Chords for Elvis Costello & Questlove in Conversation Part 2 "The Elephant in the Room"
Tempo:
122.5 bpm
Chords used:
C
G
F
Cm
Ab
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[C] Rise [F] up, [Cm] when you're gonna [C] rise up, rise [F]
up ghost.
[Ab] I guess in the last month or so, a lot of time on my hands, and I decided to eBay purchase practically the entire [G]
Rolling Stone periodicals from like 76 down [N] to about 89.
So I have about a decade's worth of Rolling Stone back in that back room that I've been researching.
And the funny thing is, every time I come across a record review of yours or an article of yours, I really had no idea that you
Like, you're one of the most user-friendly cats I know, but apparently your image was extremely standoffish and angry.
Yeah.
Was that you going through growing pains or was that
Maybe a bit of both.
A calculated, like, okay.
A bit of both.
I think one thing is that like, now we read the books about Elvis Presley, everybody blames Colonel Tom as a
Colonel Tom kinda, he kinda ruined Elvis.
But you know what?
He maybe knew what this guy could do and what he couldn't do, and he created like a barrier around him.
And then he was insecure and he had all these people around him all the time.
And you come on to the next generation, there was all these managers out of England that renamed all the singers and they Malcolm McConaughey.
And people like Malcolm McLaren had the pistols, Bernie Rhodes had a big lot to do with the way the Clash were perceived.
And then when they got out ahead of all of that stuff, and the same was true of me, I had a very confrontational manager.
And it kind of encouraged me to kind of live that out a little bit, to my detriment sometimes.
So I lived it out because I was insecure.
I was young and I didn't really
I was kinda confident in my abilities.
I was one very socially confident.
I was actually quite shy.
So being
appearing to be difficult and uncommunicative.
And also, I came at a kind of a divide between a new way of writing about music and the old way of writing about pop music where you
I had a guy come in and interview me for the Daily Mirror, the very first time I ever appeared in a tabloid newspaper.
And the guy came in and he was like something out of Central Carson.
He had a stained raincoat on and he had a ring, you know, notepad and a cigarette with a big plume of ash on it.
And he was like, so
You know, it was like
it had to be like some salacious story.
Then I went, listen, we've just played like six club dates.
There aren't any girls, you know.
So whatever you're dreaming, we're just trying to get our songs across.
No one believes in the working class musician.
Yeah, and there'd be
there's always that thing going on backstage.
There's always gotta be this party.
And then sooner or later, it is a party of some kind.
There's some sort of misbehavior going on back there.
So I think it was just easier not to talk.
And that gave that impression.
And then, you know, you say a few buzzword things in a couple of interviews that resonate.
And the next thing, that's, you know, I have
I'll be in an interview now with a sort of like French journalist or something and he's read Wikipedia.
So he kind of goes, so you are all about
you are all about revenge and guilt.
I go, this is something I said for [Abm] a fact when I was 22.
[B] Are you seriously quoting that to me?
So when did you let your guard down?
Or the perception of the guard?
I think two things [N] really brought it about.
One was that I had to
I did more diverse things.
And it no longer just went in a convenient definition.
And there were things that happened in my life.
There were things where you become taken over by the process of being famous.
And you start to live within your
you mentioned the bubble.
You live within the bubble of your life.
And things happen.
Things happen in your personal life, happen in your public life that you can't even believe were you.
And, you know, so I had some things that I needed to explain.
I mean, I got in, you know, let's get this out in the open because people will remark upon it.
I got in this fight in 79 with a bunch of white musicians, you know,
where I allegedly used a bunch of racial slurs.
I wasn't using them because I believed in it.
I was sort of in my arrogant, youthful
I thought I was being ironic.
And I was sort of going, you know, and I was being presumptuous that they didn't appreciate the music I'd grown up loving as much as I did.
How fucking stupid is that?
I grew up in England and a lot of people will say that English musicians have such this weird outside love for American music,
particularly rhythm and blues as we grew up to know it, that we sort of felt like we had possession of it in some weird way.
