submissions
| Leonard Cohen – First We Take Manhattan Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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"Global Jewish Banking????" Really????
It's a slap at the art/fashion/music scene of the late 80s. Manhattan and Berlin being the "hipsters' paradises" that exemplified the empty, fashionista, Warholesque, Studio 54 scenes that Cohen is antithetical to. This is Cohen's FU to Dieter from SNL -- he's coming back with actual substance and fashion is going to get its butt kicked. THe way to "stop him" is to go beyond shallow trendy pop...but they didn't and still don't have the discipline. |
submissions
| Elvis Costello – (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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oh, and re: questions about whether or not the song refers to the chelsea hotel directly, of course it does..."even though I've seen the movie" refers to Warhol's film "Chelsea Girls" set there. |
submissions
| Elvis Costello – (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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This song is pretty clearly Elvis' slap in the face to the art/fashion/modeling scene:
Fancy tricks = models, last year's model = last season's "it girl", chelsea hotel reference = slap at the famous and fabulous exemplified by Warhol's gang, etc.
The line that gets misunderstood, I think, is "they call her Natasha when she looks like Elsie." Elsie is a typical rural, girl-next-door, wholesome beauty's name (think the publican's daughter) -- the American equivalent might be Becky Sue (or Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island). So the rural natural beauty can't cut it in the fashion world, which has to make her into an "exotic" manufactured product -- "Natasha" -- to make its money. |
submissions
| Elvis Costello – (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I agree about the models/Chelsea girls connection. I've always thought that the song was about the manufactured "superstars" of the art scene, the self and other deception, and the pretentiousness of the "scene". To me, "call her Natasha when she looks like Elsie" always meant taking an ordinary girl (Elsie is a pretty common old-fashioned rural English name) and trying to "reinvent her" as an exotic model (Natasha). TO me, this song has always been a warning about getting involved in and an indictment of the "art scene." |
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