Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
Watching the Detectives (1977)
Elvis Costello has been one of the most interesting rock artists going since the late 1970s. I've already featured a more obscure song of his from the late '80s, but as this series winds down, I wanted to highlight one of his greatest.
The artist formerly known as Declan McManus first started playing in a folk-rock band called Rusty in 1972 in Liverpool, England. The following year, he moved to London and playing club gigs as Declan Costello; later in 1973, he formed a pub rock act called Flip City that played around town for a few years.
He signed with Stiff Records in 1976 and was teamed with Clover, an American country-rock band, as his backing band (some of the members went to form Huey Lewis and the News). They recorded his first album, My Aim is True, in January 1977, but it wasn't released until July. Costello then left his job as a computer operator and set about picking a touring band; he already had chosen drummer Pete Thomas and then held auditions for a bassist and keyboardist. Steve Goulding and Andrew Bodnar, rhythm section of the Rumour (Graham Parker's band) helped with the auditions to see how those trying out would sound as part of a band.
Costello picked Bruce Thomas on bass (no relation to Pete) and Steve Nason (later to go by Steve Nieve) on keyboards and called the band the Attractions. But while he was hanging out with Goulding and Bodnar, Costello had them help him put together a new song he wrote after listening to the Clash's new debut album. "Watching the Detectives" was also inspired by film composer Bernard Herrmann's moody scores for Hitchcock movies. The combination of a reggae beat, eerie keyboards and cynical lyrics, which were spit out by a sneering Costello about a couple who are arguing while the woman is watching a detective show on TV.
"Nice girls, not one with a defect/Cellophane shrink-wrapped, so correct/Red dogs under illegal legs/She looks so good that he gets down and begs/She is watching the detectives/Ooh, he's so cute/She is watching the detectives/When they shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot/They beat him up until the teardrops start/But he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart."
The song was released as a non-album single in October 1977 in the U.K. and it hit #15 on the Singles Chart. It was added to the U.S. release of My Aim is True but only got to #108.
"Long shot at that jumping sign/Invisible shivers running down my spine/Cut to baby taking off her clothes/Close up of the sign that says, 'We never close'/He snatched at you and you match his cigarette/She pulls the eyes out with a face like a magnet/I don't know how much more of this I can take/She's filing her nails while they're dragging the lake."
Goulding's pounding drums are in the forefront as Costello and Bodnar provide the jagged reggae sound and James Bond guitar; Nieve overdubbed the appropriately sinister sounding organ and piano. The third verse is filled with the lyrical viciousness that Costello would become known for.
"You think you're alone until you realize you're in it/Now fear is here to stay, love is here for a visit/They call it instant justice when it's past the legal limit/Someone's scratching at the window; I wonder who is it?/The detectives come to check if you belong to the parents/Who are ready to hear the worst/About their daughter's disappearance/Though it nearly took a miracle to get you to stay/It only took my little fingers to blow you away."
My Aim is True hit #14 in the U.K. and #32 in the U.S., getting critical raves. Costello and the Attractions played Saturday Night Live in December 1977, earning a ban from SNL producer Lorne Michaels after they unexpectedly pivoted during the live broadcast and played the unreleased song "Radio Radio."
Costello went on to have a long, successful and interesting career with lots of creative twists and turns along the way. He's still at it, but "Watching the Detectives" remains one of his greatest songs.
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