Today’s slow drag is with “Chewing Gum,” from “Spike,” released in 1989. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello’s birth name.

Show Notes:

Appreciation written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson, MA/MFA

Twitter: https://twitter.com/slowdragremedy

Email: slowdragwithremedy@gmail.com

Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com

Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag

References:

Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Chewing Gum”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Chewing_Gum

“Chewing Gum”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh-tbg_0ZIY

“Rock n’ Roll: Here’s Where the Name Came From”: https://sparkfiles.net/rock-roll-origins-phrase/

“Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis”: 9-sapir.htm">http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~johnca/spch100/4-9-sapir.htm

“Language, thought, and color: Whorf was half right”: https://www1.icsi.berkeley.edu/~kay/tics2.pdf

“Chewing Gum” Explanation from the Elvis Wiki page: http://www.elviscostello.info/faq/lyrics.php

Purchase “The Most Terrible Time in My Life…Ends Thursday” https://www.amazon.com/Most-Terrible-Time-Life-Thursday-ebook/dp/B07XLXS5PL/ref=sr_1_1?crid=Y4SGCT62WPEK&dchild=1&keywords=the+most+terrible+time+in+my+life+ends+thursday&qid=1608873405&sprefix=The+Most+Terrible+Time+in+%2Caps%2C195&sr=8-1

"Chewing Gum" Lyrics: 

With their cardboard hands by their sides, here's a naked man and lady

And they're yours to cut out and keep and you can dress them up maybe

They don't know just who they are, or who they're supposed to be

You can make them happy or sad or assume their identity

 

So here they are in the departure lounge, it's the "Gateway to the East"

She is just another mail-order bride, she doesn't know he's a kinky beast

Now he gives her a picture of Maradona and child

She wants to "roll and rock"

As he spills his beer over her

Bumps and grinds as he repeats "Bangkok"

 

(Chorus:)

There must be something that is better than this

It starts with a slap and ends with a kiss

Begins with you bawling and it ends up in tears

Oh, my little one, take that chewing gum out of your ears

 

She might as well be in the jungle, she might as well be on the moon

He's away on a business trip in Dusseldorf, and she's becoming immune

To the lack of glamour and danger in the West-German city today

The nearest she comes to the "Dynasty" life he promised her

Is a Chinese takeaway

(Repeat Chorus)

And though he only taught her three little words

It doesn't matter if they're dirty or clean

He can only control what they look like

He can never possess what they mean

 

So, he wants to whisper in her ear

All the shrinking nothingness

Something always comes between them

I wonder if you can guess 

(Repeat Chorus)