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The second part opens with a rather extreme form of junk mail.
Elvis Costello & the Brodsky Quartet: “This Offer is Unrepeatable”
The text is a suicide note that turns from blase and bored with life to desperate, and is finally lost in a dream.
This is the name of a firm of solicitors which recurs as a motif among images of both childhood and adult disillusionment. The authorship of the two verses is divided between brother and sister, Michael and Jacqueline, while the music is Michael’s.
This is the work of Paul Cassidy, although between us, Michael and I proposed the related material in the bridge section. The events described in the letter should be familiar to those who lived in England in the spring of 1992.
A cynical writer quotes the contents of a letter that he has received. This “soldier’s letter” is closely related to one sent to me during the buildup to the Gulf War. From the concluding mayhem, a single note emerges, leading into Michael Thomas’ “Last Post”. Despite its title, this piece does not have any military significance. It seems to me to have a clear sense of peace, though not without strong feeling. It also serves as a preface to the final songs.
”I Thought I’d Write to Juliet” & “The Last Post”
A man who believes in the afterlife leaves a letter for his atheist lover, which, we must assume, she is reading after his demise.
The final letter is also delivered from a place beyond death, although the intention is not at all morbid. So it is a song of condolence and renewal which brings “The Juliet Letters” to, what I believe is, a hopeful conclusion.
”The Birds will Still be Singing”
Next week I’ll be returning to popular music with a project I first tried out in college radio in Philadelphia over 40 years ago, called “Rockumentary”.