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I’m a little late to the party on this one. It wasn’t until the holiday break that I fully and formally discovered the wonderful Elvis Costello music program Spectacle.
Oh, I had heard of it and was familiar with the show’s general design. The program focused on interviews that shed celebrity status along with performances by Costello and his guests where they often covered each other’s material. But alas, it airs on the Sundance Channel, which as yet hasn’t make its way into my home. Definitely my loss.
Among my favorite holiday gifts was a DVD collection of the show’s first season. I devoured the set’s 13 episodes in about 3 days.
The guest list for Spectacle was certainly far reaching. It ranged from pop veterans from various generations (Elton John, Tony Bennett, The Police, James Taylor) to soul legends (Smokey Robinson) to jazz greats (Herbie Hancock) to usually camera shy rockers (Lou Reed) to new generation songsmiths (Rufus Wainwright, Jenny Lewis) to veteran scribes (Kris Kristofferson) to a very un-diva-ish opera soprano (Renee Fleming). And in the season’s most unexpected turn, Costello spends a full hour talking nothing but music with former President Bill Clinton.
Then came the sort of world class players that Spectacle sneaked in to play backup behind the featured guests – artists like Bill Frisell, Christian McBride, James Burton, Charlie Haden and Allen Toussaint.
With riches like that, it would be near impossible to pass Spectacle up. But what ultimately makes this such an informative, entertaining and immensely watchable program is the great Costello. Anyone who has stuck with his music over the past 32 years – not just his post punk pop records with the Attractions, but his country, folk, chamber and acoustic roots material along with his wildly matured sense of pop songcraft – can attest to just how vast his knowledge of music history can be. On Spectacle, he puts those smarts to work with questions that illuminate without the smug faux-intellectualism many music journalists descend into with their writing.
He talked Tosca with Fleming, Miles Davis with Hancock, George Jones with Taylor and the history of the Apollo Theater (where many of the Spectacle shows were taped) with Robinson. And the artists responded. Maybe it was depth of the questions that sparked them. But as a viewer, the real thrill came in watching just how much host fun Costello had with the format, the program and his guests. Such zeal carried over into the performances Costello injects into the program outside of what its guests contribute.
Among the tunes Costello tackles with thorough, soulful conviction: a forgotten 1971 Western yarn by Elton John (Spectacle‘s executive producer) called Ballad of a Well Known Gun; Steely Dan’s Show Biz Kids, an exquisite solo version of his own 1995 gem All This Useless Beauty; another John gem (the gospel-esque Border Song) and the Motown classic No More Tear Stained Make-Up.
Spectacle’s second season got underway on Sundance in December. Future guests include Bruce Springsteen, Bono and The Edge, Richard Thompson, Nick Lowe, Levon Helm, Sheryl Crow and Lyle Lovett.
This is easily the most enriching and engrossing series about contemporary music and the creative impulses and designs behind it to hit television in ages – maybe ever. In short, Spectacle is spectacular.
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