Keeping up his breakneck streak, Elvis Costello released his seventh album in as many years in 1983. Punch the Clock was a departure from the baroque pop of Imperial Bedroom and Costello’s most commercial-sounding album to date.
Punch the Clock was produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, a pair of Brits I’ve seen described as “hit-makers,” though I don’t recognize any of the so-called hits they produced. They brought a high-gloss sheen to Costello’s tunes, including a jaunty brass section and a pair of girl-group backing vocalists known as Afrodiziak.
While the album pales in comparison to its predecessor, Punch the Clock does have its charms. ‘Everyday I Write the Book,’ which Costello says he wrote in about ten minutes, became an unlikely (minor) hit and remains a favorite of mine to this day. A rare Costello love song like ‘The Element Within Her’ proves a nice respite from the claustrophobic emotional battlefield of Imperial Bedroom.
But the two tracks I’m featuring this weekend are standouts of a different stripe. Both musically and thematically, these songs stand apart from the lighter fare on Punch the Clock and kick the album up a notch.
First up is ‘Shipbuilding,’ an anti-war song written with Langer (the principal melody is his). Costello penned this track in response to the United Kingdom entering the Falklands War. He examines a small shipbuilding town where a war means much-needed jobs, but at much too great a cost.
This is one of Costello’s greatest songs, not least because of Chet Baker’s beautiful trumpet solo. I’ve read in several places (including from Costello himself) that Langer and Winstanley really botched the second half of the solo by adding an echo effect. I have to admit I’ve never noticed and I’m almost afraid to listen to the song again now that I know to look for it.
A new winter coat and shoes for the wife
And a bicycle on the boy’s birthday
It’s just a rumour that was spread around town
By the women and children
Soon we’ll be shipbuilding
Well I ask you
The boy said ‘Dad they’ re going to take me to task
But I’ll be back by Christmas’
It’s just a rumour that was spread around town
Somebody said that someone got filled in
For saying that people get killed in
The result of this shipbuilding
With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls
It’s just a rumour that was spread around town
A telegram or a picture postcard
Within weeks they’ll be re-opening the shipyards
And notifying the next of kin
Once again
It’s all we’re skilled in
We will be shipbuilding
With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls
Meet Me In Montauk 
Without a dobut, one of the most beautiful songs he has ever written. How do you think we should interpret the chorus? “Diving for dear life/ When we could be diving for pearls?” Do the pearls symbolize peace?
Regardless, I love it. Echoing trumpet solo and all.
Amy, I think those lines are suggesting that perhaps we could be building ships for better use (like diving for pearls) than for war.
This is amongst my favorite EC songs as well. And, while I know that Clay has always felt this was a lesser album, it actually ranks amongst my favorites. This may be in part because it was one of my first entry points into hearing EC. (I can”t recall if it was placed in whole on the initial tapes Ned gave me or it was just one of the first CD’s I bought, though I think it was the former) It may also be because I am a sucker for non-traditional artists bending into the pop format. Another example would be Joe Jackson’s Night and Day (or Body and Soul) or The Talking Heads Little Creatures. I think when an artist like EC comes to pop from a left of center perspective (musically) the result in exhilarating. And while the tunes on this album may go down easier to the casual listener, there are musical complexities and, as usual, lyrical twists, that make this far more than a vanilla pop effort. Just listen to Nieve’s piano, which is very dominant on this record, and you begin to appreciate the intricacy, the layers.
While I’m guessing you will be featuring the intense and wonderful “Pills and Soap” tomorrow, I would suggest that there is much to be enjoyed and appreciated on almost every song from this album.
But a smiling visitant here to share the love (:, btw outstanding style