Today’s slow drag is with “Clown Strike” from “Brutal Youth,” released in 1994. 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, “Clown Strike”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Clown_Strike

“Clown Strike”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0zbZDn7juc

“Elvis Costello The Gwendolyn Letters (demos): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQieshbrzpI

Erik Jorgensen background: joergensen.aspx">https://www.fredericia.com/stories/erik-joergensen.aspx

Flamingo Chair: https://www.danishdesignstore.com/products/ej205-flamingo-chair-by-erik-jorgensen

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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

"Clown Strike" Lyrics

She'll fix you with an iron cross

And cover you up with petals

And hang you up with some amber beads

And four or five precious metals

And in that black flamingo chair you'll sit among her trophies

And pray to be abandoned 'til you don't know what hope is

 

(Chorus:)

But there's one thing

That I had to keep inside because I was shaking

Why don't you get some pride?

There was a clown strike

And the clowns threw down their tools

But you don't have to play so hard

And I'm nobody's fool

You don't have to go so far

‘Cos I love you as you are

 

The big top is deserted now and the circus girl rehearses

She knows how to turn their heads and not fall between two horses

But all that seems a simple step, if only I were able

To love you like I want to do

And not by some times-table

 

(Repeat Chorus)

 

And it's pandemonium

For the humble and the mighty

You don't have to tumble for me

Even a clown knows when to strike

 

Tell me what you want of me

Or are you terrified of failure

Put on a superstitious face behind all this paraphernalia

We're not living in a masquerade where you only have three wishes

It isn't easy to see in a lifetime of mistaken kisses

 

(Repeat Chorus)

 

And it's pandemonium

For the humble and the mighty

You don't have to tumble for me

Even a clown knows when to strike