Albums by this artist

As the seventies receded into the eighties, Elvis Costello's career was at its peak. Armed Forces was his most commercially successful effort and the Attractions' reputation as a sledgehammer live outfit was growing by the tour. Of course, Elvis being Elvis, the artist was not a happy man. He was torn between his first wife and young son and notorious "Party Girl" Bebe Beull. He was deeply torn about "Oliver's Army," a sophisticated attack on Britain's imperialist history, becoming a Top of the Pops hit. After four solid years of touring, the pills, booze, and partying were taking their toll. Elvis was beginning to perceive that writing numerous great songs condemning the decadent rock & roll lifestyle did not necessarily excuse one from living it.

Perhaps it was a subconscious attempt at self-sabotage that caused Costello to make the idle comment from which his career, at least in America, has never quite recovered. Engaged in drunken one-upsmanship with Stephen Stills' backing singer Bonnie Bramlett, Elvis regretfully described Ray Charles as a "blind, ignorant n-----." Anyone with any grounding in Costello's songs would know his abiding love for black music and complete lack of racist poison. Bramlett lacked such a background and immediately ran to the press.

In a way, the entire incident was a blessing in disguise, though not to Costello's sales figures. Rather than making a third record of high new wave like This Years Model and Armed Forces, it gave Elvis the push he needed to make Get Happy!!, the first of several records that largely abandoned the Attractions' modern sound to sift through the songwriter's 50's and 60's influences. This not only kept Costello's progression as a songwriter from reaching the overly mannered cul-de-sac already in evidence on some of Forces' weaker tracks, but it paved the way for future triumphs like Imperial Bedroom, King of America, and even Painted from Memory.

Conceived as an earnest tribute to the American R&B crowd Costello had just inadvertently insulted, Get Happy!! packed 20 songs on a single LP. Its original issue came with a sticker informing potential buyers that despite the generosity of material producer Nick Lowe guaranteed no loss in sound fidelity. While the arrangements freely quote from Stax and Motown hits, with sometimes two or three musical allusions per track, Get Happy!! is way more than a tribute record. With most of the songs hovering in the 2-3 minute range, there's barely time to adjust to the setting before Costello's nimble wordplay kicks in. The tradition of clever punning in Smokey Robinson's songs gives Elvis all of the pretext he needs to absolutely cut loose with double meanings and triple entendres.

At the Attractions' pill-fueled pace, compounded by the space restraints cutting a 20-song single LP imposes, Get Happy!! is such a hysterical blur that it's difficult to step back from and compare to Costello's more measured work. Those willing to put the time in will discover a set of songs that compares favorably with those from Model and Trust. The songs do all tend to fade into each other a little bit, but that's part of the intended effect. "Love for Tender," "Possession," and "Temptation" lay the imagery thickly while "King Horse" and "Men Called Uncle" go deeper still into the realm of the obscure. Well-chosen covers "I Can't Stand Up (For Falling Down)" and "I Stand Accused" are absorbed well into the album sequence, both recast as absolute ravers, and do a good job of stating directly what Costello's own lyrics only hint at through metaphor elsewhere.

The shift in styles has an interesting effect on the Attractions, who behave on Get Happy!! more like a traditional backing band than the attention-grabbers they were on records past. The manic Steve Nieve deserves particular credit for his restraint on the keyboards. The Pete Thomas/Bruce Thomas rhythm section locks in its reputation as true pros, and in spots Costello actually starts to play the guitar rather than flailing at it wildly. The impact this album had on the band's musicality going forward can't be understated. It's important not to lose track of the ballads on Get Happy!!, as brief as they are. "Motel Matches" and "Clowntime Is Over" move ever closer to a distinctive Costello crooner style. "Riot Act" is allowed to creep over three minutes in recognition of its importance to the album's overall statement. "New Amsterdam," in addition to being drop-dead beautiful, is also a landmark: it's the first all-solo Costello performance on an Elvis album, the product of a fruitful experimental session that also birthed the much-loved B-side "Hoover Factory."

Good luck trying to grasp all of its complexities in one listen or even one year of listens, but Get Happy!! is a vital part of the Elvis Costello discography. It's the point where for better or worse our hero decided to give up on rock stardom and ease into the far less lucrative path of the beloved eccentric cult figure. Certainly, this move wasn't entirely one for the good. Juliet Letters, anybody? But on the other hand cult figures have far longer shelf lives than all but the most broadly nonthreatening of arena rockers, so it could well be thanks to Get Happy!! that Elvis Costello survives to confound and irritate us to this very day.

MARK T.R. DONOHUE | Mark T.R. Donohue is a prolific freelance writer whose areas of expertise include Rockies baseball, video games, genre television, English soccer, and pub rock. He lives in Colorado, where he cultivates the largest and creepiest private collection of Alyson Hannigan memorabilia in the Mountain West.