“To be honest I knew it wasn't a good record by the time…”

Ordene herover omhandler pladen ‘Goodbye Cruel World’ af Elvis Costello & The Attractions fra 1984. Og som det formentlig fremgår er det Elvis Costellos egen udtalelse. Der var interne spændinger i gruppen, især mellem Costello og bassisten Bruce Thomas. Allerede før de gik i gang med indspilningerne havde Costello meddelt, at bandet gik i opløsning. Ikke det bedste afsæt for et nyt album.

Det skal ikke handle om ’Goodbye Cruel World’. Men singlen ’I Wanna Be Loved’ fra lp'en, et cover af Teacher's Edition, som jeg ikke har hørt i umindelige tider, læs årtier. Siden påske har det dog kværnet rundt i hovedet på mig, fordi den engelske filminstruktør Sam Mendes (’American Beauty’, ’Skyfall’, ’Spectre’ mv.) spillede sangen, da han sad ind for Iggy Pop langfredag i ’Iggy Confidential’ på BBC 6.

I covernoterne til genudgivelsen af ’Goodbye Cruel World’ i 1995, skrev Costello:

“This is one of the only occasions that a video actually improved one of our records. ‘I Wanna Be Loved’ was also my last U.K. hit single in the company of The Attractions for nine years. In fact we were banished from the BBC's Top of the Pops studio after Pete mimed his final drum-fill by playing it on his head. According to the preening producer this revealed the state secret that we were not actually playing "live".”