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"I asked my sister-in-law, who just graduated from high school, if she wanted to go see Elvis Costello," my friend said.
"She said: 'Who's he?' I was amazed she'd never heard of him!"
I'm not amazed, sad to say. I've experienced the same syndrome of peer group ignorance with performers like Bruce Springsteen and way too many others. The kids who grow up listening to what passes for popular music on the tightly programmed and restrictively formatted radio stations of today can't be expected to know good music from a hole in the ground. That's because these stations take WISM or WIBA, as local examples — play very little of it.
They certainly don't play Costello, only the best songwriter of his generation and the best overall today, period. He's a man steeped in the talents of everyone from Rodgers and Hart to Lennon and McCartney, from Otis Redding to Smokey Robinson, always ahead of the crowd by a leap or two.
Costello and his equally potent band, The Attractions, who'll be at the Coliseum Saturday night, prove themselves once again — as if they needed to — on their eighth LP together, Punch The Clock. (Costello has nine LPs out, but The Attractions weren't in the first one.)
Punch The Clock is the usual Costello tour de force with a twist or two, not the least of which is the horn section. Considering that Costello is an acknowledged fan of Bunny Berigan (1908-1942), the great, if not the greatest, trumpet player, this comes as little surprise. Including Chet Baker's trumpet solo on "Shipbuilding," as haunting a tune and performance as you'll ever hear, is a perfect tribute to Bunny, Chet and every hornblower who ever blew a horn well.
Still, "Shipbuilding," a fine-tuned and subtle protest of war (the one in the Falklands, in this case), great though it may be, has to fight to keep the other 12 songs on Punch The Clock out of your head.
Full horn section numbers like "Let Them All Talk," "The Greatest Thing," and "TKO (Boxing Day)" take their toll. "Charm School" and "The Invisible Man," "Pills and Soap" and "The World and His Wife" demand their pound of flesh. There is no escaping this record once you've listened to it. It's mesmerizing, demanding, multi-leveled, full of messages and just plain good old-fashioned songwriting craftsmanship (the kind you won't hear on Top 40 radio, unless it's a fluke, and then you hear it way too many times).
What I'm trying to say, I guess, is that Costello is a virtual encyclopedia of music. He's got horns, he's got soul, he's got verbal twists and turns. Here are a few examples of the latter:
"Hear what I say
See what I do
Believe me now, I'm all over you
All over you
I know a place
A certain very tender spot
To have and to hold
To have and have not
Listening to the sad songs that the radio plays
Have we come this fa-fa-fa to find a soul cliche
— "Let Them All Talk"
"Don't tell me you don't know what love is
When you're old enough to know better
When you find strange hands in your sweater
When your dreamboat turns out to be a footnote
I'm a man with a mission in two or three editions
Chapter One - we didn't really get along
Chapter Two - I think I fell in love with you
You said you'd stand by me in the middle of Chapter Three
But you were up to your old tricks in Chapters Four, Five and Six
— "Everyday I Write The Book"
I could praise this album forever. I could tell you that Costello's got a great voice and delivery or that The Attractions are a band anyone would envy. But better you should hear for yourselves, on record or Saturday night. Elvis is much much more than this year's model and one more thing too: his aim is always true.
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