The concord of sweet sounds-EC's King of America

[Jack of All Parades]

"The man that hath no music in himself,
nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils,
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted."

The Merchant of Venice

It's in the tired eyes, slightly averted in the photo that makes up the album jacket. Eight years in to a musical career and the look of tiredness is obvious. Looming unhappiness in that photo- disenchantment- a feeling echoed in the marvelous opening track of the album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLDrOmqb ... re=related

Listening in the audience at the Wang Theater on May 20th to the ending strains of "American Without Tears", within my inward ear I was immediately flashed back to the Broadway Theater in 1986 and a show with the Confederates and the sounds and words of the same tune. The years in between had not diminished the magic of that song or the accompanying song played that evening in Boston, "Little Palaces". Flash forward to 2010 and the first listens to National Ransom, the album. The detailed, intricate ballad narratives on that record owe a great deal to KOA where EC's warm embrace of the more colloquial ballad style often featured in American Folk and Country/Blues songs had its first sally in his catalog. That night in Boston made me take out the album and I have been repeatedly listening to it in the past weeks and renewing an appreciation for its many strengths, an appreciation that had slackened over the last decade or so. As a record it holds up in its entirety[exclusive of the two cover songs]. In truth, I wish he had excised those two from the final album sequencing and substituted "Having it All", "Suffering Face" and "Shoes Without Heels" in their place. It would have been a perfect record in hindsight.

What has always impressed me about the record is how he seemingly shed his skin in the making of the album, reemerging as his own man, not hiding behind a made up name and reinventing himself as a self-contained artist straddling his native England and his adopted home in America. It is an uneasy rebirth and it is evidenced in the songs of guilt and exile like "Brilliant Mistake" or "American Without Tears". When coupled with such grotesques as "Glitter Gulch" or "Our Little Angel", he had seemingly hit new heights in his song writing: strong narratives with vivid images or phrases but seemingly not speeding along on a tide of verbal excess. The wit was still there, the barbed sarcasm, but it was tempered with an earned humanity and maybe some humility. There are times on this record when I think his writing approaches Dylan's masterful narrative tunes. We are treated to characters who are writ large, warts and all. It is a tough act to approach; EC pulls it off with aplomb.

EC also takes the curious ways of human love to a new plateau. Songs like "Indoor Fireworks", "Poisoned Rose" and "I'll Wear it Proudly" are all too human in their pain and self-castigation. If he had had the courage to add "Shoes Without Heels" I would argue he presented a vivid dissection of the ways men and women treat one another.

Even the slight, mindless songs on this record pass agreeably by and do not wear out their welcome. A song like "Loveable" or "The Big Light" speeds along and yet does not sound worn out with successive replays. The songs "Suit of Lights" an "Sleep of the Just" have a seriousness that is not sonorous but instead are inwardly lit by a palpable indignation that avoids cynicism.

That leaves the capstone song for me- "Jack of all Parades". It's warmth is intoxicating as the singer takes himself down several pegs in his own estimation. It is a song about finding peace in one's skin:

"And I was everybody's boy
But soon that thrill just fades
To be the love of one true heart
or the Jack of all parades."

I would like to think that this is autobiographical in tone and that EC was looking inward. Either way it is a tremendous song and it never fails to connect with me when I need to come down a peg or two in my own estimation, when I am too filled with self regard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylaZUm4gwcw

Perhaps the most pleasant surprise of the record is the sound. Prior to it I could not imagine EC without the Attractions; afterward I wasn't certain I wanted to hear the Attractions again. The musicians he gathered around him provide a tone that is professional but imbued with a natural feeling for the notes that are being played. There is a reason the former members of the TCB band are on this record and you hear it throughout the album. It is the reason Gram Parsons wanted them on his solo records. The playing is infectious and EC responds accordingly with controlled vocals that have a poignancy in the individual songs- no more so than in "Jack of all Parades" for me. A true test is that I never alter the volume control when this album plays.

My late father in law played in the pit band the summer of 1972 when the King performed above him with the TCB band backing him at Madison Square Garden[such was the state of affairs for good jazz musicians at that time]. Not overly awed by the King and not given to much consideration for the normal r&b musician, he was taken by the quality of musicianship displayed by Ron Tutt, Jerry Sheff and James Burton. They add so much to the sound of this record and its continued fresh sound for me in the ensuing years.

Twenty five years on I wish EC had been able to make a double record in 1985 including many of the tracks that wound up on the the Rhino bonus disc. What I am grateful for is the transformation he achieved thru recording the album. As he states in his liner notes, this album opened the way for him to try all the various musical forms he subsequently explored in the coming decades and perhaps the album saw its real fruition in the beautiful and haunting narrative ballads that populate National Ransom, an album I feel is a son of KOA. EC achieved a polished artistry on KOA and broke free of the straight jacket that was beginning to constrict him had he stayed with the Attractions. He had clearly outgrown the successes of those early albums; KOA is a living testament to that growth.

[wardo68]

These writeups are amazing, CS. Just one thing -- that quote's from The Merchant Of Venice.

[Jack of All Parades]

Thank you- and I stand corrected. Only excuse is that in my nightly visitings of the Bard's works I was spending time last night with that play- the title staying in my head- at least I got the 'The M' part right- more fantastic to me was that I could remember Lorenzo's lines. Will edit appropriately.

I find it great fun to revisit these albums from time to time and to think about them and how they relate or fail to relate to me these days. It is a tremendous mental and aural exercise for my aging mind.

