dancing about architecture: Shopping With Costello Essay

SHOPPING ABOUT ARCHITECTURE:
500 Recommendations From Elvis Costello to Help Improve Your Record Collection

In the November issue of Vanity Fair, dear Declan was given the editorial space to list 500 albums "essential to a happy life." Music is essential to life, period. This list certainly has plenty of offerings of accompaniment for one's ever changing moods. Without commenting on all the albums, Costello does select a handful of choices to expound upon in his introductory essay, primarily ones that he feels may have the cognoscenti scratching their respective heads.

Give him credit for sticking his neck out. Once the ink hit the page, the list becomes target practice. No fool Elvis, he knows that: "That is the pleasure of a list like this. Everyone will disagree with your choices." Costello doesn't limit himself to one release per artist which would have been a bit more sporting. His choices were listed alphabetically. We'll take a different approach that highlights the strengths of his list, as well as some glaring omissions. In the spirit of the season, DAA offers up a holiday shopping guide inspired by EC.

Power Pop

As someone who came of age in the 60s and started recording in the 70s, it is small wonder at Costello's list is chock full the Beatles and Dylan, with side dishes of the Stones, Beach Boys and Bowie. Yet a surprising lone release from the Kinks (Ultimate Collection). The choice of Dylan's Shot of Love stands out like a sore thumb next to pillars Blonde on Blonde and Blood on the Tracks. If Costello wanted to acknowledge Dylan's public forays into religious navel gazing, Slow Train Coming would have been a better representation. In his brief essay, Costello notes his plethora of greatest hits inclusions as "many of these people only made 'singles'." Fair enough. Though in a thin group of records from the Rolling Stones, whither Hot Rocks?

As the 70s drew to a close, the effect of the brash noisiness of punk and whom it affected is sprinkled throughout: Sex Pistols (Never Mind the Bollocks), the Clash's London Calling (are there really people who don't own this?), Ian Dury (New Boots and Panties), the Jam's All Mod Cons, Television's Marquee Moon, the self-titled release from the Undertones to name a few. One frightening no show from the list is Joe Jackson whose Look Sharp came from the same era.

Jazz

Costello likes his jazz on the be-bop side, and who can blame him. After Dylan, Miles Davis has the most entries - eight, same as the Beatles- everyone a must-have (Birth of the Cool, Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess, Kind of Blue, Sketches of Spain, My Funny Valentine, In a Silent Way, On the Corner). I think he cops out by including the Coltrane collection the Impulse Years, instead of taking the mandatory A Love Supreme to join the obligatory My Favorite Things. Free-jazz sax king Ornette Coleman is correctly represented by the Shape of Jazz to Come. Ellington, Ella (singing the Cole Porter song book), Jobim and Sinatra, Louis Armstrong are all here. A nod to present jazz stylers is in order though and the best bang for the buck in recent memory is the seven-disc box of the Wynton Marsalis Septet live at the Village Vanguard. (You should be able to find this for less than $30 - for nearly nine hours of music.)

Americans

Since he's Irish, I figured Elvis would have sided with us colonists a bit more. American pop and rock musicians barely make a dent in the list. No Talking Heads? (how about: Remain in Light or Speaking in Tongues), Cars? (self-titled), Jane's Addiction? (Nothing's Shocking), Los Lobos? (Will the Wolf Survive?; Kiko), Pavement? (Slanted and Enchanted), Pearl Jam? (Ten), Metallica? (self-titled), Yo La Tengo? (Painful), Sonic Youth? (Daydream Nation, Goo, A Thousand Leaves).

That sensibility permeates throughout. In fact, I don't believe there is one Australian artist on the list, unless you count Crowded House (Temple of the Low Men)who were more populated by Kiwis. Here's a stocking stuffer hint: Midnight Oil (10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1; Diesel and Dust; Earth and Sun and Moon). Keep in mind a fair number of the albums listed are UK releases, particularly the greatest hits or collections. Some albums were re-titled or had their song selection altered when they reached American shores, if they ever did. The Clash's the Singles, which doesn't have a domestic U.S. release, and Nick Lowe's The Jesus of Cool, which was released in an altered state in America as Pure Pop for Now People, are two of dozens of examples.

Women

From perusing the list, one wouldn't know that women are half of the population. By my count, a mere 47 artists (solo performer, group or significant contributor to a group, i.e. Lauryn Hill in the Fugees) out of 322, or barely one-seventh, are women. And a percentage of those 47 are jazz, blues or classical performers. While Nina Simone (The Best of Nina Simone), Billie Holiday (Lady in Satin, The Billie Holiday Story, The Complete Decca Recordings) and PJ Harvey (Rid of Me) belong in everyone's home, a respectable collection needs the likes of: Liz Phair (Exile in Guyville), Belly (Star), Sinead O'Connor (The Lion and the Cobra, I Don't Want What I Haven't Got), k.d. lang (Absolute Torch and Twang, Ingenue), Sleater-Kinney (Call the Doctor), Madonna (The Immaculate Collection), Patti Smith (Horses). For big spenders, the magnificent box set R-E-S-P-E-C-T: A Century of Women in Music from Rhino Records spans the Andrews Sisters to the Slits and just about everything in between.

The Eighties

Elvis calls this time "the decade that music forgot," and them's fightin' words. I'll first peek in the DAA archives for Game Theory's Lolita Nation. Then ponder why Costello didn't deign to keep any of the following on a shelf: Hüsker Dü (Zen Arcade, New Day Rising, Warehouse: Songs and Stories), X (Los Angeles, Wild Gift), Joy Division (Still), Big Audio Dynamite (This is...), the Cure (The Head on the Door, Disintegration), Bob Mould (Workbook), New Order (Substance), Love and Rockets (Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven), Echo and the Bunnymen (Crocodiles, Ocean Rain), Fugazi (13 Songs [cd of first two releases]), Peter Gabriel (So), Public Image Ltd. (Album), Joe Jackson (Night and Day), Japan (Oil on Canvas), the Waterboys (Fisherman's Blues).

Two of the bigger head-scratchers for me were his inclusion of Prince's Around the World in a Day over Purple Rain or 1999 or Controversy or, well, you get the picture. And the Replacements weak All Shook Down over Tim or Pleased to Meet Me or Let it Be. Yikes! Must be the American thing.

In general, rap and hip-hop are invisible as is just about anything that could have been called "alternative" in the '80s. The same goes for dance music of just about any flavor from the synth-pop of Depeche Mode (Black Celebration) or the industrial stylings of Ministry (Twitch) to the present-day sounds of Moby (Play) or Everything but the Girl (Walking Wounded) or the Orb (u.f.orb).

EC Himself

Costello left any his own recordings off of the list claiming there to be at least 500 records out better than anything he's done. DAA would disagree, starting with Blood and Chocolate, and include Imperial Bedroom and King of America at the very least. Costello was indulgent enough to include people and releases that he is associated with (usually behind the boards) like Aimee Mann (Whatever), the Pogues (Rum, Sodomy and the Lash) and the Specials (self-titled).

So give the gift of music and enrich someone's ears and your heart. Drop me a line and I'll let you know which of these are in my letter to the North Pole.

Happy holidays from DAA!