For me, discovering this show was like someone handing me a book and saying, "Robert B. Parker wrote this series around this character named Spenser. Why don't you give it a try?"
I heard about this show ages ago. I've had it on my Instant Streaming queue for a few weeks. Yesterday, I wanted to watch somewhile on my lunch break, and just on a lark, I thought I'd try this show out. I picked the episode that featured my childhood hero, my first LP, the singer that I found both swoony and profound, James Taylor.
I was blown away by this show. I was surprised by Elvis Costello's interviewing skills. If JT was my go-to musician in my adolescence, Elvis Costello was the musician who pulled me out of the disco morass that had defined my college existence until he showed up. I could see he was really smart. I identified with his anger. I appreciated his work. Every day before I went to my crappy summer job, I would play "Welcome to the Working Week" at full volume before having to leave my apartment. It seemed to really help.
But now we're all older, and here's Elvis, being so thoughtful, sitting back and watching James perform with such caring eyes, harmonizing with him on George Jones and Everly Brothers tunes. Yes, they sing George Jones and Everly Brothers tunes, and they talk about Bing Crosby and hymnal compositions and a Carole King song that I had never heard before that was a cotextual and compositional sequel to "Under the Boardwalk," even though she didn't write that song. They speak with multisyllabic words. The conversation takes surprising turns. The only mystery to me is why I wasn't moved to watch this earlier.
You have to understand. When I was in college I graduated magna cum laude with a double major in French and in English, but what I really studied at school was music. I was a freeform d.j. at the college radio station, all ninety watts of it, perfectly clear if you were on a certain side of the street on campus. But that didn't matter. What mattered was hearing all of these different songs and thinking about how they connected up with each other. When I finally watched this show, I thought, I knew Elvis Costello was a kindred spirit back then, and looky here now, he is again, but in a different way.
This is a music geek lover's paradise. It would be hard to get better than this. I am so thrilled that there is so much of this to see and hear.
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