CostelloNews.com

Subject: Sting/Costello take 2
To: COSTELLO-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM

Here is the longer piece I promised. This is a story that will appear
tomorrow on the website, EW.com (and AOL), in slightly shorter form.

By Chris Willman

A quarter century ago, Sting and Elvis Costello were the leading rivals
for
the hearts of new wave fans. Today, they’re rivals for the votes of
that older
demographic known as Academy members—the motion picture academy, not
the
recording one. Both rockers have tunes from the movie "Cold Mountain"
nominated for
a Best Song Oscar, but unlike the battling factions in that Civil War
drama,
they’re setting aside past differences and making like allies.

Costello even participated in an all-star tribute to Sting at the
annual
MusiCares benefit on the Sony Pictures studio lot in L.A. on Feb. 9,
serenading
the honoree with a ukelele-backed version of "Every Little Thing She
Does is
Magic." This, despite some jabs that a less mellow Elvis had taken at
Sting in
the past, playfully or otherwise. Apparently, the movie’s
beating-swords-into-plowshares message really rubs off.

Says Sting, "I’m especially happy that two songs got nominated from
the
movie—Elvis’s song, too, which is great." Costello also expresses
admiration for
Sting’s contribution, and surprise at the nomination for his own: "It
would have
seemed to be almost a little greedy (to expect) both songs to be
acknowledged." Indeed, Miramax seemed to be prepared for the
possibility that the two
numbers—Sting’s "You Will Be My Ain True Love" and the Costello/T
Bone Burnett
collaboration "The Scarlet Tide," both sung by Allison Krauss on the
soundtrack—would cancel each other out in the voting. The studio
initially took out trade
ads touting both, but after only Sting’s picked up a Golden Globe
nomination,
subsequent "for your consideration" Oscar ads left out mention of the
other.
Academy members found both anyway.

Also nominated in this unusually eclectic category were songs from
"Lord of
the Rings" (cowritten and sung by Annie Lennox), "A Mighty Wind"
(cowritten by
Michael McKean), and "The Triplets of Bellevue." (Left out,
surprisingly, were
several picks from the Globes’ all-rock-star lineup, including themes
from
the likes of Bono, Phil Collins, and Eddie Vedder.) "It’s not just a
B.S.
thing—I’m really proud to be in this company," says Costello. "I
know Annie. [They
dueted on an old Eurythmics record.] I know Sting a little bit, to say
hello
to—to tease. And I know Mike McKean, and I’m really, really
delighted their
song from ‘Mighty Wind’ is in there, because that’s a hell of a
song,
particularly as it works as an [independent] song with a great melody
and also works in
the comedic context of that film." Sting is enjoying the company, too..
"It
is an odd assortment, but I’m very happy with all those other
people," he says.
"Annie’s a friend of mine. And I’m a huge fan of Spinal Tap [McKean
played
David St. Hubbens], so there’s no problem with that for me," he
laughs.

But is Elvis’ relationship with Sting only a "teasing" one? In the
past,
he’s taken some potshots at the former Policeman—first, by name, in
an old song
(1991’s "Hurry Down Doomsday"), then on episodic television (a gag on
"The
Larry Sanders Show"), and, more recently, in comments to the press
after they both
were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. So some fans were a
bit
surprised by Costello's seeming eagerness to sign up for the MusiCares
salute.
What gives?

"He asked!" says Costello. "He wanted me to be there. Now he’s
playing
another game, I think. I think it was a test of my Catholic soul," he
laughs. "Or
his, I’m not sure which. Listen, I’ve got no problem with him.
He’s a good
musician. Not all of his work is to my taste, any more than I’m sure
mine is to
him. But you know, somebody asked me straight out at the Rock & Roll
Hall of
Fame, ‘Were they [the Police] any good?’ I said ‘No, they were
bloody
dreadful.’ And of course he’s bound to get a little riled by that.
But I was speaking
what I perceived as the truth, and he might have had his opinion of my
performance. But you know, there are so many people in the world that
deserve your
disdain and contempt, and almost none of them are musicians. In fact,
none of
them are.