[Emotional Toothpaste]

a plumb or aplomb?

[Jack of All Parades]

Thank you for the edit- no one can accuse me of being a good speller-going for that self-assurance-ie confidence- on the level. Once again will edit accordingly. To paraphrase- 'my kingdom for an editor'.

[migdd]

KOA remains my favorite EC album for reasons I'd gone on at great length about during the early days of this forum. After all these years, I still revisit it regularly. Pretty much agreed with every sentence in your essay, Chris. Thanks for posting.

[Poor Deportee]

I came late to this post. My apologies. Christopher's take on it is, as usual, so well-thought out that there doesn't seem to be much to add. But I'll chip in anyway, since this album is so exceptional that it surely deserves more extensive comment!

A few thoughts:

1. The cover. One of my absolute favourites. A lot of commentators seemed discomfited with how exhausted Elvis looked on it, failing, I think, to recognize that he knew just what he was doing; this isn't the (unintentionally) stunned John Lennon on Beatles for Sale. I think it's great - so much is contained in that world-weary look under the crown: a sardonic spin on EC's dissipated commercial potential, or on the burden of expectations created by all the critical praise (or by his own formidable talent); a commentary on the soul-eating effects of power and privilege; a Dorian Gray-esque play on the costs of the rock and roll life; a play on the absurdity of the title, which is itself rich in resonances...

2. To build on Chris's point: this album as of a piece with Get happy!, Imperial Bedroom and The Juliet letters in representing an extremely important moment in EC's growth as an artist. GH allowed EC to break out of the 'New Wave' trap. IB decisvely broadened Elvis's palette both musically and lyrically, and set a new standard for polish and sophistication in his oeuvre. JL marked the final shattering of any conceivable pop box whatsoever, as well as teaching him to read music. KOA, though, established that Elvis could achieve the pinnacle of musical expression without the Attractions, marking the first step in his emergence as (effectively) a 'solo' artist. It also represents what is arguably his peak as a songwriter, to my mind combining the broad lyrical scope of IB with the confessional urgency and passion of so much of his earlier stuff, trading the polish of IB for that immediacy, but foregoing none of its sophistication. When you add to this the mad glories of Blood and Chocolate later that year, AND the jaw-dropping rewrites of 'The Comedians' and 'The Deportees Club' - the latter being perhaps Elvis's finest moment as a songwriter - you realize that the Elvis of this period was at the absolute height. Not long thereafter, he would lose some of that dire urgency in the name of eclectisism and craft. This album (or this period as a whole) gives us the most perfect fusion of creative urgency and sophistication. It's a balance he never really recaptured.

3. I disagree with the description of 'The Big Light' as a minor song - it's much too tight and truthful for that. While I share Chris's high opinion of 'Jack,' 'Suit of Lights' is to me among EC's most powerful recorded moments...tragic, impassioned, and so enraged at the culture of mediocrity that it hurts. Then there's the towering closer, 'Sleep of the Just.' This is surely Elvis's most devastating dissection of the culture of militarism, and I'm not sure that anything else in his work combines such cringe-inducing horror(over the masturbatory incest of the brother) with heart-rending tragedy like this final verse:

Now she's pinned up upon the barracks wall in her home town
All the soldiers taking turns with their attentions
And as they speculate what she'd look like beneath that thin nightgown
His family pride was rising up as he cast his eyes down

Argh!

The quartet of songs from Big Light to Sleep of the Just is, for me, the best such sequence in EC's discography. I'd also nominate 'I'll Wear it Proudly' as an example of one of those blistering, confessional songs that make this album such an intense listen. Indeed, that intensity (particularly in the great Final Four) means that I don't return to this album as frequently as I do some others. Like Dylan's 'Blood on the Tracks,' it's one I revisit periodically, but with great relish.

4. The sound: great. Really of a piece with National Ransom, which revisits some of this sonic territory, and which goes some distance toward returing EC to the level of artistry captured here - albeit not quite all the way.

[bronxapostle]

if you catch me on a day when i do NOT say GET HAPPY!! or THIS YEAR'S MODEL is his best lp, i will say: KING OF AMERICA is his BEST lp and one of the BEST albums EVER!

[Jack of All Parades]

Thank you for your kind words, PD. Not trying to be disingenuous but do not think my thoughts on the album are at all definitive. Would love to hear those of others. As you say, this record merits continued discussion.

I really enjoyed your takes on the Cover, particularly the Lennon association. It is why I will never go mp3. Album art adds too much to my music experiences.

The sound is wonderful on this record. It did make me realize he can do quite well without the Attractions, as I think it did for him as well, or the Imposters, for that matter. I would love to see him step out more with a varied assortment of musicians, especially if the results would be as fruitful as this album.

The songwriting on the record is top notch, as you too note. Thinking about this in the past weeks I have come to realize that what makes the individual songs strong for me is the usage of concrete details in many of them instead of wild, verbal excess. They are narrative songs or semi-autobiographical ones and he nails each one. This type of writing so anchors a song and makes it resonate stronger for me as a listener. The verse you cite from Sleep of the Just speaks to this, succinctly. I can feel the barrack's wall and smell and hear the lascivious, hateful attentions of the soldiers as they molest the young woman[in their minds]. This is something he did as well on National Ransom. It is also something he hinted at in his song craft discussion with Bruce Springsteen in the last season of Spectacle.

Just a great album- a seminal moment in his recording career.