During my Bob Dylan Weekends, I wrote often about my Dylan Six — the six of his albums that I put on a pedestal high above the rest.
In the case of Elvis Costello, I have a Costello Three. That’s not to dismiss the other 15+ albums he’s released — many of those are classics in their own right — but three of them are simply on another level.
The first of the three, as you’ve no doubt guessed, is Get Happy!!.
Recorded in late 1979 with The Attractions and released in early 1980, Get Happy!! was a departure from the punk pop sounds of his first three albums. This was an R&B/soul record, right down to the retro album cover.
The previous year, Costello had gotten into trouble for some ugly, racist remarks he’d made about Ray Charles during a drunken bar fight (is there another kind?). Many people believed his R&B release was an extension of the apologies he’d been dishing out ever since. But Costello maintains that there was no connection.
Whether or not it was born of that controversy, Get Happy!! is certainly a creative explosion. Its 20 songs race by in less than 50 minutes and Costello doesn’t seem to take a breath between frantic opener ‘Love For Tender’ and emotional closer ‘Riot Act.’
Almost every one of these songs is an instant Costello classic, from the slow burning ‘Secondary Modern’ and ‘Motel Matches’ to jaunty covers of ‘I Can’t Stand Up (For Falling Down)’ and ‘I Stand Accused.’ I can’t think of another album that packs this much lyrical and musical brilliance into this small a space.
‘King Horse’ is a standout among the standouts. Like so many Costello songs, it’s a tale of dysfunctional romance and the lies we tell ourselves and each other.
Showtime is almost here
Teased up by a strip cartoon
Laughing up your sleeve
Sniggering in your beer
He’d seen the bottom of a lot of glasses
But he’d never seen love so near
He’d seen love get so expensive
But he’d never seen love so dear
Now I know that you’re all King Horse
Between tenderness and brute force
She can turn upon a sixpence in the mouth and trousers set
Hit the till, ring the bell, never spill a sip
And still she knows the kind of tip that she is gonna get
A lot of loose exchanges, precious little respect
When it’s someone else’s weekend
That’s the best you can expect
Chorus
So fond of the fabric
So fond of fabrication
From comic books to tragic
Through the heart of complications
Meanwhile back in some secluded spot
He says ‘will you please?’ and she says ‘stop’
If I ever lose this good thing that I’ve got
I never want to hear the song you dedicated tonight
Cause you see I knew that song so long before we met
That it means much more than it might
Chorus
Meet Me In Montauk 
Okay, confession time. I am not as familiar with this album as clearly I ought to be based on your effusive praise. In fact, I’m not sure I have played the entire album all the way through more than a few times. Now, I do have familiarity with certain tracks, but mostly because they were featured on the mixed tapes Ned allowed me to borrow all those years ago in Cambridge. So, as Ned mentioned last week, a song like “Secondary Modern” was well worn and dissected as was “I Can’t Stand Up (for Falling Down)”, which I actually didn’t even know was a cover until I heard EC and Springsteen perform it together on Spectacle.
Anyway, my lack of playtime for this album doesn’t mean a lack of appreciation. I think all of the songs are quite good, and “Secondary Modern,” “New Amsterdam” (which I always felt belonged on King of America), “Black and White World,” “Motel Matches” and “Riot Act” stand out for me above the rest.
By the way, I shouldn’t “go there” again, but of course I will. How the hell could you rank this R&B inspired album amongst your 3 favorite EC records, and yet claim not to like R&B music? While you bristle at the idea of a black voice vs. a white voice, do you not see it as a bit ironic that one of your favorite EC records (which I assume makes it one of your favorite albums period) is R&B sung by a white guy, yet you don’t appreciate the genuine article when sung by black singers? Just sayin….
Fair point, but there’s a huge gulf between traditional R&B and R&B as filtered through the brain of Elvis Costello. That’s like me asking you why you love Graceland but don’t listen to Soweto music.
But you overlook the fact that Dana has an outstanding collection of Soweto music!
I don’t know this album at all. My familiarity with Elvis Costello comes down to four albums – King of America, Imperial Bedroom, Spike and the Greatest Hits. If it can’t be found on one of those albums, I likely don’t know it. Of course, as I’ve said again and again on this blog, I’m just fine with that. Knowing and loving the 35-40 songs of Costello’s that I do enables me to listen to that representative sample of songs I love from all the other artists I love.
These weekends are educational but exhausing 😉
But I’m willing to bet there are at least a dozen Elvis Costello songs that you’d love even more than the 35-40 you know now. You need to trade up!
But, Clay, the thing is I don’t say that I don’t like Soweto music. You, on the other hand, said you don’t like soul and R&B music, yet, in fact, you do like it when it put through the ”
“filter” of a white artist, whether it be EC, Dusty Springfield,. Amy Winehouse, Adele, Duffy, etc….
I would concede that, in all probability, I might really dig Soweto music if I bothered to try to access it. I would note, however, that there is probably a larger gulf between what Simon did with Soweto influences on Graceland than what EC is doing here. Simon’s Graceland is very much infused with his melodies and lyrics essentially reworked and layered over an African sound, while EC is clearly paying direct tribute to R&B on this album (though, as you say, with his twist, particularly lyrically)
My point is really this: You will undoubtedly rank KOA as one of the 3 favorites, I assume. Certainly, that album is heavily influenced by country, but when you first heard it and loved it, you proclaimed not to be a fan of country music. Now, 18 years or so later, you are a country fanatic and list a number of country singers amongst your favorites, all of whom would not have been on your list 20 years ago. I suspect that if you took the plunge into R&B performed by black artists, not just whites with a twist, you would become similarly smitten with the genuine article. And, by the way, in some ways I think you already have made some inroads with artists like Al Green, Stevie Wonder and Lauryn Hill. But perhaps you need to stock up on some Teddy Pendergrass, Marvin Gaye and Sam & Dave (who, of coruse, gave EC “I Can’t Stand Up” in the first place.
And since I know you are going to put this back on me as to why I don’t like country despite loving KOA, all I can say, as I have said before, is that I do like certain elements of country as highlighted on KOA (or, as you say, filtered by EC), but I have heard the Brad Paisley’s of the world through my daughter’s love of him and others like him, and it just doesn’t do it for me. I’m more into the country that traces back to bluegrass and blues roots (like Lucinda Williams as one example).
Yeah, you’re probably right.