~- ——

Wednesday, October 5, 1983.

ELVIS!

by Louise Tessier
of The Charlatan

SO YOU'RE LOOKING AT THE
Fae headline, probably thinking,

“What is this? This isn't
THE Elvis. This is just some jerk who
stole his name."

Well, in the beginning, anyway, that
was the point. In late 1977, the ambigui-
ty, the audacity of using the King's
name, especially when he had just died,
was in itself a good enough.reason for
using it. There was a lot of meaning
wrapped up into that single word—a
mingled disgust and longing for the
heroes of the past, a:calculated desire to |
shock, a demand to be noticed, if not
taken seriously.

I still remember where and when I .
bought my copy of My Aim is True. It
was in Sherman's on Sparks, it was
around Easter 1978 and it cost me $4.43.
My friends and I read about the Massey
Hall and El Mocambo concerts, green
with envy, jealous of The Globe and Mail
writers who were actually there. We felt
isolated, being in. Grade 10 and stuck
away in Ottawa. So we read anything
we could get out hands on and knew
what was going on at CBGB's, and what
was number one on the British charts,
even if such information was often two
months out of date. New York or Lon-

PUNCH THE CLOCK

by Dave Watson

 

 

THE OTHER PRESS

don was where everything was happen- *
ing, California was dead, and home
wasn't even’on the map.

But all that was six years ago.

Elvis is no longer on the cutting edge
of fashion and the once daring ploy of
appropriating a famous name seems to
embarrass him. He is apparently even
considering going back to his Christian
name, Declan McManus.

' For some people, he seems to have
taken Bob Dylan's role as the thinking
musician. Maybe he realizes this. The
Dylanesque pose he strikes on the cover

could only be an attempt to pull the col-
lective leg of his audience. -

A sometimes arrogant, sometimes
cheeky figure, Elvis has seemingly never
been afraid to do what he wanted,
artistically speaking. Witness Almost ~

Blue, despised by many and beloved by ,

‘few.

In the beginning, of course, this was
not a problem. Audiences were drawn
by the snottiness, the selfish, twisted lit-
tle boy mentality he displayed so
brilliantly on his first two albums. Even
his obvious misogynistic streak was a
selling point to people fed up with the
lullabyes coming out of L.A.'s recording
studios.

But audiences began to drift away
after Get Happy. Elvis was getting too in-

Imperial Bedroom]. Costello just doesn’t

sound right singing the
Be Book’.

The use of repeated choruses and

‘Every Day I Write t.

 

trospective. By the 1982 tour conducted
to publicize Imperial Bedroom, Time
reported that Elvis's audiences grew
restless at the newer songs, demanding

| the anthems of the past.

Imperial Bedroom, of course, is a
brilliant achievement, of a quality most *
artists cannot hope to match. But despite
the critical accolades, it was derided by
some as cocktail music, Elvis gone soft.
' One thing, however is for sure: Punch
the Clock is very much in the shadow of
Imperial Bedroom. Elvis here is hard to

pin down. On Imperial Bedroom he often

edged towards a sort of sympathy he. has|
often been reluctant to display. On Punc

. the Clock, Elvis sometimes-seems as

cagey as in the old days, turning his
lyric skill in on itself. ~

Like ‘‘Every Day I write the Book", a
hooky, catchy sort of tune that owes
more to "Happy Birthday Sweet
Sixteen" than ‘‘Allison''. Lyrics such as
“Chapter One we really didn't get
along" are not all that far from '’When
you were only 10, we didn’t like each

other."’ I can only say Yuck!"

“On the other side of the coin;
however, is ‘‘Shipbuilding”’, a song
about the dilemma of ordinary people
faced with the choice (not of their own
making) between unemployment, and |
drudging, dangerous work. There are

lightweight

 

   

It was inevitable that Elvis would release
a pop album leaning towards the North
American market. The same dancy light
sound adopted by David Bowie and Joe
Jackson runs through Punch the Clock,

unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be a field
Costello can do his best in.

The album does have. it’s moments,
especially the anti-Thatcher ‘Pi//s and
Soap’ and the ballad-like, wistful ‘Shzp-
building’ which gives an home-front view
of the Falkland Islands conflict. the rest of
the songs on the album don’t meet the
usual Elvis quality, possibly because they
don’t have a focus for the intensity that
marks his best works [TAis Year's Model.

 

contrived hooks exhibits the same formula
songs writing that he used to protest
against.

Whenever I listen to this album I hear
the ghost of a much better work restricted
by commercial melodies and common
production. Will Elvis Costello continue
with this financially rewarding but artistic-
ally constrained route? I prefer to think this
album is the result of overwork of releasing
nine albums in six years.

With a little rest Elvis should be back on
his feet producing sharp, hostile music that
doesn’t conform to the formated airplay
that his ‘Radio Radio’ attacked four short
years ago.

 

PAGE 13

 

also overtones of the arms race debate,
as certain sectors of North American
society point out that arms production
means jobs. ‘'Shipbuilding"’ is an elo-
quent song, with a quiet, yearning tone.
Ironically, it is also the song on the
album which bears the closest
ie to anything that appears on
imperial Bedroom. -

ee eThe Greatest Thing'’ harkens back
to the snottiness of 1977-78. Putdown
after cynical putdown brings ‘'This
Year's Girl'' to mind, but Elvis -
breathlessly utters these lyrics, in a tone
of voice far removed from the sneer of
oa YG",

There is no question, of course, that
‘he sometimes bitter aphorisms Elvis
spits out are still better than the
banalities which pass for lyrics in this

| era of Tears for Fears and The Human

League.

The truth of the matter, however, is
that even a mediocre Elvis Costello
album is still a hell of a lot better and
more interesting than a mediocre album
by somebody else.

Punch the Clock is actually a pretty
good, not bad, lukewarm sort of record,
and to anybody who really loved Im-
perial Bedroom, it's bound to be
something of a letdown. To be fair, this
album wasn't meant to be a followup to
Imperial Bedroom, but it's going to be
viewed that way no matter what