So I heard these words come out of my mouth and there was a bar fight.
And it should have never gone any further than that because it was an idiot
But it's been in my biography ever since.
Despite everything else that I've stood for, that's still mentioned.
And some people, particularly in the Twitter, Facebook era, are going to read that.
And when you're in a group, you don't know, I don't know whether you know that about me or whether other people in the band know that and make assumptions.
Oh, this guy's actually got a white hood in his closet somewhere.
You know, he's actually a secret member of the clan.
It's upsetting.
It's upsetting.
Because I can't explain how I even got to think that you could be funny about something like that.
Like I said, I was 25 when that happened.
I wasn't even 25.
I've lived the whole rest of my life talking and I did a whole interview for Rolling Stone, cover story.
The main agenda of which was not to talk about the music from their point of view was to offer me the chance for an explanation of how you could possibly get to that way.
Because none of the other evidence of my actions suggested that these were my true beliefs or that I was secretly harboring this.
And by the by, come from a background where people have used, you know, not that it's comparable, but, you know, I [G] come from the first [Eb] one generation back where they would, you know, my parents, my father would not be able to go and get certain kind of lodging because of having an Irish name.
So it's everybody.
There's always somebody trying to push you out.
You're down here.
You're over here.
You're up here.
You know, I come from a much more class based society.
The people who are running the country, the people who have a hereditary monarchy.
I mean, it's it's absurd.
It's absurd to me growing up from my background.
But you can't go like and like there's so much.
Anyway, sorry, I didn't mean to get into that.
But hey, you know what?
It bugs me.
Can we just say where we are?
No, that was [G] amazing.
It's about time we said it out loud.
You know what I'm saying?
Really?
Yeah, because I know I know in my [Gb] heart what I am.
And people are curious.
People are curious.
Even now I see reactions to this record.
People go, oh, yeah, but, you know, they don't know that.
Well, fucking ask me then.
[C]
up ghost.
[Ab] I guess in the last month or so, a lot of time on my hands, and I decided to eBay purchase practically the entire [G]
Rolling Stone periodicals from like 76 down [N] to about 89.
So I have about a decade's worth of Rolling Stone back in that back room that I've been researching.
And the funny thing is, every time I come across a record review of yours or an article of yours, I really had no idea that you
Like, you're one of the most user-friendly cats I know, but apparently your image was extremely standoffish and angry.
Yeah.
Was that you going through growing pains or was that
Maybe a bit of both.
A calculated, like, okay.
A bit of both.
I think one thing is that like, now we read the books about Elvis Presley, everybody blames Colonel Tom as a
Colonel Tom kinda, he kinda ruined Elvis.
But you know what?
He maybe knew what this guy could do and what he couldn't do, and he created like a barrier around him.
And then he was insecure and he had all these people around him all the time.
And you come on to the next generation, there was all these managers out of England that renamed all the singers and they Malcolm McConaughey.
And people like Malcolm McLaren had the pistols, Bernie Rhodes had a big lot to do with the way the Clash were perceived.
And then when they got out ahead of all of that stuff, and the same was true of me, I had a very confrontational manager.
And it kind of encouraged me to kind of live that out a little bit, to my detriment sometimes.
So I lived it out because I was insecure.
I was young and I didn't really
I was kinda confident in my abilities.
I was one very socially confident.
I was actually quite shy.
So being
appearing to be difficult and uncommunicative.
And also, I came at a kind of a divide between a new way of writing about music and the old way of writing about pop music where you
I had a guy come in and interview me for the Daily Mirror, the very first time I ever appeared in a tabloid newspaper.
And the guy came in and he was like something out of Central Carson.
He had a stained raincoat on and he had a ring, you know, notepad and a cigarette with a big plume of ash on it.
And he was like, so
You know, it was like
it had to be like some salacious story.
Then I went, listen, we've just played like six club dates.
There aren't any girls, you know.
