1978 versus 1978

so close and yet so far from each other



to a kid today they probably sound equally ancient and moldy-oldie, dawn-of-time bizniz

and yet - while rooted in the same stuff, even more apparent on the Costello album before this one - there's a universe of difference between the two

if you were there, then


I mean, compare this - from the Last Waltz




with this



the Old Wave / New Wave divide is wafer thin *

(and the same American crits who gushed over the former, gushed over the latter )





Squeezing Out Sparks decreed 1979's Best Album by the Village Voice's survey of the nation's critics



What a nasty little song!


* Bruce Springsteen is that wafer - old and new, both and neither  - and whaddyaknow members of E Street Band work on a later Parker album