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the idiot smile cover Spike isn’t that different from the dourKing or the miserable Nawho graced the covers of King of America and Blood and Chocolate, respectively. Nor does Elvis Costello (clown, King and Napoleon) hide much real mirth behind the black-andwhite painted mask -the songs on Spike are just as, if not more, furious and full of spite than anything he has recorded. Spike is a masterpiece, make no mistake about it - Costello has abandoned the first-person self-inflicted venom which previously defined his songwriting in favour of penetrating thirdperson narrative. If marriage and age has calmed his insecurities, that has only allowed him more time to examine arid contemplate the world around him. EC. has covered a lot of ground with his LPs in the past - from the punk-pop of My Aim is True to the smoky country of
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he’s usually limited himself to one style at a time. Perhaps because of the two-plus years between LPs - unprecedented for a man who averaged better than an LP a year between 1978 and 1986 - Spike covers more musical territory than on any of his previous LPs. EC. gets help from an all-star cast of cronies including Paul MacCartney, Roger McGuinn, Chrissie Hynde, Jerry Marott at Christy Moore, Mitchell Froom and The Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Yet, while containing everything from neo-gaelic dirges (Any King’s Shilling) to funky pop
,God’s comic I (Chewing Gum) to a soulful instrumental (Stalin Malone], it is an utterly cohesive and complete piece of work, There is no greater example of Costello’s new found narrative power than Tramp The Dirt Down which uses the title as a metaphor for the British working class’ treatment at the hands of the ruling. Rather than an explosion *of anger, Tramp uses barely restrained tension which more effectively communicates the crushing weight of sorrow and anger. The mixture of traditional instruments like Bou-
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Mv.wife gave me the titl&.. “Lou R&d’s’ f&w York.” Here, it’s in your face. Ybu see the effects of what’s happening first in New York. Then it spreads, Drugs were never a problem until they reached the suburbs, but people shouId pay attention to the terrible things that are happening before they’re on your doorstep. There’s more of the same coming... the attack of the weakest segments of society, the meanspirited viciousness; it’s growing, There’s going to be Q terrible price to pay for aI1 our mutual inhumanity. I think it’s terrible, worse than it’s ever been, but the good guys can’t even agree with each other. Lou Reed 198% Lou Reed sifts through the crumbling social geography of New York, finding cause for alarm which he urgently sounds. A 14 verse rallying cry, this album doesn’t lead you with a scripted hand a la 73’s Berlin, rather New York curls about the avenues of Reed’s observation, plastering a mosaic of tension against an uncertain backdrop. The ragged skyline fades over the course of an hour into the twilight; Lou leads you in, points a few things out, and then abandons you. This isn’t a battle plan, but a call to arms. And New York affirms that Lou Reed is not an armchair general. Caught .between the twisted stars the plotted lines the faulty map that brought Columbus to New York, opens the epitome of romanticism in an unromantic zouki, Indian Harmonium and Uileann pipes produce a most compelling setting for EC’s finest lyric. It’s possibly the most achingly tender and sad song that Elvis Cbstello has written or recorded. The venom-spitting old Elvis is evident on Let Him Dangle, an anti-hanging tirade which uses the real-life example of Chris Craig and Derek Bentley as the skeleton upon which the flesh of this song sits. Derek Bentley was hung for a murder which Craig, his underage partner committed. Hung for a crime which he was not even convicted for! The cheapening of existence is a uniting theme throughout Spike, whether the larger societal issues of Tramp and Let Him Dangle or the more personal devaluation of Veronica and Deep Dark Truthful Mirror - which harkens back to E.C. of yore. Even death is cheapened in
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place and time. Romeo Had JuIiette, is the tale of star- crossed lovers found wandering down in streets that are steaming, where crack dealers are dreaming of an Uzi someone bud just scored. Both the characters and theme take a back seat to the windowed spectacle of -the streets. And the spiraling staircase from the windowsill descends, and the encoded logic of the LP drops us in the midst of the Halloween Parade, subtitled AIDS (so you don’t miss the point, I guess.) The rock ti’ roll agenda wanes briefly as the ghosts, ghouls and starved vampi’res float briefly past; there’s Johnny Rio and Rotten Rita - You’ll never see those faces again. Reed’s images cling to the minds eye like some residual sludge in a hospital wastebin; There’s a girl
from Soho with a T-shirt saying “I Blow” She’s with the jive five 2 plus 3 / And the girls for pay dates are giving cut rates Or else doing it for free If this is a walk on the wild side 1989, I’m staying home, Then again, this diseased world tour seems to be flowing outwards, driven by some maddened heart in the city. When Lou half affirms see you next yeur - at the Halloween parade, we don’t even half believe him. Onto the Dirty Blvd, where the ‘star PEDRO dreams about killing his old man. Outside the statue of Bigotry rises above the choking exhaust, and some kid is selling plastic roses for a buck. With it’s straight forward chord progression, Pedro’s wandering
God’s Comic, where a dead comedian takes on the task of the grim reaper. The surprise track of the LP though is the instrumental, Stalin Malone, which opens with a descending horn riff redolent of Sam Cooke’s A Change is Conno Come and moves into a swinging, funky jam. That’s not really so surprising though considering the fact that it’s played by the aforementioned Dirty Dtizen Brass Band - New Or-
leans’ finest brass band. Taken as a whole, Spike stands easily alongside Armed Forces and Blood and Chocoirte as one of the best LPs that Elvis Costello has produced. High praise considering that he has produced dome of the finest LPs in the last decade. Only time will tell how great Spike is, For the moment it’s varied, complex and overwhelmingly movi*:g. That’s enauRh to make it asential listeni@.
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