So whatever you're dreaming, we're just trying to get our songs across.
No one believes in the working class musician.
Yeah, and there'd be
there's always that thing going on backstage.
There's always gotta be this party.
And then sooner or later, it is a party of some kind.
There's some sort of misbehavior going on back there.
So I think it was just easier not to talk.
And that gave that impression.
And then, you know, you say a few buzzword things in a couple of interviews that resonate.
And the next thing, that's, you know, I have
I'll be in an interview now with a sort of like French journalist or something and he's read Wikipedia.
So he kind of goes, so you are all about
you are all about revenge and guilt.
I go, this is something I said for [Abm] a fact when I was 22.
[B] Are you seriously quoting that to me?
So when did you let your guard down?
Or the perception of the guard?
I think two things [N] really brought it about.
One was that I had to
I did more diverse things.
And it no longer just went in a convenient definition.
And there were things that happened in my life.
There were things where you become taken over by the process of being famous.
And you start to live within your
you mentioned the bubble.
You live within the bubble of your life.
And things happen.
Things happen in your personal life, happen in your public life that you can't even believe were you.
And, you know, so I had some things that I needed to explain.
I mean, I got in, you know, let's get this out in the open because people will remark upon it.
I got in this fight in 79 with a bunch of white musicians, you know,
where I allegedly used a bunch of racial slurs.
I wasn't using them because I believed in it.
I was sort of in my arrogant, youthful
I thought I was being ironic.
And I was sort of going, you know, and I was being presumptuous that they didn't appreciate the music I'd grown up loving as much as I did.
How fucking stupid is that?
I grew up in England and a lot of people will say that English musicians have such this weird outside love for American music,
particularly rhythm and blues as we grew up to know it, that we sort of felt like we had possession of it in some weird way.
So I heard these words come out of my mouth and there was a bar fight.
And it should have never gone any further than that because it was an idiot
But it's been in my biography ever since.
Despite everything else that I've stood for, that's still mentioned.
And some people, particularly in the Twitter, Facebook era, are going to read that.
And when you're in a group, you don't know, I don't know whether you know that about me or whether other people in the band know that and make assumptions.
Oh, this guy's actually got a white hood in his closet somewhere.
You know, he's actually a secret member of the clan.
It's upsetting.
It's upsetting.
Because I can't explain how I even got to think that you could be funny about something like that.
Like I said, I was 25 when that happened.
I wasn't even 25.
I've lived the whole rest of my life talking and I did a whole interview for Rolling Stone, cover story.
The main agenda of which was not to talk about the music from their point of view was to offer me the chance for an explanation of how you could possibly get to that way.
Because none of the other evidence of my actions suggested that these were my true beliefs or that I was secretly harboring this.
And by the by, come from a background where people have used, you know, not that it's comparable, but, you know, I [G] come from the first [Eb] one generation back where they would, you know, my parents, my father would not be able to go and get certain kind of lodging because of having an Irish name.
So it's everybody.
There's always somebody trying to push you out.
You're down here.
You're over here.
You're up here.
You know, I come from a much more class based society.
The people who are running the country, the people who have a hereditary monarchy.
I mean, it's it's absurd.
It's absurd to me growing up from my background.
But you can't go like and like there's so much.
Anyway, sorry, I didn't mean to get into that.
But hey, you know what?
It bugs me.
Can we just say where we are?
No, that was [G] amazing.
It's about time we said it out loud.
You know what I'm saying?
Really?
Yeah, because I know I know in my [Gb] heart what I am.
And people are curious.
People are curious.
Even now I see reactions to this record.
People go, oh, yeah, but, you know, they don't know that.
Well, fucking ask me then.
[C]
Key:
C
G
F
Cm
Ab
C
G
F
_ _ [C] _ _ Rise [F] up, [Cm] when you're gonna [C] rise up, rise [F]
up ghost.
