When Elvis Costello became the king of America
“He thought he was the king of America/But it was just a boulevard of broken dreams,” he sings Elvis Costello in “Brilliant mistake”. The singer-songwriter thus talks about the contradictions of a country where people “pour Coca Cola just like vintage wine”. It is his way of doing that operation that one of his colleagues, Bruce Springsteen, defined as “measuring the distance between the American dream and reality”. Except that through Costello’s glasses the story of America takes another turn: a mixture of nostalgia and typically English sarcasm.
“King of America” is one of the masterpieces of Costello’s immense and varied discography, one capable of moving from punk to pop in the blink of an eye. It was released in February 1986: only the following year was released “The Joshua tree” by U2, another masterpiece by European artists dedicated to the new continent. “The Joshua tree”, Costello’s album has also been reissued several times: it comes out today “King of America & Other Realms”the third expanded version of the album. The last one was a double CD from 2005, but this is a box set of 6 CDs and 97 songs, which tells the story of Costello’s entire American musical journey, from Hollywood – where it all began, up to the subsequent albums that have been taken with both hands. from that sound, moving towards Memphis and Nashville. As if that wasn’t enough, an unreleased album by the Coward Brothers, the fictitious duo with the producer, will be released at the end of the month T Bone Burnett who started the project in 1984-85.
Costello and America
Already in 1981 Costello had released an “American” album, “Almost blue”: a few years had passed since his punk debut and the singer-songwriter had already shown that he did not want to remain attached to just one genre, in that case reinterpreting country music in his own way . Then in ’84-85 he went around doing concerts with T Bone Burnett, rereading his songs in an acoustic version. The duo renamed themselves the Coward Brothers and in the setlist there were also reinterpretations of American songs. The role of T Bone Burnett was therefore decisive: he is American and custodian of that classic sound that over the years he would apply both to the soundtracks of films and TV series (from “Fratello, dove sei?” to “Nashville”) and to produce like the Counting Crows, winning an Oscar in 2009 for work on “Weary kind,” Ryan Bingham’s song from “Crazy heart.”
New songs were born from those concerts: they were recorded mainly in California, in Hollywood, recruiting both musicians who had played with Elvis Presley in the 70s and trusted colleagues of T Bone Burnett. The initial idea was to record the album in half with the Attractions, Costello’s historic band. His musicians, however, didn’t take it well and ended up playing only on one song. For this reason, when the album came out, it was credited to “The Costello show”, but initially the singer-songwriter didn’t even want his (art) name to appear on the cover.
A few months later, “Blood and chocolate” was released, a decidedly more rock album and with the Attractions. But Costello would return to the American sound several times in his career, with several albums: “The delivery man” (2004), “The river in reverse” (2006, with Allen Toussaint, dedicated to Mississippi), “Secret, Profane & Sugarcane ” and “National Ransom (2009 and 2010). These are the “other realms” to which the box refers, which in addition to an unreleased 1987 live performance at the Royal Albert Hall and various demos, contains three CDs of songs and rarities from Costello’s American explorations on these albums: to muddy the waters , as he likes, these CDs have titles in Spanish, Italian (“Il Principe Di New Orleans E Le Marchese Del Mississippi”) and German.
A splendid mistake
“Brilliant Mistake”, the central song of the album, appears in 4 versions: the original, remastered like the whole album, demo, live and a recent live version in which it is transformed into a sort of tango that merges into “Boulevard of broken dreams”, the 1930s Broadway song that is referenced in the lyrics. Anyone who has recently seen Costello live knows that his recent concerts can be surreal, if not completely out of step (like his Italian tour last year with Carmen Consoli).
But this new version is remarkable, and it is the closing of a circle: that of a cycle of reinterpretations of American music born from a series of fortuitous circumstances: a tour in disguise with a producer friend, the meeting with new musicians, a recent divorce (mentioned in “Indoor fireworks” and several other songs). A series of splendid mistakes, in fact, which produced one of the masterpiece albums of the ’80s and a great tribute to that genre which would later be defined simply as “Americana”.
Well, Elvis Costello was the “King of Americana” before this genre even existed, and this box pays homage to him as befits a king.
The contents of the Box
CD 1: KING OF AMERICA (2024 REMASTER)
The 2024 remaster from the original 2024 tapes of the “King Of America” album.
CD 2: LE ROI SANS SABOTS
Demos, Outtakes & Other Realms. Collects the “solo demos” of 1985 including six session performances recorded at Red Bus Studios with completely different lyrics compared to the versions later included in “King Of America”.
CD 3: KINGS OF AMERICA LIVE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL
The 17 songs from the unreleased concert recorded on 27 January 1987 at the Royal Albert Hall in London with a band made up of James Burton, Jim Keltner, Jerry Scheff, Benmont Tench and T-Bone Wolk. Remixed from multi-track tapes, featuring live versions of songs from “King Of America” along with covers of songs by Waylon Jennings, Arthur Alexander, Allen Toussaint, Sonny Boy Williamson, Mose Allison, Ray Charles, Jesse Winchester, Dave Bartholomew and Buddy Holly.
The set is completed by 3 CDs with studio recordings, collaborations, unreleased demos, outtakes and live recordings:
CD 4: THE PRINCE OF NEW ORLEANS AND THE MARQUISES OF MISSISSIPPI
CD 5: THE PRÍNCIPE OF PURGATORY
CD 6: DER HERZOG DES RAMPENLICHT
The entire project was produced by Elvis Costello And Steve Berkowitz. In addition to the Super Deluxe Edition box set, “King Of America & Other Realms” it will also be available in a 2-CD version with a 2024 remaster on CD 1 and highlights from the box set on CD 2: studio and live recordings and unreleased demos. The new remaster of “King Of America” will also be released on Standard Black 140g vinyl.
