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NASHVILLE, TENN. — "This is like seeing the Sex Pistols at Disneyland," the young man said to his friends as they hurried through the entrance to the Opryland, U.S.A. entertainment complex. His feeling was understandable: Elvis Costello, the morose songwriter who gained fame in the mid-1970s during the British punk/new wave movement, was about to perform at the home of the Grand Ole Opry.
The alliance of Costello and the mecca of country music, however unlikely, was plausible. Costello's image as the bitter kid with the sharp tongue and thin tie has died hard, but he has gained respect in recent years as one of the most prolific and versatile songwriters in contemporary music.
Costello, who had written a few country songs, came to Nashville last May with his three-piece band, the Attractions, to record 20 country classics, including George Jones' "Brown to Blue" and Merle Haggard's "Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down." A dozen of the songs appear on Costello's recently released album, Almost Blue.
Recording in Nashville apparently disappointed Costello — his hand-picked country producer did not meet his expectations and Almost Blue has received only "nice try" reviews from the critics.
But the Nashville project was salvaged in his appearance at Opryland, a three-hour performance of more than 40 songs that left his fans satisifled that they had seen a gifted performer at the height of his powers.
Early in the concert, Opryland rangers, accustomed to more sedate fans, struggled to keep the front of the stage clear. They strained to push fans down side aisles as the band played the angry "Radio, Radio."
The yellow-shirted rangers later called it the worst security problem they ever had encountered.
"I don't think we need to tell you what to do," Costello said, encouraging the crowd as he surveyed the conflict through his light purple almost blue spectacles.
The pushing battle dragged on, ironically, into the song "Watch Your Step." Costello finally stopped playing his guitar, walked out of the spotlight to the front of the stage and signaled the rangers to get lost. The crowd then swarmed to the stage.
The rangers spent the remainder of the night enforcing the building's no-smoking policy.
Costello and the Attractions then played for nearly two hours more. They paced the set well, alternating rock songs with ballads, mixing older material with newer songs (two rockers so new they've yet to be recorded: "Human Hands" and "Pidgin English").
The Opry House acoustics warranted their good reputation; the talented Attractions could be heard with singular clarity as the slightest nuance of Costello's singing carried even to the upper balcony.
The show ended at midnight, the five-song encores culminating with a triumphant "What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding" It was the triumph of a man still singing his heart out three hours after he'd begun.
The concert itself, certainly one of Costello's best, was a victory of sorts in a town that had shown less affection for him than he had for it.
"Elvis had always wanted to play at the Opry House," said Jerry Strobel, the manager of the posh suburban auditorium that replaced the pew-filled country music cathedral in downtown Nashville in March 1974.
"I said no several times. I'm very selective about what shows we book in here. We don't need rock concerts. But his people were so persistent, I could see he wanted to play here because this is a special place, not just because it's the right-size hall."
"I think the main reaction to Almost Blue in Nashville was bewilderment," said a spokesman for Costello's record company, CBS. "People figured if they want to hear George Jones, they'll listen to George Jones."
Indeed, the title of the album would seem to describe Costello's frustrating experience as a Nashville recording artist.
When Costello decided to get the Nashville sound for his dozen favorite laments, he selected producer Billy Sherrill, who had worked on the Costello/Jones "Stranger In the House" single and is generally regarded as the best producer in country music.
"Elvis had really done his homework," said the album's engineer, Ron Reynolds. "He knew Billy had worked as an engineer at Sun Records when Sam Phillips was recording Elvis Presley, and he'd listened to the first records Billy produced and liked that sound."
Nearly three decades ago, Presley's rock 'n' roll issued from a country context. The other Elvis came to Nashville to pay some tributes and to try to help bridge the gap that has widened between the genres since Presley's days.
Costello and the Attractions already had selected 20 songs and arranged and rehearsed them in England with pedal steel guitarist John McFee.
The musicians and their group checked into Close Quarters, a hotel five blocks from the CBS recording studios.
The talk in the hotel runs exclusively to album recording, and T-shirts reading "World's Only Rock 'n' Roll Hotel" are sold in the lobby.
It also was about the only place in Nashville where Costello and the Attractions were recognized. "We'd go out to eat or out to a bar and nobody knew them," said Reynolds. "People thought they were a little strange, though, whoever they were. But I'll tell you, there are lots stranger people in country music."
Once in the studio, Costello discovered that producer Sherrill was not going to be as intimately involved in the project as he had hoped.
"I think Elvis felt like Billy just wasn't very interested in what they were doing," said Reynolds. "But Billy is a real recluse. He'll look in on somebody, make a suggestion or two and go back down the hall to his office. He doesn't listen to the music very much so it stays fresh to him. They didn't realize that that's the way he works."
The recording, in effect, was left to the disappointed British musicians and Reynolds.
"We'd run through a song, put our feet up and talk about it, and get the job done," Reynolds said. "I'd anticipated problems with them — some rock stars give you trouble, like (Eric) Clapton but this was enjoyable."
Given the disheartening recording experience, the album's far-from-splashy release and the local media's indifference to the whole affair (possibly they were distracted by a burglary at Johnny Cash's home, the news of which occupied the front pages in Nashville during the week of the show), Costello took the Opry House stage like a man with something to prove. Apparently, he did.
In addition to astounding his fans, Costello impressed even Aneda, a gray-haired Opryland Hostess. "The country songs were just fine, real solid," she said. "And the rock music was all right, too. Of course, I raised four boys and they have guitars and play rock. They used to take my country records and throw them around like Frisbees."
Aneda's kids were mistaken. Rock 'n' roll owes a debt to country music. The Elvis of the 1950s or the Elvis of the 1980s could have told them.
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