Unicorn Times index: Difference between revisions
From The Elvis Costello Wiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
(+January 1978) |
(+notes) |
||
Line 24: | Line 24: | ||
[[Category:Unicorn Times| ]]</noinclude><!-- | [[Category:Unicorn Times| ]]</noinclude><!-- | ||
Notes: | Notes: | ||
************************************** | |||
************************************** | |||
January 1978 | |||
■j UNICORN TIMES | |||
Page 51 | |||
Radar Records, Eno—And Of | |||
Course Nick Lowe and Stiff | |||
By Bruce Rosenstein | |||
NICK LOWE, WHO LEFT Stiff Re-cords | |||
recently with label mate Elvis Cos-tello, | |||
has now signed with a new British | |||
label, Radar Records. The significence | |||
here is that Radar was formed last month | |||
by ex-U.K. United Artists Managing | |||
Director Martin Davies and ex-UA head | |||
of A&R, Andrew Lauder, the man who | |||
originally signed Lowe's old band Brins-ley | |||
Schwarz nine years ago. Lauder, who | |||
was in. charge of A&R at UA for ten | |||
years, has had a reputation in London | |||
for being the sharpest judge of talent in | |||
town, as well as a keen spotter of trends. | |||
Besides the Brinsleys, other Lauder | |||
signings included Man, Hawkwind, Dr. | |||
Feelgood, and The Stranglers. There are | |||
rumors that Costello may join Lowe at | |||
his new label, for Britain only, since he | |||
is signed to CBS elsewhere. The Radar | |||
label, which has yet to release its first | |||
product, is a 50/50 venture between | |||
Davies/Lauder and the WEA (Warner- | |||
Elektra-Atlantic) Corporation. | |||
We've gone through this before, but | |||
now it looks like the real thing: Stiff | |||
Records is apparently set to get U.S. | |||
distribution, though Arista Records. The | |||
Stiff roster includes Ian Dury—who may | |||
tour here soon—The Damned, Wreck- | |||
•less Eric, Yachts, and Larry Wallis. It | |||
remains to be seen whether any U.S. | |||
record company can adequately market | |||
and promote such quirky, hardcore | |||
British artists. | |||
************************************** | |||
************************************** | |||
************************************** | |||
************************************** | |||
January 1978 | |||
UNICORN TIMES | |||
Page '29 | |||
TWO GENEIUTIONS OF PUB ROCK | |||
Elvis Costello Twitches Breathlessly AcrossJM | |||
By Joe Sasjy | |||
AT THE MOMENT THAT ELVIS | |||
Costello rushed to the stage of Phila-delphia's | |||
Hot Club and jumped into | |||
"Welcome to the Working Week," his | |||
eyeballs relinquished focus and assumed | |||
a life of their own. For the rest of the | |||
night, they would wander and strain, | |||
twist and swivel, at times appearing to be | |||
two pupil less, bloodshot white globes. | |||
As Costello stoked his boilerroom rage | |||
. ..100°... 150°. . . 200°. ..250°. . . | |||
those eyeballs, overheated and agitated, | |||
threatened to take leave of their sockets. | |||
By the time his band, the Attractions | |||
(drums, bass, organ), had segued into | |||
"The Angels Wanna Wear My Red | |||
Shoes," Costello's face was transformed | |||
from British chalk-white to crimson, | |||
redder than the red shoes he was scream-ing | |||
about. As Costello ripped through | |||
the caustic lead in "Blame It on Cain," | |||
the sweat began pouring off his forehead, | |||
to drop in a steady stream from his chin. | |||
It was freezing outside; blood was boil-ing | |||
inside. When the second show end-ed— | |||
after about 30 songs of vengeance | |||
set to the eternal rock'n'roll jukebox— | |||
I was ecstatic, too numb to express | |||
ecstasy, and possessed by two thoughts: | |||
Everything really did seem less than | |||
Elvis. When does he turn white again? | |||
It's interesting to note that the most | |||
potent image in rock today may be that of | |||
a 22-year old, British, ex-computer | |||
operator—homely, short-haired, spec-tacled— | |||
standing awkwardly, Fender | |||
Jazz in hand. That's a long way but only | |||
a few years from the West Side Story | |||
