Those Elvis Costello fans confused and disappointed by his foray into country music with 1981’s Almost Blue didn’t have to wait long for his return to the sort of musical experimentation he started with Trust.
In 1982, he released Imperial Bedroom, his most ambitious and intricate album yet. Produced by Geoff Emerick, who served as the engineer on several Beatles classics, this record was Costello’s Sgt. Pepper’s — packed to the brim with musical flourishes, including a full orchestra on some tracks.
In addition to the attention-grabbing production, Imperial Bedroom featured some of Elvis Costello’s very best songwriting. Opening track ‘Beyond Belief,’ which I featured on the blog in early 2009, perhaps represents the epitome of Costello’s craft to that point, beautifully marrying the other-worldly production with a stunner of a song that just builds and builds to its payoff.
Other highlights include ‘Shabby Doll,’ an ominous acoustic number that sounds like something you might hear from a deranged carnival barker; ‘Almost Blue,’ a torch song that borrows the title of his previous album release (or did that album borrow its title from this then-unreleased song?); ‘The Long Honeymoon,’ a cabaret-style tale of a lonely housewife who suspects her husband is cheating; and I could go on and on. Every song here is truly great.
One of my very favorites is ‘Human Hands,’ one of the few “love songs” in Costello’s canon. Imperial Bedroom was my first Costello album and this was the first song singled out to me by the kindly souls who gave me the gift of Elvis Costello — a gift that has kept on giving for two decades now.
Oh darling how I miss you
I’m just the mere shadow of my former selfishness
I crave the silhouette of your kiss
With only the blue light of the TV on
Lip reading threats and false alarms
There’s a boy somewhere holding hands with himself
And a girl in a window on the Reeperbarn
Whenever I put my foot in my mouth and you begin to doubt
That it’s you that I’m dreaming about
Do I have to draw you a diagram?
All I ever want is just to fall into your human hands
With the kings and queens of the dance hall craze
Checkmate in three moves in your heyday
But the girls don’t listen to your line anymore
Now you’re part of someone else
On the factory floor, you still say Where’s the action?
Now you manufacture happiness
And get sold on the cheap for someone’s satisfaction
(chorus)
All you toy soldiers and scaremongers
Are you living in this world sometimes I wonder
In between saying you’ve seen too much and saying you’ve seen it all before
Tighter and tighter I hold you tightly
You know I love you more than slightly
Although I’ve never said it like this before
(chorus)
Meet Me In Montauk 
“Do I have to draw you a diagram?” That may be my very favorite line – in terms of its delivery – of all time.
This song, along with “Renaissance Eyes” by Don Dixon, is likely responsible for the fact that I married my best friend in college. When he presented a compilation tape with not your garden variety love songs but thoughtfully selected love songs such as those two, I knew I was in trouble 🙂 22 years later I’m quite pleased that I recognized what a gift I was being presented.
That concludes the sappy portion of today’s comment 😉
What, really, isn’t there to adore about this song? Costello’s famed wordplay is as evident as ever – “the mere shadow of my former selflessness” – GENIUS, pure genius. And this may be his best chorus ever. The notion of human hands is simultaneously the simplest symbol but one of profound importance. It never ceases to grab me each time I hear this song.
And, yes, this album is a stunner. We just listened to it with the kids for the first time this past weekend. While I’m not sure they immediately took to him as we all did the first time we heard him, I was amazed by each track, trying to hear each as though I’d never heard it before. Last night, I was listening to his most recent album, and I have to marvel once again. Is there another artist as gifted as he? I doubt it.
(For those who are curious; here is a link to the Dixon song, which I doubt will otherwise be featured on this blog. Enjoy!:
http://ilike.myspacecdn.com/play#Don+Dixon:Renaissance+Eyes:2097910:s45251659.11662444.20160333.0.2.130%2Cstd_43b1f02b58a447e59a941ca0cc18ba1b )
Man, am I glad I chose the right songs for that mix tape! I came this close to choosing “Endless Love” and “The Girl is Mine.”:) Fortunately, my good luck and musical taste has paid off in dividends these past 22 years.
Anyway, I have to simply echo and reinforce what Clay and Amy have already said. The song is genius and the album from which it came is brilliant. The only thing I would add is that part of the dynamic quality of this song is the way the musical instrumentation is competing with the vocal melody line. It’s almost as if EC could have written an entirely different song simply going with the flow of the piano and bass lines, but decided to layer what is essentially a counter-melody over the instrumentation. The discord is most notable in the verses, particularly in the last verse (“All your toy soldiers….”) where the instrumentation is scaled back to really expose through the bass line the song underneath the song. This truly is the stuff of genius at work.
Just as you have spent the past 2 weeks featuring Folds’ debut album, I would be equally thrilled to have you do a theme week featuring every track from this album, or KOA.
Damn this is a great song! The tour for this album was the first time I saw Elvis, and it was lifechanging. For all their Beatlesesque orchestrations, lots of these songs were great live too. I can still see EC in a single spotlight playing the gtr break in Long Honeymoon … just beautiful.
Human Hands is an exceptionally awesome song. Even though it’s crazily complicated and sophisticated musically and lyrically, it’s also nothing but hooks, just grabbing your ears and pulling them in.
That last verse that’s just bass and (amazing) singing … man, I never tire of listening to that (the song underneath the song, as Dana calls it). The drumming on Beyond Belief, the piano on all of side 2, the bassplaying in this verse: every Attraction shines brightly on this album. Inspired and inspiring!