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Dear Catrina:
L.A. is a real hell-hole.
So far the only highlight of my vacation here has been seeing Elvis Costello do four monster shows at the Whisky on Sunset Strip.
Remember ol' E.C.?
He's the English lunatic we said two months ago in Upbeat had already issued the LP of the year with My Aim Is True.
Well, in person, honey, the kid is twice as toasted out as any of his pictures indicate. He wears these cheap little $39 suits with these real Mickey Mouse ties and U-Boat shoes; and he's now gone and got himself a real buzz-top hairdo. I mean, a real crewcut, with white walls around the ears no less.
E.C. may not look like a rock star — but live, whew — the kid is a stone killer. Maniacal stage presence. Incredible vocals. Frantic guitar work. And a collection of some of the finest tunes I've ever heard.
No doubt about it: Along with Graham Parker and Springsteen, E.C. completes the blessed trinity of great singer-songwriter-performers that the 70s have produced.
E.C. has now got this great three-piece group (drums, bass, organ) backing him called the Attractions, and rather than just do the tunes from My Aim Is True, they're taking a real chance by knocking out all these superb brand new numbers, like "You're Not Just Another Face on the Cover of the Lipstick Vogue," "Pump It Up," "Little Triggers," "You Belong To Me," "The Beat," plus this beauty called "Radio, Radio," about the horrendous state of radio today. (Ain't it the truth?)
Highlight of "Radio, Radio" is the Attractions whispering in harmony "Listen / Listen / Listen," while Elvis screams: "I wanna bite the hand that feeds me / I wanna make them wish they'd never seen me."
A real rock classic.
To top it all off, on Saturday night, this older guy standing in front of the stage kept yelling up at Elvis how UGLY he was — so Elvis just casually emptied his drink on the guy's head.
The guy then threw his drink at Elvis, the bass player flew over and kicked the guy in the head, the guy then threw his girlfriend's drink at Elvis and hit him with it, so Elvis shattered his glass on the amp top and went after the guy with this piece of jagged glass.
El's manager — Jake Riviera — put an end to the whole thing by jumping the guy from the stage in one leap — and then punching him from one end of the Whisky to the other. (Certainly beats watching a James Taylor concert, now doesn't it?)
A tonload of guys from CBS were there both nights (El s new record company), and after the proper introductions, they were kind enough to take me upstairs to his dressing room for a quick chat.
How cute of them to do that.
E.C. talked about the record biz: "I don't know. They're all so stupid sometimes. They think they have to get excited about me or something. It's that kind of patronizing applause. I don't think a lot of them really know what's going on."
About musical comparisons: "I'm getting just a little sick and tired of being compared to Graham Parker and Van Morrison and Bob Dylan. I just might even write a song about it."
About his reluctance to discuss his past: "People want to know about me being a computer programmer before all this happened and stuff like that. Well, none of that matters. I don't believe in my past."
And his stage presence: "It's all in my eyes. People can tell by my eyes that I mean business — and I can tell by their eyes whether they mean business or not. That's what it all comes down to. "The eyes."
Anyway, when I get back let's go get a pizza at Flora's, and talk about putting E.C. on the cover of Upbeat.
The kid deserves it.
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