New Zealand Listener, June 19, 1982

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ELVIS – what happened?


   New Zealand Listener

Pooooorrrrr Elvis Costello. Everyone in England loved his Almost Blue country album. Mum, Dad, little sis. Gave him his first hit single in years, “Good Year For The Roses”, English rock-critics were amazed, delighted, admiring. Their man had survived a close encounter with this stuff without turning into Slim Whitman. Whoo-wee!

But in America they hated the damn thing. His record company had to stop sending it out to country stations. No one came to his Nashville concert. No one believed a ridiculous TV special that purported to show El getting down in the studio with the Nashville cats. Unkindest cut of all (given that Elvis is a big George Jones fan), the country buffs said he couldn’t sing these songs for toffee.

Quote: “The problem is Costello’s voice,” said country critic Jeff Nesin, “a husky constricted baritone with little range and no choke or sob in the upper register. Actually no upper register at all… phrasing and expression are erratic … wholly unsuited to the disciplined, full frontal narrative world of country song.” In short, Elvis goes country was a classic case of the Self Portrait Trap. You remember the 1970 Dylan album? It established a rule: don’t ever record the songs you sing in the shower. Maybe, Nesin kindly concludes, Elvis should have kept to the example set by the Rolling Stones: when they went to their own Fantasy Island (the Chess studios in Chicago) they were satisfied with making an EP.

The geographical split in how Almost Blue has gone down can’t simply be put down to American chauvinism, either. English funk, for instance, has had a great run, with Junior Giscombe’s “Mama Used To Say” being a hit in the States before it broke in Britain. So there you go. Was Almost Blue a fond tribute, a tasty side-step? Or was it a quick shuffle of the cards, a diversion while he figured out what the hell to do next? Kind of a problem, when you’ve put out an album as brilliant as Trust and managed only to mark time in your career.

Hard to be too picky about these things, though. Maybe Costello was just letting his manager Jake Riviera indulge his Colonel Tom Parker fantasies. This seems more like it, because only a few months later Riviera went into an I-am-now-Leonard Bernstein phase and booked Elvis for a concert at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic. “Watching the Detectives” with strings and tympani? Totally off the wall. I wonder if there’s any truth to the rumour that Riviera hypnotises Elvis.

Coooouuuuld be. One senses plans for the emergence of a matoor, all-round entertainer. No more white noise for audiences who dare to ask for encores, huh Jake? Remember, this sudden nosedive in the Costello career is from a guy who said he wouldn’t stick around to witness his artistic decline. Well, to date Riviera has kept the news from El, and kept the golden goose supplied with mental cheeseburgers. A country album El! Wiv songs by your old mate George Jones. You remember George, El? Then we’ll do a classy concert wiv a classical orchestra, El! In Albert Hall!

Hey. Am I alone in seeing something sinister in the fact that Costello’s last good album was called Trust?


Tags: Almost BlueGood Year For The RosesNashvilleGeorge JonesJeff NesinBob DylanThe Rolling StonesTrustJake RivieraLeonard BernsteinRoyal Albert HallRoyal Philharmonic OrchestraWatching The Detectives

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New Zealand Listener, June 19, 1982


New Zealand Listener writes about Almost Blue and Elvis Costello & The Attractions with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on Thursday, January 7, 1982, Royal Albert Hall, London, England.

Images

1982-06-19 New Zealand Listener page 69.jpg
Clipping

1982-06-19 New Zealand Listener supplement cover.jpg
Rock supplement cover - thanks to Richard Sheehan

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