So Much For Music Changing The World

An interview of Elvis Costello by Jon Pareles, the NY Times pop music critic.

“You’re kidding yourself if you believe it when people say, `Oh, that’s a political song,’ ” Mr. Costello said. “No. A political song is one that if you played it to Donald Rumsfeld, he would give up his career and enter a monastery. That would be a political song — one that affected him so deeply that he would renounce his view of the world.

I don’t think anybody alive is capable of writing that song. So all you’re doing is writing things that matter to you.”

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