And there's farewell note to mother That will conclude "Your loving Son" "Oh, tell your other children not to do as I have done"   Did her green eyes seduce you and make you get so weak? Or was there fire engine red that she left upon your cheek? It's such a shame It's such a shame, shame, shame A shame you had to break the heart you could have counted on But the last thing you need Is the last thing you want Is another episode of blonde It's another episode of blonde, oh oh oh It's another episode of blonde   So an artist drags a toothbrush across the first thing that he sees And names the painting "Christ's Last Exit into Purgatory" Receiving secret messages from an alien intelligence And Paying off his stalker it's a legitimate expense So paste up pictures of those shrill and hollow girls with puckered lips She's a trophy on your arm, a magnet for your money clip The moral of this story is a sorry tale to say They're pieced with links of chains so they can never run away

More episodes of the podcast Slow Drag with Remedy :: An Elvis Costello Appreciation