Radio Radio

Single métapop d'Elvis Costello & the Attractions, sorti le 17 mars 1978.

 Radio is a sound salvation
Radio is cleaning up the nation
They say you better listen to the voice of reason
But they don't give you any choice
'Cause they think that it's treason
So you had better do as you are told
You better listen to the radio

 

Une attaque sarcastique contre les pouvoirs radiophoniques en place, ciblant particulièrement la BBC et leur refus de jouer du punk.

 

They don't wanna hear about it
It's only inches on the reel-to-reel
And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools
Tryin' to anaesthetize the way that you feel

Dans le Los Angeles Times du 30 mai 1978 :

"I want to reach everyone and you can't do that without the radio. That's why I wrote ‘Radio, Radio.' I mean every word of that song. It's an attack. I want to break down the formats and the formulas so that you don't have to just listen to disco or MOR (middle of the road) or that heavy metal rubbish."

Initialement, il s'agissait d'un morceau pub rock, écrit avec son précédent groupe Flip City, américanophile et  inspiré par Bruce Springsteeen :

"He sort of made it feel like a big dream in America where a radio was playing and it was always the perfect song. And even though there's sadness in the song, I wanted to believe that somewhere it was like that and it wasn't like it was in the suburbs, where you couldn't hear any music you liked half the time. So that was a wishful song."

En 1977, Elvis Costello revint sur ce passé, rejetant toutes ses influences non approuvées par le punk, et  Radio Soul devint Radio Radio. Produit du déplacement idéologique de la new wave, la radio initialement une source d'évasion devint ici oppressive.

I wanna bite the hand that feeds me
I wanna bite that hand so badly
I want to make them wish they'd never seen me

La plus mémorable performance du morceau fut celle au Saturday Night Live le 17 décembre 1977. Remplaçant à la dernière minute les Sex Pistols, privés de télé pour un problème de visa, les Attractions furent conviés pour promouvoir tardivement le précédent album de Costello.

"I just wanted them to remember us. I didn't really have anything against the show. I was more pissed off at being told what to play by the record company than I was NBC, truthfully. I can't remember whether I said what I was going to do, but I think I just said, ‘Watch me.'"

Et au second morceau après quelques mesures :

 

"We came off the stage, and they were very definitely pissed off at us. We just went back to the dressing room and laughed ourselves stupid, drank the rest of the vodka and left, pursued by people making dire threats."

Le jeune homme en colère ne réapparaîtra à la télévision américaine qu'en 1980, et au SNL qu'en 1989.

Avouée plus tard, l'inspiration lui est venue de Jimi Hendrix, qui lors de son passage en 1969 dans The Lulu Show sur la BBC, interrompit son tube Hey Joe pour rendre hommage à Cream.

Le sabotage de 1977 fut intégré à la liste des moments cultes de l'histoire de l'émission, perdant  évidement son caractère subversif.

Sources / pour aller plus loin :

Chad Van Wagner, Radio Radio: Elvis Costello vs. Everything (2022)
Simon Reynolds, The Spirit of Radio: Songs About Songs (2022)