Review of Re-issues Id Magazine, 1995-12-01 by James Rocchi Id is a bi-weekly Arts and Culture publication which circulates 25,000 copies in Southern Ontario with a Website on the way. If you'd like more information about Id, call (519) 766-9336. 1976. Polyester. Disco. Big Cars. Carter was still in office; Presley was still alive. Almost twenty years ago. A young British computer programmer named Declan McManus took a bunch of sick days and an acoustic guitar and hooked up with a struggling, just-started indie label and put out an album in 77........ He also re-invented himself, as well as pop music, broke the rules, and then changed the rules so he could break them again. He played Pop; Rock; Soul; Country; R'n'B; and whatever he felt like. He assembled the best backing band of the past 20 years. He recorded without them, too, just because he could. He looked like the Fifth Beatle of the Apocalypse, John-Mean, Paul-Cute, George-Competent, Ringo-Awkward. He wrote all his own brilliant songs at a terrifyingly prolific clip, putting out his first three albums in 30 months while conducting international tours and getting thrown off American TV. He and his band drank vodka and started bar brawls. They said really, really, stupid hurtful and unforgiveable things and atoned for them. He's better known as Elvis Costello; his band, The Attractions. They were one of the greatest acts of all time. Some say that they still are. This isn't an Eulogy; it's not a commemoration, it's not a farewell. It's a celebration, looking back, and a recognition that Mr. McManus is still writing and performing in a way that defines modern music more than it represents it. The occasion is the completion of the reissues of the 11 Columbia albums by Rykodisc with Costello's permission and involvement. The last disc, 1986's Blood and Chocolate came out a few weeks ago. Bear in mind there were goodies, an extra three discs- Live at The El Mocambo (previously a CBS Canada Promo-Only Vinyl Bootleg, it's now on disc included with the 2 1/2 Years Box Set that also contained 1977's My Aim is True, 1978's This Year's Model, and 1979's Armed Forces), Live on Broadway (with 1986's King of America), and the Interview/Overview that came with Blood and Chocolate to finish it all off. Even if you didn't get those goodies, every disc contains bonus tracks, with 1980's Get Happy!! containing 10 additional slices on top of the 20 tracks already there. With no hyperbole whatsoever, this may be the greatest reissues project in the history of popular music. Quality of material aside (and that's a big "aside"), all the albums feature the original British packaging; the original track listings, not the Yankee-fudged versions Columbia put out; bonus photos; and liner notes by Costello himself that are illuminating, touching, and hilarious. (As an example, the first line in the liner notes for 1984's Goodbye Cruel World are "Congratulations! You've just bought our worst album." His honesty doesn't make up for the fact he's right, though.) Not only are there oodles of bonus tracks, but they include live takes, demos, outtakes, b-sides, TV-themes, movie music, and other curios. Never mind that it's nice to be appreciated before you're dead, it's better to be appreciated really, really well. The sound is improved, and the performance tracks range from the roar on Live at the El Mocambo to the twang of the live tracks off of the reissue of 1981's Almost Blue and the hush of Live on Broadway. As for the material? Well, Costello once said that "The only emotions I understand are Revenge and Guilt." Anybody else who said that would be marking themselves as a One-Trick Pony; Costello turns it into a badge of honour. In the early days, songs like "Night Rally" and "Less Than Zero" and "Oliver's Army" posited the existence of a parallel Britain, a parallel 20th century where the bad things won and there was an embargo on happy endings. The world is a Facist's Tunnel of Love that leads to the center of Hell; infidelity to your lovers and informing for the state become one and the same, intertwined, infected, worse.. Rock and Roll wasn't a relief from these concerns for Costello, it was a co-symptom and a separate disease. Around 1977, your parents told you that 'Too much pop will rot your teeth, and your stomach.' It was sickly-sweet, and addictive, and you couldn't stop drinking it in. Starting around 1977, songs like "Radio Radio", "Watching the Detectives", and "Party Girl" were Costello's way of saying that Too much Pop - pop music, pop culture, pop life - would rot your heart, your soul, your mind. It was sickly-sweet, and addictive, and you couldn't stop drowning in it. These concerns weren't drawn out of thin air, they were found whole and entire, in a darkness few other performers would acknowledge at the time. In Costello's world, Evil Political Mad Scientists program the radio while they videotape you breaking up with your loved one.... and you watch the tape over and over again. Because you're forced to. Because you want to. The up-tempo numbers sound like back alley beatings. The waltzes are death dances. This period, including MAIT, TYM, AF and 1981's Trust represents a coherent vision the likes of which has yet to be equaled in pop. In the middle years, things got looser; a country album of mostly covers (Almost Blue), a counterpart to 1980's Get Happy!!, classic-sounding Rythym and Booze (which goes in this middle section, because it does); 1982's Imperial Bedroom, more songs about miscounted votes and misplaced hearts; 1983's Punch The Clock featured horn fueled semi-soul hits and misses; Goodbye Cruel World was..... a mistake. Which is allowed. Later on, brutal politics and twisted love stopped being intertwined for Costello; not because his disposition brightened, but more that each contained more than enough horrors on it's own. 1986's King of America (recorded without the Attractions) is, to quote Greil Marcus, "The sound of Punk distilled almost to silence". "Little Palaces" is a scathing indictment of the welfare state, it's failure to actually help; the failure of the people involved to help themselves. "I'll Wear it Proudly" is a slow crooner of voyeurism, contempt, and frustrated dominance. (Watching the person you love be happy with someone else and hating all three people involved is a recurring obsession for Costello.) "Sleep of the Just", about a British soldier stationed in Ireland, and his Sister, the Pin-up Model is an epic of shame, rage, and blame, a three-and-a-half minute opera that takes forever to tear your heart out. Blood And Chocolate, back with The Attractions, is electric and insane and angry; "I Want You" is the greatest obsessional love-hate song of all time; "I Hope You're Happy Now" is happy rage at it's best; "Tokyo Storm Warning" and "Battered Old Bird" are dysfunction and depression on the global and local scale. Towering, terrifying, and tremendous, B&C is a fitting cap to this series; youthful vigor and aged wisdom. I've said too much; you do not need all these albums. But you need at least one of them. But that's your descision to make, and your pleasure to find out. James Rocchi - the Author can be contacted at jrocchi@julian.uwo.ca