Occapella

This piece was written in 2015 for a now-defunct arts publication. It starts with bass and drums. Three notes on the bass and then repeated with the same three notes. The drums are in lock-step with the bass. The first five seconds of the song could be looped for a 15 minute song resulting inContinue reading “Occapella”

Deep Dark Truthful Mirror

In 1983, Elvis Costello was invited to record a song as part of a tribute album celebrating the 50th birthday of Yoko Ono. The song that Costello decided to tackle was 1981’s “Walking on Thin Ice,” an arresting and engaging dance track by Ono that sounds like a shotgun marriage between the desperate feel ofContinue reading “Deep Dark Truthful Mirror”

The Lovers That Never Were: The Paul McCartney & Elvis Costello Demos

In 1987, Paul McCartney invited Elvis Costello to write songs together. Over a series of sessions, they created a body of work from which both artists pulled selections for various albums over the years. The songs written by this partnership were used to augment their own individual work, filling in cracks when either member neededContinue reading “The Lovers That Never Were: The Paul McCartney & Elvis Costello Demos”