Spinning Faster Than Sound

My first EC show was 1996; he played the Park West in Chicago with Steve Nieve. I was a nascent EC fan at that point, 19 years old, just beginning to grasp what my scattershot interest in music had gotten me into. 

I’m sure I’ve written about the show before; it was unlike anything I’d seen, a level of musicianship and wit that knocked my ears back—and yet firmly in a tradition of pop and rock that had been baked into my blood before I was even born.

He played “Alison,” of course, but on this tour he developed a lengthy stream of cover references in the middle of the song—I hesitate to even call them cover “versions” since in some cases he ended up doing just a few lines, maybe a verse and a chorus. 

For his New York show at the Supper Club, “Living a Little, Laughing a Little” emerged as part of this medley. He uses the first two lines, “Laugh everyone at the clown/He’s the best one in town” then jumps ahead to a later verse: “But somewhere deep in his shell/there’s an ember of pride…” They’re just a prelude to a tour through Smokey Robinson’s catalog of “heartbroken clown” songs (“Tracks of my Tears,” “Tears of a Clown,” “No More Tearstained Make-up”) before wrapping up with Costello’s own contribution to the genre, “Clowntime Is Over.”  

In the moment, that kind of inspiration feels immediate and spontaneous; no doubt, it was carefully planned, managing to stitch together not just the “obvious” choices from Robinson’s work but a 1974 cut from legendary Philly producer Thom Bell and the Spinners, before bringing it back to EC’s own catalog. 

Although Costello no doubt knew the Spinners track from its initial release, he also sang a duet of the song with John Hiatt on the latter’s 1985 album Warming Up to the Ice Age. The video is notable for both not featuring, AND eventually featuring, EC himself.