{"id":23972,"date":"2015-06-01T16:07:08","date_gmt":"2015-06-02T00:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/?p=23972"},"modified":"2015-06-01T16:07:08","modified_gmt":"2015-06-02T00:07:08","slug":"the-great-songs-elvis-costellos-motel-matches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/2015-06\/the-great-songs-elvis-costellos-motel-matches\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Songs&#8211;Elvis Costello&#8217;s &#8220;Motel Matches&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/4cd0160524db1cab2f85d484123016566a381c6f.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-23973\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/4cd0160524db1cab2f85d484123016566a381c6f.jpg\" alt=\"4cd0160524db1cab2f85d484123016566a381c6f\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/4cd0160524db1cab2f85d484123016566a381c6f.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/4cd0160524db1cab2f85d484123016566a381c6f-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/4cd0160524db1cab2f85d484123016566a381c6f-400x400.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Elvis Costello<\/strong> is one of the greatest singer-songwriters extant.\u00a0 His discography soundly shames most of the other pretenders to the throne.\u00a0 Though he got his start ostensibly as a &#8220;punk,&#8221; this ruse was quickly routed, and it wasn&#8217;t long before critics and fans alike were lauding his songwriting skills.\u00a0 Though his great songs are too numerous to list, following our stay over the weekend at a Los Angeles motel\/hotel we have had <strong>Costello&#8217;s<\/strong> underrated song-noir masterpiece, <em><strong>Motel Matches<\/strong><\/em>, on repeat.\u00a0 Featuring an alluring melody, well-wrought lyrical couplets and storyline (lyrics at bottom), stellar playing, and above all, <strong>Costello&#8217;s<\/strong> passionate vocal delivery (he&#8217;s one of our best vocalists), <em><strong>Motel Matches<\/strong><\/em> is amongst the highest in our ranking of Costello&#8217;s great songs.\u00a0 We only regret it isn&#8217;t longer.\u00a0 Giving you away like motel matches.\u00a0 Indeed.<\/p>\n<p>About the song, <strong>Costello has said<\/strong>:\u00a0 \u201cUpon my first motel night in Los Angeles I was hoaxed into believing that I had been assigned the very room where Sam Cooke had been murdered. I didn&#8217;t sleep much until I found out in the morning that it had occurred in an entirely different location. Such innocence was short-lived, but the infamous Tropicana became the site of many less serious crimes, indiscretions and comedies.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uJHvSAsQQQo\" width=\"625\" height=\"425\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Somewhere in the distance I can hear &#8216;Who Shot Sam?&#8217;<br \/>\nThis is my conviction, that I am an innocent man<br \/>\nThough you say I&#8217;m unkind<br \/>\nI&#8217;m being as nice as I can<\/p>\n<p>Boys everywhere, fumbling with the catches<br \/>\nI struck lucky with motel matches<br \/>\nFalling for you without a second look<br \/>\nFalling out of your open pocketbook<br \/>\nGiving you away like motel matches<\/p>\n<p>I wake with the siren in an emergency<br \/>\nThough your mind is full of love<br \/>\nIn your eyes there is a vacancy<br \/>\nAnd you know what I&#8217;ll do<br \/>\nWhen the light outside changes from red to blue<\/p>\n<p>Boys everywhere, fumbling with the catches<br \/>\nI struck lucky with motel matches<br \/>\nFalling for you without a second look<br \/>\nFalling out of your open pocketbook<br \/>\nGiving you away like motel matches&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elvis Costello is one of the greatest singer-songwriters extant.\u00a0 His discography soundly shames most of the other pretenders to the throne.\u00a0 Though he got his start ostensibly as a &#8220;punk,&#8221; this ruse was quickly routed, and it wasn&#8217;t long before critics and fans alike were lauding his songwriting skills.\u00a0 Though his great songs are too [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23972"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23976,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23972\/revisions\/23976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}