silhouettes of Broadway Bruce. The | |||
ascent of Declan Costello from computer | |||
operator at an Elizabeth Arden plant to | |||
media sweetheart and Columbia record-ing | |||
artist has been meteoric, although | |||
Costello is still far from mass popularity. | |||
It began in the best possible way, word-of- | |||
mouth following the release of his al-bum, | |||
MyAim Is True, by Stiff Records (a | |||
small, significant, and imaginative Bri-tish | |||
label). The album became a best-selling | |||
import and started receiving signi-ficant | |||
FM airplay in the States (very | |||
little, however, in the DC area). Colum-bia, | |||
with a tradition of landing the big | |||
ones, signed Costello, immediately re-leased | |||
the album, and began a sizable | |||
ad campaign) for example, "Reality Was | |||
Never this Good"). | |||
Philadelphia was just about the tail-end | |||
(New York City remained) of Cos-tello's | |||
brief first American tour. The | |||
Hot Club, plastered with giant green | |||
posters with a yellow Elvis staring out, | |||
held a claustrophobic 200. When Costello | |||
took the stage he looked every bit the | |||
freshly hatched, ugly duckling of rock'n'- | |||
roll; he was dressed in a crumpled black | |||
suit that had seen neither washer nor iron | |||
since the tour began. | |||
The live show was not a reiteration of | |||
the album; it was more a vicious counter-point. | |||
Characteristic was the sacrifice of | |||
some of the melodic sensibility of the | |||
album in favor of a more rhythmically | |||
incessant and monolithically angry ap-proach | |||
on stage. Notably, Costello did | |||
not sing "Radio Sweetheart" or "Alison," | |||
two songs that reflect the calm before the | |||
storm, the more loving (even nostalgic) | |||
side of Elvis' bitter dissections of failed | |||
relationships. Gone also were many of | |||
the U.S.A... | |||
the brilliantly simple touches that ele-vated | |||
the album—the transcendental | |||
guitar figure opening "Miracle Man"; | |||
the screaming guitar note that follows | |||
every "blame it on Cain"; the frenetic | |||
instrumental break of "Mystery Dance." | |||
Likewise some of the nuances of Cos-tello's | |||
vocals were sublimated as he bore | |||
down on the mike, shouting the lyrics, | |||
insisting on their truth. A beautiful ex-ception | |||
occurred during Costello's | |||
rockabilly gem, "Mystery Dance." In | |||
the song's dramatic stop-and-go intro, | |||
Elvis demanded, "don't bury me 'cause | |||
I'm not dead . . .," paused waited and | |||
then carefully and forcefully enunciated | |||
"... yet." At that point, Costello—with | |||
his poor man's Buddy Holly looks, his | |||
classic licks, and that beaten Fender— | |||
seemed a timeless element of the eter-nal | |||
50's. That "me" was as much about | |||
rock'n'roll and its mystery as Elvis and | |||
his dance. When the song was over, he | |||
screamed at the audience, "WAKE UP!" | |||
For the moment rockabilly had found it-self | |||
in the 70's. The hillbilly was trans-formed | |||
to workingclass British, the hic-cups | |||
were a scream, and the nervousness | |||
had become rage. | |||
Live, Costello was not selling his al-bum | |||
so much as himself as a songwriter. | |||
I counted eleven new songs (some titles: | |||
"Little Triggers," "No Action," "The | |||
Beat," "Pump it Up," "Lipstick Vogue," | |||
and "Let's Slow Dance"). All of them | |||
were the same blend of lyrical snap, | |||
barbed wit, and pop accessibility that | |||
made his album as cryptic as it was in-stantly | |||
engaging. He introduced a new | |||
song, "Radio Radio," that was both a put-down | |||
of American radio and a claim that | |||
radio was, by rock'n'roll birthright, his | |||
territory. The use of the. organ gave cre-dence | |||
to that claim as it brought out | |||
AM echoes of the Mysterians, the | |||
Strangeloves, and the Kingsmen. | |||
Throughout the new material were shreds | |||
of rock'n'roll archetypes like "Gloria," | |||
"Hang On Sloopy," and "My Genera-tion." | |||