[Ab] I guess in the last _ _ month or so, a lot of time on my hands, and I decided to _ _ eBay _ purchase _ practically the entire [G] _
Rolling Stone _ periodicals from like _ 76 down [N] to about _ 89.
So I have about a decade's worth of Rolling Stone back in that back room that I've been _ _ researching.
And _ the funny thing is, every time I come across _ _ a record review of yours or an article of yours, I really had no idea that you_
Like, you're one of the most user-friendly cats I know, _ but apparently your image was extremely _ _ _ standoffish and angry.
Yeah.
Was that you going through growing pains or was that_
Maybe a bit of both.
A calculated, like, okay.
A bit of both.
I think one thing is that like, now we read the books about Elvis Presley, everybody blames Colonel Tom as a_
Colonel Tom kinda, he kinda ruined Elvis.
But you know what?
He maybe knew what this guy could do and what he couldn't do, and he created like a barrier around him.
And then he was insecure and he had all these people around him all the time.
And you come on to the next generation, there was all these managers out of England that renamed all the singers and they_ Malcolm McConaughey.
And people like Malcolm McLaren had the pistols, Bernie Rhodes had a big lot to do with the way the Clash were perceived.
And then when they got out ahead of all of that stuff, and the same was true of me, I had a very confrontational manager.
And it kind of encouraged me to kind of live that out a little bit, to my detriment sometimes.
So I lived it out because I was insecure.
I was young and I didn't really_
I was kinda confident in my abilities.
I was one very socially confident.
I was actually quite shy.
So being_
appearing to be difficult and uncommunicative.
And also, I came at a kind _ of a divide between a new way of writing about music and the old way of writing about pop music where you_
I had a guy come in and interview me for the Daily Mirror, the very first time I ever appeared in a tabloid newspaper.
And the guy came in and he was like something out of Central Carson.
He had a stained _ raincoat on and he had a ring, you know, notepad and a cigarette with a big plume of ash on it.
And he was like, _ so_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ You know, it was like_
it had to be like some salacious story.
Then I went, listen, we've just played like six club dates.
There aren't any girls, you know.
So whatever you're dreaming, we're just trying to get our songs across.
_ No one believes in the working class musician.
Yeah, and there'd be_
there's always that thing going on backstage.
There's always gotta be this party.
And then sooner or later, it is a party of some kind.
There's some sort of misbehavior going on back there.
_ So I think it was just easier not to talk.
And that gave that impression.
And then, you know, you say a few _ _ buzzword things in a couple of interviews that resonate.
And the next thing, that's, you know, I have_
I'll be in an interview now with a sort of like French journalist or something and he's read Wikipedia.
So he kind of goes, so you are all about_
you are all about revenge and guilt.
I go, this is something I said for [Abm] a fact when I was 22.
[B] Are you seriously quoting that to me?
So when did you let your guard down?
Or the perception of the guard? _ _ _
I think two things [N] really brought it about.
One was that I had _ to_
I did more diverse things.
_ And it no longer just went in a convenient definition.
And there were things that happened in my life.
There were _ things where you become _ taken over by the process of being famous.
And you start to live within your_
you mentioned the bubble.
You live within the bubble of your _ _ life.
And things happen.
Things happen in your personal life, happen in your public life that you can't even believe were you.
_ And, you know, _ so I had some things that I needed to explain.
I mean, I got in, you know, let's get this out in the open because people will remark upon it.
I got in this _ fight in 79 with a bunch of white musicians, you know,
where _ I allegedly used a bunch of racial slurs.
I wasn't using them _ because I believed in it.
I was sort of in my arrogant, youthful_
I thought I was being ironic.
And I was sort of going, you know, and I was being presumptuous that they didn't appreciate the music I'd grown up loving as much as I did.
How fucking stupid is that?
I grew up in England and a lot of people will say that English musicians have such this weird outside love for American music, _ _
particularly rhythm and blues as we grew up to know it, that we sort of felt like we had possession of it in some weird way.
So I heard these words come out of my mouth and there was a bar fight.
