Creem, June 1986

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Creem

US rock magazines

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Imperial margarine


Jeff Nesin

Elvis Costello
King Of America

Elvis Costello is one of the best contemporary songwriters, and certainly the most, uh, rigorous, who also hopes to be popular. This has made for difficulties. His initial widespread acclaim, accompanied by widespread record sales, leveled off with 1980's Get Happy!! — by me, his best ever — and has never really risen above respect and admiration and modest sales since. Beginning with Almost Blue, his country excursion, Costello's progress was diverted by a fascination with guises, by musical sophistication not really for its own sake but not for the sake of the songs either. Last year's solo tour (with T Bone Burnett opening) got Costello to focus his hard-edge attention once again. As a result, King Of America, produced with Burnett, is sung and played beautifully, affectingly, with the songs themselves paramount.

Recorded live in the studio, Costello's vocals have never been captured this close to the bone before. All the cracks — the very last "angel" in "Our Little Angel" — and screams ("Lovable," "Eisenhower Blues") give the tracks an amazing presence and immediacy. EC's husky, constricted baritone reaches way beyond its obvious limitations toward the imperial pipes of Merle Haggard and Bobby Bland, true kings of America. And his sinuous jazz-inflected phrasing carries dark melody lines (and his usually dark thoughts) on surprising, sometimes startling journeys to his usually hooky choruses.

The "Confederates" (Costello respects the Attractions enough to call attention to their absence) assembled here, including the core of Elvis "King of America" Presley's band — James Burton, Ronnie Tutt and Jerry Scheff — as well as veteran drummers Jim Keltner and Earl "Da Doo Ron Ron" Palmer, are perfect role players, doing just what is required. And Costello, who calls himself "Little Hands Of Concrete" on the sleeve, controls the sound absolutely with his austere rhythm guitar.

But with all this brilliant singing and playing, King Of America is still, hands down, the most difficult record I've listened to in months. Even with careful study of the enclosed lyric sheet, several songs remain opaque at best. I can live with ambiguity better than most, but when a track is written and sung with such precision, such palpable passion, I suspect it's about something specific and I'd like to know what. In the case of the complex "Suit Of Lights," or the elegiac "Sleep Of The Just," or the gleefully bitter "Glitter Gulch," to cite three, I simply have no idea. There's plenty of misanthropic overstatement, too. "Outside they're painting tar on somebody / It's the closest to a work of art that they will ever be," might be witty if I knew who "they" were. Probably not, though.

Most of all, the songs are overwhelmingly concerned with betrayal and venality. So what else is new, you ask? "American Without Tears," an almost tender ballad mostly about war brides, and "Little Palaces," a brutal neo-folk song about working class lives in public housing make sense in this context. Other cuts — "Brilliant Mistake," "Lovable," "Glitter Gulch" — are just plain mean-spirited. After eight years of making records, Costello loves his ressentiment too much, methinks, and has never regained his momentum that made the tension in his early work interesting. I don't expect piety, but his terminal suspicion of any and all culturally sanctioned happiness gets tired, too. Even my favorite, "I'll Wear It Proudly" — an actual love song! — opens with a list of things EC hates. He's certainly not the first king of America to end up sullen and miserable, but he's probably the first to do so before he ascends to the throne. Curtsy at your own risk.


Photo by Paul Natkin.
1986-06-00 Creem photo 01 pn.jpg

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Creem, June 1986


Jeff Nesin reviews King Of America.


Ken Barnes reviews "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood."


Robert Christgau reviews Rum, Sodomy & The Lash.

Images

1986-06-00 Creem page 26.jpg
Page scan.



Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood


Ken Barnes

1986-06-00 Creem page 33.jpg

Everyone thinks the Animals copped "House Of The Rising Sun" from Dylan, but I always thought they got it from Nina Simone, who also provided Alan Price with his version of "I Put A Spell On You," the entire group with scattered LP tracks, plus the hit "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood." Anyway, Elvis Costello's "Misunderstood" falls about halfway between Simone and Burdon, brittle with emotion, good stuff. "Baby's Got A Brand New Hairdo" on the flip flashes back to "I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea," which is fine with me.



1986-06-00 Creem photo 02 pn.jpg
Photo by Paul Natkin.


Rum, Sodomy & The Lash

The Pogues

Robert Christgau

Grade: A

1986-06-00 Creem page 57.jpg

Having been left tepid by Irish music from the Chieftains to Clannad, I filed Red Roses For Me after a token try — drumbeats or no drumbeats, I figured it was just beyond me. It wasn't until the last track that I suspected this one might be different. "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" comes from Australian folkie Eric Bogle, one of the least commanding singers in any hemisphere you care to name, but its tale of Gallipoli is long as life and wicked as sin and Shane MacGowan never lets go of it for a second: he tests the flavor of each word before spitting it out. I associate this technique with producer Elvis Costello, who probably deserves credit as well for the album's clear, simple musical shape. But none of it would mean much without the songs — some borrowed, some traditional, and some proof that MacGowan can roll out bitter blarney with the best of his role models. Try "The Old Main Drag," about Irish lads tricking, or "The Sick Bed Of Cuchulain," about Irish heroes dying.


Cover and page scan.
1986-06-00 Creem cover.jpg 1986-06-00 Creem page 56.jpg

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