14. “This Year’s Girl”
Videos by American Songwriter
When I do my list of the finest 100 Rolling Stones songs one day, it’s a safe bet that you won’t see “Stupid Girl” there. The song is a bit of garage-rock silliness that launched claims of sexism against the band, claims that also accompanied the release of “Under My Thumb.” (It’s my opinion that the claims are baseless in both cases, since they are songs and not court testimony, but that’s an argument for another time.) The difference between the two songs is that “Under My Thumb” was well-executed and clever enough to sound cheeky. “Stupid Girl,” with no other charms to compensate, just sounds uninspired.
Luckily, Elvis Costello was a big fan of the album (Aftermath) that contained the song (and it is a great album.) As a matter of fact, he was listening to it a lot circa the time he wrote the material that would end up on This Year’s Model, his first album with the Attractions, and he fashioned “This Year’s Girl” as a kind of answer record to “Stupid Girl.”
Although there are a few musical quotes that recall the earlier song (specifically the bridge,) Costello’s creation ended up far outshining its inspiration. Elvis and the Attractions, early on in their time together, were already exploring different ways to take on the material at their disposal. You can hear an early take on the song on the This Year’s Model bonus disc that sounds like the adrenaline-filled, no-coming-up-for-air approach found elsewhere on the album on songs like “No Action” and “Lip Service.”
Costello and the boys were wise enough to realize that these lyrics needed space to breathe and be heard, so they tried an approach centered around a Pete Thomas drum pattern borrowed from Ringo Starr’s innovative rumble on The Beatles’ “Ticket To Ride.” With more open spaces in the music, Steve Nieve was able to provide flavorful organ swirls to really punch up the proceedings.
Unlike Jagger’s derogatory commentary, Costello comes at the title character from an empathetic perspective. He does this by addressing the men who lust after her, calling them out on their true intentions: “You want her broken with her mouth wide open ’cause she’s this year’s girl.”
In the closing verse, Elvis gives a laundry list of all the things available to her, but everything he mentions is transitory and hollow. What she ends up with: “All this and no surprises for this year’s girl.” The title suggests that her time in the spotlight will be mercifully brief, a commentary on the fickle nature of cultural desire that still rings true in today’s blink-and-you-missed-them treatment of pop idols. By contrast, “This Year’s Girl” is a song that has no expiration date on its excellence.
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