Category Archives: costello weekends

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Song of the Day #898: ‘I’ll Wear It Proudly’ – Elvis Costello

After putting out nine albums over the previous eight years, Elvis Costello took a brief hiatus, waiting two years to release his next album, 1986’s King of America.

Of course he made up for lost time by releasing another new album later the same year, but that will have to wait for next week.

King of America was Costello’s first album since his debut not recorded with The Attractions (though they do show up on one track). Instead he was joined by a group of backing musicians he called The Confederates, traditional country and jazz players assembled by producer T. Bone Burnett.

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Song of the Day #892: ‘The Comedians’ – Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello called Goodbye Cruel World his “worst album” in one reissue, but in a future release he amended that sentiment to call it “the worst record that I could have made of a decent bunch of songs.”

The argument for that perspective is made by the inclusion of demo and alternate versions of almost all of the Goodbye Cruel World tracks in vastly different arrangements, and indeed the album that could have been is far better than the album that eventually was.

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Song of the Day #891: ‘Room With No Number’ – Elvis Costello

Every dog has his day, and every genius has his dog. Elvis Costello’s follow-up to Punch the Clock, 1984’s Goodbye Cruel World, was his first (and by my count, still only) outright dog.

I’ve posted this quote before but it’s a good one, so I’ll post it again. In his liner notes for a re-release of this album, Costello wrote, “Congratulations! You just bought the worst album of my career.”

Funny to think that such an album warranted a re-release in the first place. Actually, like most of Costello’s albums, it’s been released more than a few times with varying selections of bonus tracks and liner notes. It’s nearly impossible, and certainly expensive, to be an Elvis Costello completist.

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Song of the Day #885: ‘Pills and Soap’ – Elvis Costello

The second of the political songs on Elvis Costello’s Punch the Clock is a strange track toward the end of the album.

Costello has said that he got the inspiration for the sound of ‘Pills and Soap’ from the rap song ‘The Message’ by Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel. He says of that single, “It was the first rap record that I had encountered that was anymore than an invitation to dance. It spoke about ugly life.”

Now it would have been interesting had Costello been inspired to actually rap on his own record, but alas, we were deprived of (or spared) that experience.

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Song of the Day #884: ‘Shipbuilding’ – Elvis Costello

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.

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