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First, let me pin my colours firmly to the mast. Elvis Costello is one of the finest singer/songwriters to have emerged in the past ten years and he ranks among the best of all time.
Mind you, I would also number Shane MacGowan among the best songwriters I have heard in years. So, we all know where I'm coming from.
1987 has not been a great year for Elvis Costello fans. Since the release of his two very different but equally accomplished albums, King of America and Blood & Chocolate, there has been nothing else until the recent release of Out of Our Idiot, a compilation of outtakes and b-sides from obscure singles. It contains only one new, previously unreleased song, "So Young," a soft reggae song.
The recordings on the album, there are less than 17 tracks stretch from the Get Happy 1980 period to recordings made with T Bone Burnett and The Confederates in the past two years.
Costello's predilection for pseudonyms and personae that allow him to explore, free of restrictions, other musical directions, is given full rein in Idiot.
There are tracks by Napoleon Dynamite and the Royal Guards, The Coward Brothers, The Imposter, Elvis Costello and The Confederates, The Emotional Toothpaste, Elvis Costello and the Attractions and The Costello Show.
There are also tracks recorded with Nick Lowe, Jimmy Cliff and a haunting treatment of Yoko Ono's "Walking on Thin Ice."
While disappointing in its lack of new material, the album is a further revelation of Costello's tireless striving for change and new forms on old songs.
Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus grew up surrounded by music. Born in London in 1954, his father was a musician with the Joe Loss Orchestra and young Declan grew up within earshot and personal encounter of many of the most prominent musicians of the '60s.
His father played jazz but kept abreast of all that was popular. In 1970, his father, Ross MacManus, released a single of "The Long and Winding Road" under the name Day Costello.
Young Declan first cut his performing teeth in a pub rock band, Flip City although by 1976, shortly before he signed to Stiff Records, he was doing the circuit as a solo performer under the name D. P. Costello.
When he did sign to Stiff, an American band, Clover, then fronted by Huey Lewis, were selected as his backing band. His musical influences ranged through Charlie Parker to The Beatles to Dylan to Fairport Convention, Richard and Linda Thompson, Little Feat and Bruce Springsteen.
Stiff Records sought "song" bands and when they found Costello, they hit paydirt.
The bespectacled rock anti hero that glared, with pigeon-toe stance from the cover of My Aim Is True was what the New Wave was all about. Costello and the Attractions' first appearance in Dublin at the Stella Cinema in Rathmines in 1978 was a great show for its mad, frenetic pace as everyone in the hall stood and roared from the opening bars.
Other great albums have followed although the megastardom Costello seemed bound for in the late '70s has alluded him. Firstly, a gruelling tour schedule in the United States after the release of his third album, Armed Forces, almost shattered his health, while the adverse publicity arising from a row with Stephen Stills and Bonnie Bramlett and some ill conceived remarks about the media in general, made sure his road to massive commercial success in America was buried before it had time to take off.
For the fan, that may be no bad thing, in retrospect. Costello's output by then has remained quirky, experimental and above all, fresh. He has tried his hand at production, acting, soundtracking and albums that explored a variety of interests and genres.
His stage shows last year in the Olympia Theatre must stand as one of the great rock theatre events in Dublin of all time. He revealed a stage persona often hidden. It was funny and lively.
Returning to Britain, chastened but unbowed, Elvis steeped himself in the rising "Two Tone" movement and a production role with The Specials. His next album, Get Happy showed a complete reversal of the commercial direction "Armed Forces" had sent him in.
He also got involved in some contractual difficulties around this time, releasing some singles under the name The Imposter before forming his own label F-Beat in 1980. In the United States, songs by Elvis were recorded with some success by Linda Ronstadt.
Trust followed, the most complete Costello statement on vinyl to date and still considered one of his finest albums. Singles success was increasingly elusive and a dramatic change of direction, if not fortune, seemed to be called for. Almost Blue was the answer.
My personal favourite beside the more recent King of America, Almost Blue is a classic country album and it seemed Elvis had found a form to suit his vocal talents.
A prolific writer and worker, 10 Bloody Mary's and 10 How's your Fathers was a collection of many outtakes, live sets and different versions of his more popular tunes. Even on his rare TV appearances, Costello lets no grass grow, every performance sheds a new light.
Since Almost Blue in 1981, he has released ten albums, three of those were re-releases of odd tracks and one "best of."
Unfortunately, Elvis Costello's Out of Our Idiot" and his Demon label records are no longer distributed by WEA in Ireland so the album is only available from certain outlets and on import.
This puts up the cost of the record for Irish buyers. My copy was bought from Tommy Tighe in The Soundcellar in Nassau St. for £7.99. Although Tommy specialises in heavy metal and old blues music in his shop, he will cater for any customer.
He will also respond to telephone orders from anywhere in Ireland. Phone Dublin 771940 or write to Tommy Tighe, Soundcellar, 47 Nassau St., Dublin 2.
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