• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

All hail the time of the bunny!

Trump should be leading, not lying.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Mobile Menu

  • 4 Directions VA 2025 Raffle
  • 2025 Activism
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Open Threads / Welcome to the Working Week

Welcome to the Working Week

by @heymistermix.com|  November 29, 20119:19 am| 23 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

FacebookTweetEmail

Here’s a little Declan MacManus for an open thread. The first song is the first track of the first Elvis Costello album, and it clocked in at 1:22. Good songs don’t need to be long.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « I Want to Bite the Hand That Feeds Me
Next Post: Fare You Well, Congressman Frank »

Reader Interactions

23Comments

  1. 1.

    geg6

    November 29, 2011 at 9:21 am

    Oh gawd, mm. I’m gonna be singing Elvis all day now. In my head, just to spare those around me. ;-)

    The only worse choice (for those who must listen to my singing) would be if you had two threads with the Clash going. I’d be in ecstasies.

  2. 2.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    November 29, 2011 at 9:31 am

    Good songs don’t need to be long.

    Tell that to the Flaming Lips.

  3. 3.

    Rosalita

    November 29, 2011 at 9:31 am

    @geg6: Rock the casbah!

  4. 4.

    J Frank Parnell

    November 29, 2011 at 9:34 am

    “My Aim is True” has a fantastic sing-along quotient.

  5. 5.

    geg6

    November 29, 2011 at 9:40 am

    And for your listening pleasure, the infamous SNL “Radio, Radio” performance (can’t embed, but can link only because NBC is a bunch of douches):

    http://videosift.com/video/Elvis-Costello-Radio-Radio-SNL

  6. 6.

    J Frank Parnell

    November 29, 2011 at 9:47 am

    @geg6: Fantastic – makes me hate Lorne Michaels all over again!

  7. 7.

    geg6

    November 29, 2011 at 9:50 am

    @J Frank Parnell:

    Heh.

    I remember watching this when it happened. Made me love Elvis all the more.

  8. 8.

    Lex

    November 29, 2011 at 9:51 am

    Best first lines of best first song of best debut album EVAR.

    (Pretenders’ “Precious” is second-best first song of debut album ever.)

    And I know I’m dating myself when I say this, but I, too, watched that “SNL” performance. Rocked my world harder than anything since CCR’s “Fortunate Son.”

    Let the arguing commence. ;-)

  9. 9.

    Ordovician Bighorn Dolomite (formerly rarely seen poster Fe E)

    November 29, 2011 at 10:05 am

    I dunno, I have a lot of respect for Elvis Costello–bioth as a perfomer and a person, but calling this a “song” is sort of stretching it. It’s pretty much poetry with unconnected chords and no real rhythymic flow going on at the same time.

    I fully understand that I am in the minority, but I think I’d have preferred this as a spoken word thing.

  10. 10.

    Mnemosyne

    November 29, 2011 at 10:40 am

    This is the ringtone on my phone and has been for a year or so. (Unless G calls me, in which case it’s “Wonderboy.”) But, then, I love me some Costello. I noticed the “King of America” reference the other day but the thread was too long to point it out by the time I was online.

  11. 11.

    Mnemosyne

    November 29, 2011 at 11:04 am

    @Ordovician Bighorn Dolomite (formerly rarely seen poster Fe E):

    It’s kind of funny that you say that, because when Dave Edmunds did a cover of Costello’s “Girls Talk,” he added in an extra repeat of the chorus. So clearly you’re not the only one thinking, “Dude, too short!” about Costello’s early songs.

    ETA: Sorry, listening again I think Edmunds added a repeat of the first verse, not a repeat of the chorus. But I have no musical talent whatsoever, so I get these things confused.

  12. 12.

    canuckistani

    November 29, 2011 at 11:05 am

    Declan MacManus? The notorious art thief?

  13. 13.

    burnspbesq

    November 29, 2011 at 11:06 am

    I’d say that Mr. McManus mostly passed his sell-by date around 1985. Except for a couple of interesting curiosities (the album with Anne-Sofie von Otter, and the album of Burt Bacharach songs), the fire’s been out.

    His principal function now is to keep his lovely and uber-talented bride happy. She’s still making good records.

