Aug 022007
Bruce, come back!
While listening to selected cuts from Elvis Costello & the Attractions’ Blood & Chocolate album this morning I had the following thoughts, which can be applied to broader Rock Meditations:
- What’s your most difficult rock loss to process? For me it’s Costello’s loss of bassist Bruce Thomas. His bass playing drove so many otherwise mediocre Costello tunes. For instance, “Five Gears in Reverse” is a pretty bad song if not for Thomas’ bass part.
- The echoed scream that signifies the fadeout of “Tokoyo Storm Warning” is a recorded moment that I wish Costello could retract. “Why’d he do that?” I think, every time I hear it. It almost ruins the fairly cool song. What recorded moment by an artist you love makes you think Why’d he/she do that?
- There’s a song I wrote years ago that’s never moved beyond home demo stage for various reasons, beginning with the fact that it’s probably not very good. The song means a lot to me, however, and the middle eighth is a complete ripoff of Blood & Chocolate’s “Blue Chair”. I don’t care. Have you ever ripped off a part in a song you love so directly that you just don’t care?
- Unrelated, other than my listening to “Ship of Fools” from The Doors’ Morrison Hotel earlier, What’s your favorite coda in a rock song?
I look forward to your responses.
Actually I think that Davey Farragher is a fine replacement for Bruce Thomas and generally speaking, the Imposters are a way better backing band than The Attractions were in the ’90s, at least comparing the multiple times I’ve seen each version. Of course, I’m sure neither can compare to seeing the Attractions in the late ’70s or early ’80s, but I wasn’t there, so I can’t say.
Anyway, what I really mean to say is that while I like, for instance, When I Was Cruel and even The Delivery Man, I think the reasons you don’t like them have way more to do with EC’s songwriting and less to do with who the bass player is. I mean, those records just can’t compare to Get Happy!!, so it’s a bit unfair of you. Plus, Bruce was a monster on that record as well as the two that followed (not counting Almost Blue here), so again, you have to put things in perspective here.
Townsman Berlyant, with all due respect, how can you tell me why I don’t like EC’s newer albums with Farragher? How can you expect to mend my broken heart like that? Costello wrote plenty of crap songs with the Attractions, and almost all of them were pulled out of the muck thanks to the bass playing of Bruce Thomas. One major exception is “Shot With His Own Gun”, which features absolutely no bass!
First off, I don’t mean to imply that I have the definite answer as to why you like or dislike anything. I do, however, merely think it’s unfair to compare anything EC did in 1980 to his most recent output. I once read a review of Brutal Youth comparing it to Trust, but then cautioning the reader that it would be like comparing an older boxer to his younger incarnation of 13 years prior. I feel the same way. This doesn’t mean, for example, that his later albums are bad or without merit. But as far as I’m concerned, EC’s ’77-’82 run is unmatched by anyone.
With that said, are you comparing EC’s recent performances of his classic material wtih The Imposters as opposed to how The Attractions played it in the ’90s? If so, that’s a more valid comparison since comparing ’90s EC to ’00s EC is far more productive and useful than comparing ’70s EC to ’00s EC.
So then what you’re saying is that, for instance, Punch the Clock and Goodbye Cruel World (both of which feature The Attractions), are both redeemed by the bass playing of Bruce Thomas? Please note that while I have my issues with both of these albums, I generally like them and will defend them if necessary.
If so, that’s something I never thought would happen (you defending those albums, that is). “Shot with His Own Gun” indeed.
Townsman Berlyant wrote:
My friend, I’ll compare output from any Bruce Thomas album in EC’s prime (excluding the country album, which requires subdued bass parts, and Punch the Clock, which has a wussy sound thanks to the producers) to King of America. The mediocre songs on KoA are more boring than the mediocre songs on, say, Trust. Bruce Thomas could raise those songs from the mire.
I’m leaving ’90s EC out of the equation. By that time the leader has lost it, so why bother focusing on any particular band member. Pete Thomas got as boring as anyone by that time as well, and he’s almost as powerful as Bruce on those classic albums.
Now let me mourn the loss of Bruce Thomas in peace, OK?:) How ’bout the rest of you sharing your pain?
Out of curiousity, what do you regard as the “mediocre” songs on each album? In particular I’m interested in King of America here. I mean, I generally agree with you in saying that EC was way better with The Attractions than with a bunch of LA session cats (and the occasional jazz musician, though admittedly those session cats included the other Elvis’ TCB Band), but I don’t think that the Attractions would’ve fit the sound of many of those songs. If you want proof, I have a bootleg called King of Americana where they attempt to play some of the material from that album (particularly “Brilliant Mistake”, a song EC thought would be perfect for them). It just doesn’t work. Now granted, their relations were strained at the time, the Attractions pissed off at being underutilized and neutered on their 2 previous albums and also pissed that EC was using them at their beck and call (they only ended up on one song “Suit of Lights”) while they sat around in an LA hotel all day waiting for a call. Regardless, I just don’t think the sound of most of those songs would’ve fit in with what the Attractions sound like, but that’s just me.
I wish that he and EC could set aside their differences enough for him to have at least played the Rock and Roll Hall of Shame show in 2003 when EC was inducted, but from everything I’ve ever read about the guy, Bruce is an insufferable dick, so it’s hard to blame EC too much.
Latter-day Kinks breaks my heart. There’s some good stuff in there, but:
A) Ray Davies’ inner editor vanished. See ya, bye bye! So many promising songs have prolonged, extended outros, superfluous verses, gratuitous solos, etc. etc. etc. It’s like the basic rudiments of songwriting were suddenly forgotten.
B) Conversely, Ray seemed oddly eager in concert to perform the old songs as perfunctory as possible. This is most manifest in his habit of deleting verses and bridges from songs like “Apeman,” “20th Century Man,” “Victoria.” And then he’d add extra verses to “Low Budget.” It Tears Me Up!
C) Dave Davies’ heavy metal aspirations.
Good one, Oats!
Zappa’s last decade and a half or so made me sad. Simon Jeffes and Penguin Cafe started to depress me, and I feel sure he would have really gotten awful except for his timely brain tumor. But maybe that’s what was mucking up his music…
Why did Dylan re-record Blood On the Tracks as a Dylan impersonator, when it had been recorded so nicely already? (Based on “You’re a Big Girl Now” and it’s blurb on the Biograph box set.)
Also why did Lennon leave those endless primal scream endings on “Mother” and “Well Well Well”? I’ve just been thinking of editing them out so my wife doesn’t skip them any more.
I was watching a lot of Fellini when I wrote the Big Mess Theme in 1983 r so. So it’s no accident it sounds like a Nino Rota skin graft or something. And Baby Flamehead stole the hook from Francis Lai’s Theme from A Man And A Woman, in the song “Badadadadup.” The possibly copyright-saving differences were only due to bad ears and carelessness.
Possible album title:
“Bad Ears & Carelessness”
Thanks General!
I didn’t write this in my comment on this topic last week for whatever reason, but I feel the need to mention it now. EC has admitted that he stole the melody for “Blue Chair” from Prince’s song “Manic Monday” (which became a #1 hit for The Bangles, of course). Thus, you’ve inadvertendly ripped off Prince. I wonder how that makes you feel. 🙂