79: Armed Forces
My first Elvis Costello
and the Attractions album,
Armed Forces ruled my 16
year-old world, so much so,
that I can still sing along
word for word to every song
on this album, except for the
words I couldn’t understand,
because there were no lyrics
in the liner notes, and because
sometimes, Elvis Costello mumbles.
I know I could google it,
but I’d rather the second verse
of “Green Shirt” remain a mystery.
I loved, still love, the way this
record sounds, maybe my first
awareness as a budding
musician of what music
professionals call “production.”
Listen to the beautiful mess
of “Goon Squad” and you get
the picture, or the clean and
tight drum sound through most
of the record, the skating rink
keyboards, and that bass guitar
that really digs through the entire
mix. Lyrically, maybe the most
challenging material I had
come across at that point in
my young life. What was he singing
about? I didn’t understand most of it,
and supposed, then, that it must
be important, heady, smart.
Elvis Costello, Andy Partridge,
and Bob Geldof, all English or Irish
blokes, were in so many ways
my earliest writing teachers,
playing with language, asking
important, timeless questions,
like this one: What’s So Funny About
Peace Love and Understanding?
98: Painted From Memory
It came as a shock to me
that this collaboration with
the magnificent 60’s and 70’s
pop music master, Burt Bacharach,
would become one of my
favorite Costello albums.
Maybe my generation of
new waver punk rockers
who dabbled in the prog
took Bacharach for granted.
Elvis, one of the original
new waver punk rockers,
had to take us to school.
What surprised me most
about Bacharach generally
and this album, Painted
From Memory, specifically,
despite the sweetness,
despite the reliance on
exclusively romantic lyric
content of heartache and
loss, was how sophisticated
his music was–and this
record, if it’s anything
musically speaking, it is hyper
sophisticated. I’d kill for
some of these melodies,
the orchestrations, these
changes, those lovely female
background vocals, and
the emotional power of
these lyrics, the kind of lyrics
I would never write, but
nevertheless, lyrics that
never fail to tug at the heart.
This album came to me
right before my life veered
dangerously off the rails.
There was no cause and
effect, I don’t think–but it
became a kind of soundtrack
for a stupendously difficult
time. But it’s not difficult to
listen to this record again.
In spite of the tug, these
tunes “painted from memory,”
are both of a time and timeless,
breathtakingly great songwriting.
18: Look Now
Twenty years after Painted
From Memory, comes Look Now,
the first Elvis Costello I buy new
on vinyl, six or seven years after
I recapture the vinyl bug.
The Attractions, as early as the
90’s and into the new century,
have been replaced by
The Imposters, I’m not sure why,
but possibly because of an old split
between Elvis and his original
bass player, which, I assume,
resulted in a legal conflict about
the name. No matter, this piano
player and drummer have been
with Elvis since he broke in the
70’s. And here, Bacharach is still
with him, co-writing and playing
piano on the title track and
a few others. Even the tunes
that aren’t collaborations have
a kind of Bacharachian vibe.
The melodies are intense, the
piano is prominent, those
signature female back ups,
string arrangements, and along with
a few upbeat toe tappers,
there are these lovely ballads.
And you can hear Elvis singing
in French, which is pretty exciting.
I love this record. I must have
picked it up around the same time
I was juggling lots of other music,
because I have the sinking
suspicion that I didn’t listen to it
nearly as often as it deserved.
I can hum along, but I don’t know the words.
Armed Forces, Universal Music Enterprises, 2020, super deluxe box set, studio album, two live albums, three 10 inch e.p.’s, three 7 inch singles, black vinyl edition.
The Songs of Bacharach and Costello, Universal Music Company, 2023, includes Painted From Memory, double album with bonus tracks on side four, and four compact discs, Painted From Memory, Taken From Life, Because It’s A Lonely World (Live), and Costello Sings Bacharach. Black heavy weight vinyl.
Look Up, Concord Records, 2018, heavyweight black vinyl.
FYI: I’m listening to almost everything in my vinyl collection, A to Z, and writing a long skinny poem-like-thing in response for each artist. These things look like a duck, but they don’t quack like a duck. Hence: “poem-like-thing.” Some artists, Bowie and now Elvis Costello, because of their elevated place in my musical imagination, and because I may have a ton of their stuff on vinyl, deserve more than one poem-like-thing. This is my third Elvis entry. One more to come.
michael jarmer 