And it should have never gone any further than that because it was an idiot_
But it's been in my _ biography ever since.
Despite everything else that I've stood for, that's still mentioned.
And some people, particularly in the Twitter, _ Facebook era, are going to read that.
And when you're in a group, you don't know, I don't know whether you know that about me or whether other people in the band know that and make assumptions.
Oh, this guy's actually got a white hood in his _ _ _ _ closet somewhere.
You know, he's actually a secret member of the clan.
_ _ It's upsetting.
It's upsetting.
Because I can't explain how I even got to think that you could be funny about something like that.
Like I said, I was 25 when that happened.
I wasn't even 25.
_ I've lived the whole rest of my life talking and I did a whole _ _ interview for Rolling Stone, cover story.
The main agenda of which was not to talk about the music from their point of view was to offer me the chance for an explanation of how you could possibly get to that way.
Because none of the other evidence of my actions suggested that these were my true beliefs or that I was secretly harboring this. _
And by the by, come from a background where people have used, you know, not that it's comparable, but, you know, I [G] come from the first [Eb] one generation back where they would, you know, my parents, _ my father would not be able to go and get certain kind of lodging because of having an Irish name.
So it's everybody.
There's always somebody trying to push you out.
You're down here.
You're over here.
You're up here.
You know, I come from a much more class based society.
The people who are running the country, the people who have a hereditary monarchy.
I mean, it's it's absurd.
It's absurd to me growing up from my background.
But you can't go like and like there's so much.
_ Anyway, sorry, I didn't mean to get into that.
But hey, you know what?
It bugs me.
Can we just say where we are?
_ No, that was [G] amazing.
It's _ about time we said it out loud.
You know what I'm saying?
Really?
Yeah, because I know I know in my [Gb] heart what I am.
And people are curious.
People are curious.
Even now I see reactions to this record.
People go, oh, yeah, but, you know, they don't know that.
Well, fucking ask me then. _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
up ghost.
[Ab] I guess in the last _ _ month or so, a lot of time on my hands, and I decided to _ _ eBay _ purchase _ practically the entire [G] _
Rolling Stone _ periodicals from like _ 76 down [N] to about _ 89.
So I have about a decade's worth of Rolling Stone back in that back room that I've been _ _ researching.
And _ the funny thing is, every time I come across _ _ a record review of yours or an article of yours, I really had no idea that you_
Like, you're one of the most user-friendly cats I know, _ but apparently your image was extremely _ _ _ standoffish and angry.
Yeah.
Was that you going through growing pains or was that_
Maybe a bit of both.
A calculated, like, okay.
A bit of both.
I think one thing is that like, now we read the books about Elvis Presley, everybody blames Colonel Tom as a_
Colonel Tom kinda, he kinda ruined Elvis.
But you know what?
He maybe knew what this guy could do and what he couldn't do, and he created like a barrier around him.
And then he was insecure and he had all these people around him all the time.
And you come on to the next generation, there was all these managers out of England that renamed all the singers and they_ Malcolm McConaughey.
And people like Malcolm McLaren had the pistols, Bernie Rhodes had a big lot to do with the way the Clash were perceived.
And then when they got out ahead of all of that stuff, and the same was true of me, I had a very confrontational manager.
And it kind of encouraged me to kind of live that out a little bit, to my detriment sometimes.
So I lived it out because I was insecure.
I was young and I didn't really_
I was kinda confident in my abilities.
I was one very socially confident.
I was actually quite shy.
So being_
appearing to be difficult and uncommunicative.
And also, I came at a kind _ of a divide between a new way of writing about music and the old way of writing about pop music where you_
I had a guy come in and interview me for the Daily Mirror, the very first time I ever appeared in a tabloid newspaper.
And the guy came in and he was like something out of Central Carson.
He had a stained _ raincoat on and he had a ring, you know, notepad and a cigarette with a big plume of ash on it.
And he was like, _ so_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ You know, it was like_
it had to be like some salacious story.