  14. 14.

    Mnemosyne

    November 29, 2011 at 11:36 am

    @burnspbesq:

    Feeling trollish today, are we?

    You’re just cranky because Costello re-formed the Attractions without Bruce Thomas.

  15. 15.

    (another) Josh

    November 29, 2011 at 11:57 am

    Hey, let’s play “When did [Elvis Costello/Lou Reed/John Lennon/Samuel Delany] start going downhill!” Or not.

  16. 16.

    burnspbesq

    November 29, 2011 at 12:06 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    Feeling trollish today, are we?

    Only on days that end in y, and only in response to abject stupidity or foolish deification. Look, the guy’s a perfectly adequate pop singer-songwriter, but let’s not treat him like he was Bach or Coltrane.

  17. 17.

    piratedan

    November 29, 2011 at 1:11 pm

    @Mnemosyne: and EC supposedly loathed Dave interpretation of his song as he sped it up, much like EC did to Lowe’s What’s So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding?. I listen to all three artists and don’t worry about it while I enjoy the music.

    @burnspbesq: for that timeframe of 77 to 85 he was prolific and his sound and attitude helped define a generation and fronted a movement in popular music. For my generation, he was our Bach or our Coltrane.

  18. 18.

    Mnemosyne

    November 29, 2011 at 1:29 pm

    @piratedan:

    I can believe it — no one ever said Costello isn’t a prickly asshole, especially back when he was still drinking heavily. Though he can’t have hated it that much since he, Edmunds and Lowe kept working together throughout the 1980s.

    I have an old interview with him from the mid-90s where he jokes about the “curse of Costello” and claims that everyone who’s done a cover of one of his songs has had their career ruined.

  19. 19.

    Mnemosyne

    November 29, 2011 at 1:31 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    Yes, all us damn kids should get off your lawn for thinking that pop music doesn’t have to be mindless Katy Perry crap.

  20. 20.

    Monte Davis

    November 29, 2011 at 1:52 pm

    Costello had to outgrow Lowe, but damn if the first four albums didn’t show everything power pop ought to be, with memorable lyrics as sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet frosting

  21. 21.

    Nellcote

    November 29, 2011 at 2:18 pm

    Oh please let this be Elvis Costello theme week!

    And I love “Juliet Letters” w/Brodsky String Quartet.

  22. 22.

    NobodySpecial

    November 30, 2011 at 12:46 am

    @Ordovician Bighorn Dolomite (formerly rarely seen poster Fe E): Funnily enough, the definition of ‘song’ stretches to cover even stuff that doesn’t rhyme. (examples: Chicago’s “Colour My World” and Crowded House’s “World Where You Live”). Plus, you know, stuff like Eddie Cochran’s “Twenty Flight Rock”, which clocked in at right around 1:48.

    Just sayin’.

  23. 23.

    Ordovician Bighorn Dolomite (formerly rarely seen poster Fe E)

    November 30, 2011 at 2:37 pm

    @NobodySpecial:

    Okay, okay, I’ll come clean: I don’t really have a problem with calling this a “song” becasue of it’s structure, I just really, really hate it.

    I was just trying to thread a needle where I could throw a little water on the adulation without just pointlessly pissing people off. I knowm, I know, that’s not what the internet is for, but it is kind of my style.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - twbrandt - Belle Isle, Detroit, Michigan 7
Image by twbrandt (7/18/25)
Donate

Recent Comments

  • ArchTeryx on GOP in Disarray Open Thread: CVI Is the New Phlebitis (Jul 18, 2025 @ 4:12pm)
  • Omnes Omnibus on GOP in Disarray Open Thread: CVI Is the New Phlebitis (Jul 18, 2025 @ 4:11pm)
  • Bupalos on GOP in Disarray Open Thread: CVI Is the New Phlebitis (Jul 18, 2025 @ 4:11pm)
  • gene108 on GOP in Disarray Open Thread: CVI Is the New Phlebitis (Jul 18, 2025 @ 4:10pm)
  • H.E.Wolf on GOP in Disarray Open Thread: CVI Is the New Phlebitis (Jul 18, 2025 @ 4:07pm)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
No Kings Protests June 14 2025

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!