Throughout the evening, Costello | |||
rushed from song to song with almost no | |||
pause for breath or talk. He interjected | |||
one note of humor in the second show | |||
when he told the audience, "This one's | |||
for all the people who stood out in the | |||
cold waiting for us." The band then | |||
broke into the wonderfully choppy intro | |||
to "Less Than Zero." Interestingly, it | |||
was not the encore—a furious, bulging | |||
veins performance of "I'm Not Angry"— | |||
that provided the evening's musical | |||
climax. Rather it was Costello's TV | |||
mystery, "Watching the Detectives," | |||
that riveted the audience. There was | |||
something spellbinding and creepy about | |||
"His eyeballs would | |||
wander and strain, | |||
twist and swivel, at times | |||
appearing to be two | |||
pupiless bloodshot white | |||
globes. As Costello | |||
stoked his boilerroom | |||
rage those eyeballs, | |||
overheated and agitated, | |||
threatened to take | |||
leave of their sockets." | |||
i | |||
Steve Bialer/photo: Columbia Records | |||
************************************** | |||
************************************** | |||
Page 3O | |||
January 1978 | |||
UNICORN TIMES | |||
Costello's dramatic phrasing ("you know | |||
it took my little fingers to blow you | |||
away") and ominous guitar playing that | |||
transform this organ-based reggae ditty | |||
into a tale of the macabre. | |||
Live, Costello seemed physically pos-sessed | |||
and driven by his themes of re-jection | |||
and revenge and, in that sense, | |||
shared more with Johnny Rotten than | |||
Southside Johnny. The power of his | |||
music owes more, however, to his | |||
ability to graft those themes onto classic | |||
rock (at its toughest and most eco-nomical) | |||
and to hold a teetering balance | |||
between rage and humor ("Oh I used to | |||
be disgusted/Now I fry to be amused"), | |||
between contempt and passion. If this | |||
ugly duckling is finally paying the world | |||
back, he is using the double-edged sword | |||
of the satirist and surrealist, not the | |||
broad hatchet of the British punks. | |||
The rejection theme that seems | |||
endless in Costello's songs ("I know that | |||
she has made a fool of him/Like girls | |||
have done so many nights before, time | |||
and time again") extends to the record | |||
industry and the rock press. Costello | |||
is openly bitter about his earlier problems | |||
getting record companies interested in | |||
his songs. He described his experiences | |||
in a Melody Maker interview: "I went | |||
around for nearly a year before I came to | |||
Stiff and it was the same response. ' We | |||
can't hear the words.' ' It isn't commerci-al | |||
enough.' 'There aren't any singles.' | |||
Idiots ... No, it didn't make me bitter. | |||
I was already bitter." With his recent | |||
success, it is Elvis' turn to reject and he | |||
has given the rock press only the barest | |||
tidbits on his life, and the sources and | |||
meanings of his songs. | |||
With the critics in tow, Columbia be-hind | |||
him, and some of the best songs of | |||
the decade, Costello has become the tar-get | |||
of the big questions—will he be the | |||
next big whatever? how far will he go? | |||
how many will he attract? how much will | |||
he sell? If new wave has any meaning—if | |||
there is a point of reference for the likes | |||
of Costello, the Ramones, Graham Park-er, | |||
the Sex Pistols—it's that those are | |||
the terms of the record industry, not the | |||
artists and their fans. Any of the above | |||
can do what Costello did in the Hot | |||
Club—fill a rock club with uncompromis-ing, | |||
occassionally brilliant and idiosyn-cratic | |||
rock art and share that experience, | |||
up close, with their audience. That is | |||
enough; that is everything worth de-manding | |||
and receiving. • | |||
...While | |||
Dr. Feelgood | |||
Keeps | |||
Overcoming | |||
Obstacles | |||
By Bruce Rosenstein | |||
************************************** | |||
************************************** | |||