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One of my fav Elvis albums! Thanks Robert.
By the mid-1980s, Elvis Costello was in dire need of a change in musical direction. As he recounts in the extensive new liner notes, he was "playing in a band that suddenly sounded like four strangers." Seeking inspiration, he decided the path forward was to use his own name, Declan MacManus, in the credits and to indulge his love and respect for American music.
Partnering with T Bone Burnett, who co-produced the album, Costello (who had already done a country record in Nashville with 1981's Almost Blue) convinced guitarist James Burton, bassist Jerry Scheff, and drummer Ron Tuttall former members of the other Elvis's TCB ("Taking Care of Business") band, to sign on for parts of the album. All-star drummers Jim Keltner and Earl Palmer also came aboard. Mitchell Froom played organ, and Tom Wolk added guitar, accordion, and mandolin. The late Ralph Carney, uncle of The Black Keys' Patrick Carney, played saxophone. Jazz bassist Ray Brown (Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald) played on several tracks. Former members of The AttractionsSteve Nieve, Bruce Thomas, and Pete Thomasalso appear, together. David Hidalgo, the musical genius at the heart of Los Lobos, sings harmony on "Loveable." The result was not only a career reinvention but one of the standout albums in Costello's career.
King of America has now been re-released in a 97-track, six-CD collection entitled King of America & Other Realms. This latest remastering of the original albumwhich had a big, boisterous sonic presence that was generally fine and without serious flawsmay be a shade crisper and more finely outlined than previous remasterings. With a disc of outtakes from the KOA sessions, a full disc documenting a January 1987 live concert from London's Royal Albert Hall, and three discs of other Americana-leaning tracks, this release aims to be the definitive word on Costello's lifelong obsession with American music.
While the accusation of overkill holds some truthparticularly when it comes to Costello's book-length liner notesthe still-gleaming center of this exhaustive set is the original album. Recorded after his run of early masterpieces, King of America equals or exceeds their brilliance, if only for the fresh energy and remarkable animating currents in his melodies and words. Such tunes as the rockabilly rave-up "The Big Light," the anguished ballad "Poisoned Rose," and the classic Costello confessional "Indoor Fireworks" remain standouts in his deep catalog of songwriting. His lyrical abilities reached a career high in "Jack of All Parades," where, after this unforgettable aside"Once I knew a girl/Who looked so much like Judy Garland/That people would stop and give her money"he rushes headlong into impassioned semantic overdrive: "But from my checkered past/ To this shattered terrace/Where you can't keep your mind off/The Crimes of Paris/ And you can't keep your peace/And try to forget it/And I can't forgive you/For things you haven't done yet."
The discs of extra material in this collection all have grandiose titles. Le Roi Sans Sabots comes from two reels of demo recordings, some of which became completed tracks on KOA. Il Principe di New Orleans E Le Marchese Del Mississippi traces Costello's love of New Orleans music and is a tribute to the great Allen Toussaint, who plays piano on "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror," which later appeared on the 1989 album Spike. There's also a live duet with Emmylou Harris on "Heart Shaped Bruise" and a recorded rehearsal of "The Monkey" with the song's composer, New Orleans musical kingpin Dave Bartholomew, and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. The volumes entitled El Principe del Purgatorio and Der Herzog Des Rampenlicht continue to update the story of Costello's upbringing, family, and entanglement with and adoration of American music.
As final proof that Costello has a genuine fever for American music, there's that snappy, firmly in-the-groove live recording of much of King of America captured at the Royal Albert Hall. Happily, unlike a lot of live recordings tracked even as late as the mid-1980s, the sound of this set is surprisingly clear and full-bodied. This spirited performance is nothing short of fabulous, thanks at least in part to the backing band that included Burton, Scheff, Keltner, and keyboardist Benmont Tench from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The supercharged version of the King of America rocker "Loveable" is effervescent. The list of covers in the set makes clear Costello's deep knowledge of the entire Americana spectrum: soul veteran Arthur Alexander's "Sally Sue Brown" (mashed with Bobby "Blue" Bland's "36-22-36"), Waylon Jennings's "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line," and Buddy Holly's "True Love Ways."
In the liner notes for this reissue, Costello sums up where he was emotionally while making KOA. "At the time I wrote these songs, I had wearied of the impulse to toy with feelings or play with words, even though this slim talent had helped make my name, almost as much as a pair of oversized black spectacles. ... Taken all together, the collection was somewhere between a pledge of fealty and a decree absolute."Robert Baird