elvis costello, the empire of the e chord, and a magic moment or two

Abstract

the phrase ‘this magic moment’ recurs throughout elvis costello's ‘it’s time' (1996). an allusion to pop history – the drifter's ‘this magic moment’ (1960) – is thus used in the service of a fatalistic narrative that manages to evoke both the ‘revenge and guilt’ famously associated with costello's early career and the early 1960's romanticism of brill building pop. the musical ‘magic moment’ of the song arrives in a ringing e major chord at the end of the chorus, played in open position on the electric guitar. the use of this e major chord references another line of pop music history, one that stretches back to the formation of ‘folk-rock’ in the mid-1960s. this paper serves as an example of how one song creates a series of magic moments that resonate densely with simultaneous histories.

Gender, genius and rock and roll in‘Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night’

“…Costello differs from Orbison, though, in that his outsider status vis à vis the pop mainstream has been reinforced by comparatively meagre record sales throughout his career. Brackett characterises Costello as a 'cult figure despite flirtations with mass popularity' (Brackett 2005), while the Oxford Encyclopedia of Popular Music describes his music as 'brave yet commercially ignored' ('Costello, Elvis' n.d.). Costello's musical 'bravery' is a further Orbison parallel, in that he has been described in both popular biographies and academic writing as pursuing an anti-rock and roll high art aesthetic, manifest in his preference for 'formal sophistication' and 'complexity' (Brackett 1995, p. 198), or more simply his insatiable 'appetite for musical discovery' (Thomson 2004, p. 313).…”

Allusion and Influence in Elvis Costello

“…Franklin Bruno (2005: 56-57) spots a connection between 'Oliver's Army' and 'Don't Worry Baby' by the Beach Boys, at the level of musical phrasing: during the verses, four bars of tonic followed by two bars each of subdominant and dominant, as well as the connecting link between verse and chorus. David Brackett (2005) has an imaginative study of 'It's Time' (All This Useless Beauty) that links elements of the song to past models: the words 'this magic moment' to a song recorded by the Drifters in 1960, and the plagal cadence at 1'42 of Costello's record to several carefully-examined aspects of records by the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Neil Young. This is a firmly intertextual approach, by Elam's definition, using Costello's song as a springboard for a kind of music-cultural history.…”