It Was A Fine Idea At The Time

(it’s been a while!)

My copy of the new King of America & Other Realms boxed set arrived last weekend, and while I plan to spend some time luxuriating in it and extracting observations, I wanted to get a few hip pocket takes out quickly. 

• I was one of the perplexed people who looked at the track listing and didn’t quite understand it at first–why all this more recent and previously released stuff? Why not keep it lean and mean and maybe a little less expensive? But this is Elvis Costello staking out some new territory, using the typical remaster and reissue of a major record to also explore some thematic ideas that have stretched throughout his career. It really is more than just a glossed-up old album with some rare tracks; it’s a tour through one artist’s experience of America, coursing through decades, genres, and collaborations with abandon. It’s impressionistic and vast. 

• King of America itself sounds great. I’m going to give it a few more listens to solidify my reactions but it’s one of those remasters that helps reveal new detail and fresh sounds with a close listen. And the weird track skip at the end of “I’ll Wear It Proudly” is gone at last. 

• If there’s one single selling point for this set, it’s the newly-uncovered live performance featuring EC and his Confederates band from January 1987. This tour was previously immortalized in a bonus disc included with editions of Ryko’s King of America reissue from 1995; that was a five-song EP and this is half of a full show. (That’s a nit I’ll choose to pick; you could easily replace one of the compilation discs with the rest of this concert recording so that it’s a full show experience. But again, nitpick!) This live set really ties the package together; you can hear a rich gumbo of American music percolating onstage, from James Burton’s clean rock guitar to T-Bone Wolk’s zydeco accordion. Country, folk, soul, blues–all of it gets tossed together and processed through the songs. 

• The essay by EC is almost worth the price of admission by itself. It’s practically a short addendum to his biography. Like all of his biographical prose, it’s artful obfuscation punctuated by exquisite anecdotes and bright shocks of truth. 

• I started this on Monday and hoped to get it out before Tuesday’s election in the US; it was not meant to be. It’s almost impossible for me not to think about this music as a series of reactions to America, and thus to ponder where we find ourselves today. Somehow, EC himself has preparied us for how his music fits into the modern portrait of a cruel, dying country: