Angry Young Men Edition Part 2

Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia

Slate Podcasts

Music, Music History, Music Commentary

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2022

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Punk was meant to be angry. But the so-called Angry Young Men of the late ’70s U.K. scene were secret sophisticates in punk clothing. They delivered withering lyrics and snarling attitude over melodies a pop fan could love. In so doing, Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson and Graham Parker helped transform a slew of back-to-basic styles—pub-rock, power-pop, post-punk—into the catchall category New Wave. It would take over the charts at the turn of the ’80s. But the launch of the MTV era forced these sardonic troubadours to adjust their songwriting for a New Romantic age. Join Chris Molanphy as he chronicles the history of three men who wrote the book on alternative rock before it had a name. Podcast production by Kevin Bendis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate magazine.
0:16.5	About the hits from Coast to Coast, I'm Chris Melanthe, chart analyst, pop critic, and
0:21.8	writer of Slate's Why Is This Song No. 1 series.
0:25.4	On our last episode, we talked about the rise of three British
0:29.9	singer-songwriters, Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, and Graham Parker, who came
0:35.9	up through pub rock and power pop, adopted punk attitude, helped shape new
0:41.6	wave, and were tagged with the moniker, Angry Young Men. We're now in the early
0:47.8	80s when all three of these men would evolve their sound in directions far
0:53.7	removed from punk.
1:03.7	Elvis Costello had been on a roll with his friend and producer Nick Lowe. Over five
1:11.1	straight albums, they had developed a punchy new wave sound that encompassed
1:16.4	a range of styles, but still all came out sounding like Costello's brand of
1:22.4	power pop. On the final album of their five LP streak, 1981's Trust, Costello and
1:30.7	Lowe ranged even more widely, with songs alluding to jazz, rockabilly, even
1:36.8	country. The singles veered from the Reggae meets Cabaret on Clubland.
1:52.4	To the minor key, soul, and melodica dub of Watch Your Step.
2:07.9	One track from Trust, The Hard Rocking, from a whisper to a scream, got Costello on
2:14.4	Billboard's Rock Tracks chart for the first time, where it peaked at number 46.
2:21.1	The song featured counterpoint vocals from Squeeze Frontman Glen Tilbrook.
2:38.0	Returning the favor to Tilbrook, Costello produced Squeeze's own 1981 album, East Side Story.
2:47.0	As I noted in our Legacy Hits edition of Hit Parade, on the Squeeze single Tempted,
2:53.8	you can briefly hear Costello's voice taking a second verse lyric.
	...

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