"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." — Elvis Costello
(Sorry, Elvis.)
Elvis Costello isn't just the greatest songwriter alive. He's a walking, talking contradiction, a conundrum of unimaginable intricacy. Under Costello's disarming gaze, the distinction between high and low Art gets hopelessly blurred: he's a rock singer but he's a poet, too.
That's not just to say his lyrics are packed with images — which they are — or flower with unusually decorative language — which they don't. Perhaps only Bob (Marley or Dylan, you choose) before him wrote accessible tunes with such stirring, intelligent conviction.
Costello writes his songs the way John Donne wrote poems 350 years ago. The Norton Anthology of English Literature praises the English Renaissance minister's verses for their "restless, searching energy that scorns the easy platitude and the smooth, vacant phrase; that is vivid, immediate, troubling." It goes on to say that his poetry "demands imaginative effort of the reader, and absorbs him in a tense, complex experience." Ask Elvis, he'll be the first to tell you that Mr. Norton could have been writing about him. Like Donne, he's got a huge ego. Like Donne's, it is counterbalanced by an equally sizeable sense of humor.
Unlike the work of any Renaissance quill-pusher, you can dance to Costello. From "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" from his 1977 debut to the effervescent "Veronica" on the new release, Spike, there's never been any question that this is music for the kids. Next to the Big Chill soundtrack, there is no better cassette to pop into the boombox at the beach than The Best of Elvis Costello.
Spike opens brand new worlds to "The Beloved Entertainer" — that's the inscription under his harlequin grin on the album cover. A collection of new songs that touch all the bases of human passion, it is or nearly is his best work to date. Brandishing a new Righteous Brother-deep singing voice, he delivers 14 (15 on CD and cassette) hate- and love- letters with refreshing directness. Whereas his earlier masterpieces, particularly Imperial Bedroom and This Year's Model, could only soar as high as his mediocre backup band The Attractions would allow, he surrounds himself with the best and the brightest for this project. Paul McCartney, (who co-wrote "Veronica" and the rockabilly shuffle "Pads, Paws and Claws") Nawlins ivory tickler Allan Toussaint, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and members of Tom Waits' band all turn in superb performances.
Probably aware of the impossibility of assembling a touring band to duplicate these awesome studio sounds, Elvis plays Hill Friday night in the raw. A chance to catch the mercurial Liverpudlian in a solo performance could be as bracing an experience as witnessing Doctor Donne whip up a sermon at St. Paul's Cathedral. If you're lucky enough to hold tickets for the show, expect the best and you won't be disappointed. Remember who we're talking about...
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