"People make jokes about John Tesh as being like an evil force in the
world,
but it’s overstating something, isn’t it?" says Costello. "Whereas
there are
actually people that are killing other humans. They’re the people
that we have
to hate. There aren’t any musicians that I hate. I never went with
the Pol
Pot approach to punk-rock. The Year Zero idea of music, actually, that
was a
contemptuous idea. All those people who read all those French
philosophers,
Malcolm [McLaren, who created the Sex Pistols] and all those people, I
always
thought that side of punk was a bit suspect. I never went with the idea
that we’re
wiping away the past or that this person is the corporate devil and
this
person is the real artist. They’re real if they mean something to
you, and that’s
all that matters, isn’t it?"

[PAGE BREAK]

Sting’s "Ain True Love" pops up as a motif throughout "Cold
Mountain." "When
he comes out of the battle, she [Krauss] is singing the melody as a
piece of
soundtrack, and I was very proud of that," he says. "I thought,
that’s how I
want to be involved as a songwriter in movies, not as someone stuck on
the end
as a marketing tool, which drives me nuts."

A song with "ain" in the title probably isn’t Top 40-bound—"and why
the hell
not?" Sting demands with a laugh—but don’t let the language baffle
you. He
pleaded with director Anthony Minghella to have a shot at writing a
song for
the movie, "and he said ‘Okay, if you can come up with a song that
fits the
idiom of the movie, both lyrically and musically, then you’re on.’
So I went
away, and I’d seen the movie three times, and what I know about the
history of the
South is that a lot of people were of Irish/Scottish/English descent,"
he
says. "And so to write a sort of archaic folk song as if it had been
written
maybe in a slightly earlier period was my brief. That’s what I did,
with lots of
‘ye’s’ and ‘thee’s’ and muskets and cutlasses and stuff
that seemed arcane
and kind of timeless in a way."

Sting’s composition is very melodic, but also has a chant-like
quality. You
might say that it’s… um… hmmm… "It’s modal," Sting says,
helping us out, with
a laugh. "You can use that."

Costello’s "Scarlet Tide," cowritten by soundtrack producer Burnett,
came
about as a request from the filmmakers, but only after he’d recorded
some of the
same sorts of 19th century standards that the White Stripes’ Jack
White sings
in the movie—all of which ended up on the cutting room floor. "I’d
actually
cut a couple of traditional pieces for possible inclusion, because
obviously
they were trying all sorts of different things to try and establish
this texture
of music," says Costello. "Eventually they came on and said, would we
write a
song with a much more specific brief?" --to summarize the film's theme,
which
he sees as being: "Men mess up the world and women put it back together
again." He and Burnett sat down at a piano in a hotel lobby and banged
out the
haunting ballad. "Because of the fact that Ada’s character [Nicole
Kidman] plays
the piano, I said, because of that, do you think we can have that just
slight
bit more sophistication of it being a piano, because so much of the
other music
had been [period Appalachian] string instrument music?"

Having Krauss doing the singing also makes a difference after all those
hillbilly voices and cat-gut banging. "I knew that I was writing it for
a woman’s
voice, because of the lyrical content," says Sting. "But it was T Bone
who
enlisted Allison, who he’d worked with on ‘O Brother, Where Art
Thou?’ When I
heard the result, I was just thrilled. If anybody was going to call you
back from
hell, it would be that voice."

Still unresolved is how the song nominees will be performed—or
excerpted—at
the Feb. 29 ceremony, and whether Krauss (who just won five more
Grammys at
that telecast) will sing both numbers or get a little help. Says Sting,
"I’ll do
some backup singing [as he does on the soundtrack recording]. I’ll
try to
keep myself down," he laughs. He does allow "I could sing a verse.
We’ll see what
the Oscars want, you know. They’re always pressed for time on that
show. I
think they’re gonna try to get us [all the nominees] to sing together
at some
point, which would be interesting."

Costello definitely doesn’t want to sing lead on the telecast, even
though
he’s been performing "Scarlet Tide" in his own concerts and on talk
shows. "I
don’t think anybody’s gonna get sick of hearing her voice," he
says. "But
somebody did call up yesterday and said would we join the band. If we
can play a
credible part in the arrangement, then that wouldn’t be a bad thing.
I guess it
would be a nice little support to her; with a singer who hasn’t got a
dance
routine, it could look a bit lonely out there on that big stage. Having
played
the Kodak, I know you could have a lot of dancing girls on that stage."

Costello even has an idea for how to turn his "Cold Mountain"
contribution
into a quasi-production number: "Maybe I could have my leg strapped up
my back,
with a crutch and an eyepatch and an old tattered (Civil War) uniform,
and
play the fife in the background." Debbie Allen, check your messages!