Then I went, listen, we've just played like six club dates.
There aren't any girls, you know.
So whatever you're dreaming, we're just trying to get our songs across.
_ No one believes in the working class musician.
Yeah, and there'd be_
there's always that thing going on backstage.
There's always gotta be this party.
And then sooner or later, it is a party of some kind.
There's some sort of misbehavior going on back there.
_ So I think it was just easier not to talk.
And that gave that impression.
And then, you know, you say a few _ _ buzzword things in a couple of interviews that resonate.
And the next thing, that's, you know, I have_
I'll be in an interview now with a sort of like French journalist or something and he's read Wikipedia.
So he kind of goes, so you are all about_
you are all about revenge and guilt.
I go, this is something I said for [Abm] a fact when I was 22.
[B] Are you seriously quoting that to me?
So when did you let your guard down?
Or the perception of the guard? _ _ _
I think two things [N] really brought it about.
One was that I had _ to_
I did more diverse things.
_ And it no longer just went in a convenient definition.
And there were things that happened in my life.
There were _ things where you become _ taken over by the process of being famous.
And you start to live within your_
you mentioned the bubble.
You live within the bubble of your _ _ life.
And things happen.
Things happen in your personal life, happen in your public life that you can't even believe were you.
_ And, you know, _ so I had some things that I needed to explain.
I mean, I got in, you know, let's get this out in the open because people will remark upon it.
I got in this _ fight in 79 with a bunch of white musicians, you know,
where _ I allegedly used a bunch of racial slurs.
I wasn't using them _ because I believed in it.
I was sort of in my arrogant, youthful_
I thought I was being ironic.
And I was sort of going, you know, and I was being presumptuous that they didn't appreciate the music I'd grown up loving as much as I did.
How fucking stupid is that?
I grew up in England and a lot of people will say that English musicians have such this weird outside love for American music, _ _
particularly rhythm and blues as we grew up to know it, that we sort of felt like we had possession of it in some weird way.
So I heard these words come out of my mouth and there was a bar fight.
And it should have never gone any further than that because it was an idiot_
But it's been in my _ biography ever since.
Despite everything else that I've stood for, that's still mentioned.
And some people, particularly in the Twitter, _ Facebook era, are going to read that.
And when you're in a group, you don't know, I don't know whether you know that about me or whether other people in the band know that and make assumptions.
Oh, this guy's actually got a white hood in his _ _ _ _ closet somewhere.
You know, he's actually a secret member of the clan.
_ _ It's upsetting.
It's upsetting.
Because I can't explain how I even got to think that you could be funny about something like that.
Like I said, I was 25 when that happened.
I wasn't even 25.
_ I've lived the whole rest of my life talking and I did a whole _ _ interview for Rolling Stone, cover story.
The main agenda of which was not to talk about the music from their point of view was to offer me the chance for an explanation of how you could possibly get to that way.
Because none of the other evidence of my actions suggested that these were my true beliefs or that I was secretly harboring this. _
And by the by, come from a background where people have used, you know, not that it's comparable, but, you know, I [G] come from the first [Eb] one generation back where they would, you know, my parents, _ my father would not be able to go and get certain kind of lodging because of having an Irish name.
So it's everybody.
There's always somebody trying to push you out.
You're down here.
You're over here.
You're up here.
You know, I come from a much more class based society.
The people who are running the country, the people who have a hereditary monarchy.
I mean, it's it's absurd.
It's absurd to me growing up from my background.
But you can't go like and like there's so much.
_ Anyway, sorry, I didn't mean to get into that.
But hey, you know what?
It bugs me.
Can we just say where we are?
_ No, that was [G] amazing.
It's _ about time we said it out loud.
You know what I'm saying?
Really?
Yeah, because I know I know in my [Gb] heart what I am.
And people are curious.
People are curious.
Even now I see reactions to this record.
People go, oh, yeah, but, you know, they don't know that.
Well, fucking ask me then. _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _