Review: Vinyl Reissue of Elvis Costello's 'King of America'

By the mid-eighties, there was trouble in the Attractions, although Elvis Costello wasn't quite ready to lop "and the Attractions" from his album covers just yet. So he put out King of America, which could rightfully be deemed his first solo album since My Aim Is True, as The Costello Show, even though the Attractions do back him on "Suit of Lights". Elsewhere his support is the American studio-group he unfortunately christened the Confederates.

Ten Great Bruce Thomas Basslines

Bruce Thomas is a controversial guy in Elvis Costello-fan circles. Some have never forgiven him for portraying their hero as a whiny guy who sweats a lot in the semi- autobiographical novella The Big Wheel.  Elvis certainly hasn’t. Yet few Elvis fans would be stupid enough to dismiss Bruce Thomas as a musician, and as bass guitarists go, he deserves a place at the top with James Jamerson, John Entwistle, and Paul McCartney. Today, on his 65^th birthday, let’s take a listen to some of the lines that make Bruce one of pop’s most amazing bassmen (Bruce has done some fantastic work outside of The Attractions, particularly with Suzanne Vega on the great 99.9F°, but here I’ll just be focusing on his work behind Elvis).

1. “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea” (1978)

Elvis Costello has always been more of a colorist than a lead guitarist. This often left Steve Nieve and Bruce Thomas responsible for the hook. In the case of the first single released as Elvis Costello and the Attractions, all three musicians supply memorable riffs, with Elvis jittering out triplets and Steve Nieve countering the amphetamine paranoia of that guitar riff with a languidly creepy descending line on his Vox Continental. Yet it is Bruce Thomas’s uncharacteristically simple reggae bassline that best catches the ear. His halting major triad riff pins down the verses, while his capricious slides give momentum to the bridge even as the overall dynamic remains constant.

2. “Pump It Up” (1978)

Bruce Thomas’s bass stands out on “Chelsea.” On “Pump It Up,” it practically is the song. Elvis’s Dylanesque rap, which droves of kids learned word-for-word as a sort of New Wave badge of honor (until it R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World As We Know It” took it’s place), is no small thing. However, all the melody flows from Bruce’s fingers. He squeezes in two totally distinct, totally memorable lines: the hopping riff of the verse and the three-note descent that supplies super-gravity between verses. His two-steps-forward/-one-step-back climb under the chorus is not as iconic as those other two riffs, but it’s the most technically spectacular bass work on the track.

3. “The Beat” (1978)

Review: Elvis Costello and The Imposters at The Beacon (5/23/2011)

1986 was a year of refreshment for Elvis Costello. After an extended period of indifferent work further diluted by the off-puttingly glossy production of Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, he got back on track with two great albums. King of America found him at his most sophisticated; Blood and Chocolate at his hungriest. In support of his latest triumphs, Elvis burnt up the road with a brilliant new gimmick. Adopting the sardonically sleazy persona of a game show host, he invited fans on stage to twirl his “Spectacular Spinning Songbook”, a giant wheel-of-fortune featuring 40 hits, oddities, and categories dictating the next number he and the Attractions would rip-snort their way through.

25 years later he’s pulled the wheel and his charmingly smarmy alter ego, Napoleon Dynamite, out of storage to give fans another chance to win big. Last night Elvis and the Imposters took their spectacle to NYC’s Beacon Theater. The show was a colorful, cartoony free-for-all in which kids, a few minor-celebrity guests (T-Bone Burnett, Willie Garson, most fondly remembered by this writer for his bit part as “Heavy Metal Roadie” on “Twin Peaks”), and a drunken wannabe stripper roamed the stage like coyotes. Toss in a couple of Go-Go dancers and all the action could be a bit distracting. But this is a spectacle, and the show certainly delivered on that level, even if the wheel was a big of a shaggy-dog prop. More often than not, Elvis would cheat by manipulating the wheel to his preferred song, most likely to give preference to punter-pleasers like “Oliver’s Army” rather than deep cuts like “Country Darkness”. No matter. Groovy surprises, such as covers of Prince’s “Purple Rain”, Nick Lowe’s “Heart of the City”, and The Stones’ “Out of Time”, elevated the show beyond a rote recital of greatest hits. The band sounded great; particularly after drummer Pete Thomas’s daughter Tennessee joined him behind the kit. Playing in super-human synchronization, the Daddy/Daughter team turned stuff like “Turpentine” and “Peace, Love, and Understanding” into sonic avalanches. A rare appearance by Elvis’s brother, Ronan MacManus, and a small Irish ensemble called Bible Code Sundays that joined him on "American Without Tears" and “Little Palaces” was another familial treat that lent a bit of necessary intimacy to one really big show.

The Set List:

I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY NOW
HEART OF THE CITY
MYSTERY DANCE
RADIO RADIO
WATCHING THE DETECTIVES
CLOWNTIME IS OVER
STRICT TIME
MAN OUT OF TIME
OUT OF TIME
OLIVER'S ARMY
A SLOW DRAG WITH JOSEPHINE
AMERICAN WITHOUT TEARS
LITTLE PALACES
SO LIKE CANDY
DON'T LET ME BE MISUNDERSTOOD
ALL GROWN UP
TURPENTINE
UNCOMPLICATED
LIPSTICK VOGUE w/ Alex Turner from Arctic Monkeys
WAITING FOR THE END OF THE WORLD/GLORIA
(I DON'T WANT TO GO TO) CHELSEA
I WANT YOU
ALISON
TRACKS OF MY TEARS
TEARS OF A CLOWN
SUSPICIOUS MINDS
RED SHOES
PURPLE RAIN
PUMP IT UP
(WHAT'S SO FUNNY 'BOUT) PEACE, LOVE, AND UNDERSTANDING

300th Post!