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Man Out of Time
"Man Out of Time" is a song written by new wave musician Elvis Costello and performed by Elvis Costello and the Attractions on their 1982 album, Imperial Bedroom. With lyrics detailing a political scandal, "Man Out of Time" features a lush arrangement that was a conscious departure from the aggressive style of Costello's previous work.
The song was released as the second single from Imperial Bedroom, reaching number 58 in the United Kingdom. The song has since been lauded by critics, some of whom name the track as Costello's greatest song.
Costello thought of the song's central lyric, "But will you still love a man out of time?", while on a tour bus in Sweden in 1981, writing the rest of the song in a Scottish hotel during the same tour. At a lyrical level, "Man Out of Time" features lyrics about what the Guardian describes as a "cabinet minister hiding out from a sex scandal". Elvis Costello wrote "Man Out of Time" as a synthesis of his personal ambition and contemporary political developments. He explained,
A lot of songs are about the sort of disgust with your own self. There were a lot of things that I wasn’t very happy with during that time. I wanted songs to blow up the world. I had mad ambitions. Not mad as in "ambition to be famous". I never wanted that. That just came as an accident of it all. But somehow you look at yourself and you're not happy with what you see. I didn't want to write a self-regarding song, so I cast it in the clothes of political intrigue and what was going on in the world at that time. There was a famous political scandal in England going on then. It all sort of got wrapped up in the song. Sometimes a song will have a personal meaning and a public meaning. "Man Out of Time" is one of those.
In an interview with The New York Times, Costello explained his attitude toward the English aristocracy, stating,
I do tend to think there's a lot of decadence and moral weakness among people in positions of power. Traditionally, the aristocracy in England has been decadent and immoral. There's always a lot of intrigue, government scandals, like the Profumo affair. None of my songs are literally about that or any other particular event, but some of them have that flavor. The more personal songs are either imaginary scenarios, observations of other people, or observations of myself. Most of the really vitriolic songs I've written have been observations of myself.
Unlike many of Costello's previous singles, "Man Out of Time" features a slower, less intense arrangement. Aside from the noisier sections that bookend the song, "Man Out of Time" is, according to AllMusic's Rick Anderson, "lush and heartbreakingly pretty." Costello initially drove the Attractions to perform the song aggressively, but this original arrangement was largely abandoned and edited into the opening and closing sections of the song by producer Geoff Emerick. The bulk of the song came from a one take performance that Costello later described as "among the best that the Attractions and I ever caught in a single take". Emerick's use of Fairchild valve compressors on the song resulted in what Costello described as "a sense of the music pushing back against some intolerable weight". Costello recalled,
Originally, it was a very uptempo, aggressive song. I had made this mistake several times. At the time of Imperial Bedroom, I came to terms with the fact that I was sacrificing the power of certain songs to this mad pursuit of tempo. Everything had to be delivered forcefully. I don't know whether it was just a natural process or, literally, cumulative exhaustion of what were very intense years. "Man Out of Time" is the one time I said, "No, stop. Let's play this at the right tempo." And we went for this bigger, more open sound. I think it's a really good record.
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Man Out of Time
"Man Out of Time" is a song written by new wave musician Elvis Costello and performed by Elvis Costello and the Attractions on their 1982 album, Imperial Bedroom. With lyrics detailing a political scandal, "Man Out of Time" features a lush arrangement that was a conscious departure from the aggressive style of Costello's previous work.
The song was released as the second single from Imperial Bedroom, reaching number 58 in the United Kingdom. The song has since been lauded by critics, some of whom name the track as Costello's greatest song.
Costello thought of the song's central lyric, "But will you still love a man out of time?", while on a tour bus in Sweden in 1981, writing the rest of the song in a Scottish hotel during the same tour. At a lyrical level, "Man Out of Time" features lyrics about what the Guardian describes as a "cabinet minister hiding out from a sex scandal". Elvis Costello wrote "Man Out of Time" as a synthesis of his personal ambition and contemporary political developments. He explained,
A lot of songs are about the sort of disgust with your own self. There were a lot of things that I wasn’t very happy with during that time. I wanted songs to blow up the world. I had mad ambitions. Not mad as in "ambition to be famous". I never wanted that. That just came as an accident of it all. But somehow you look at yourself and you're not happy with what you see. I didn't want to write a self-regarding song, so I cast it in the clothes of political intrigue and what was going on in the world at that time. There was a famous political scandal in England going on then. It all sort of got wrapped up in the song. Sometimes a song will have a personal meaning and a public meaning. "Man Out of Time" is one of those.
In an interview with The New York Times, Costello explained his attitude toward the English aristocracy, stating,
I do tend to think there's a lot of decadence and moral weakness among people in positions of power. Traditionally, the aristocracy in England has been decadent and immoral. There's always a lot of intrigue, government scandals, like the Profumo affair. None of my songs are literally about that or any other particular event, but some of them have that flavor. The more personal songs are either imaginary scenarios, observations of other people, or observations of myself. Most of the really vitriolic songs I've written have been observations of myself.
Unlike many of Costello's previous singles, "Man Out of Time" features a slower, less intense arrangement. Aside from the noisier sections that bookend the song, "Man Out of Time" is, according to AllMusic's Rick Anderson, "lush and heartbreakingly pretty." Costello initially drove the Attractions to perform the song aggressively, but this original arrangement was largely abandoned and edited into the opening and closing sections of the song by producer Geoff Emerick. The bulk of the song came from a one take performance that Costello later described as "among the best that the Attractions and I ever caught in a single take". Emerick's use of Fairchild valve compressors on the song resulted in what Costello described as "a sense of the music pushing back against some intolerable weight". Costello recalled,
Originally, it was a very uptempo, aggressive song. I had made this mistake several times. At the time of Imperial Bedroom, I came to terms with the fact that I was sacrificing the power of certain songs to this mad pursuit of tempo. Everything had to be delivered forcefully. I don't know whether it was just a natural process or, literally, cumulative exhaustion of what were very intense years. "Man Out of Time" is the one time I said, "No, stop. Let's play this at the right tempo." And we went for this bigger, more open sound. I think it's a really good record.