Forty Year Friday (1983) – ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE ATTRACTIONS “PUNCH THE CLOCK”
It’s Forty Year Friday again. For more information on this series, please read the opening paragraph of the first post, which featured Never Surrender by Triumph.
Posted on my Facebook page December 12, 2013:
This week’s Thirty-Year Thursday album is “PUNCH THE CLOCK” by ELVIS COSTELLO, which was released in the summer of 1983. Although I had briefly been a fan a few years earlier, I wasn’t really into his music by this time, but I’ve always loved the one Top 40 single from this album, “Everyday I Write The Book.” I go hot & cold with Costello’s music because sometimes he comes across as a little too clever for his own good, but when I’m in the right mood his music can be pretty inspiring. Although “Everyday…” isn’t the best song he’s ever written, it’s instantly catchy, has a great groove and clever (but not too clever) lyrics. Song-wise, the album is hit-and-miss, but thanks to producers Cliver Langer & Alan Winstanley (best known at the time for hit records by Dexy’s Midnight Runners and Madness) it’s one of his most polished-sounding & radio-friendly releases. I like the Bo Diddley rhythm in “The Greatest Thing.” “Pills And Soap” is dramatic, with gorgeous piano work from Steve Nieve. It could be the soundtrack to a non-existent movie. “Charm School” is brooding but melodic with some typically biting lyrics. And “Shipbuilding” is a thing of beauty. With music written by Langer & anti-war lyrics by Costello, it was previously released as a single by English music legend Robert Wyatt the previous year. Costello’s version is dark & jazzy, and features a fantastic trumpet solo by jazz great Chet Baker. So all in all a pretty good album with a handful of standout tracks, none better than the previously mentioned “Everyday I Write The Book.”
Elvis Costello is one of a handful of artists to appear in this series as well as the previous Forty Year Friday series about 1977 and the Thirty Year Friday series about 1986, highlighting My Aim Is True and King Of America, respectively. Punch The Clock may not be an all-time classic, but within its glossy production you’ll find a lot of wonderful songs, driven by Costello’s one-of-a-kind voice and the always-impressive instrumental chops of The Attractions: keyboardist Steve Nieve, drummer Pete Thomas and bassist Bruce Thomas. There’s also a stunning trumpet solo from jazz legend Chet Baker on “Shipbuilding.” I wonder how other Elvis Costello fans feel about this album.
16 comments on “Forty Year Friday (1983) – ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE ATTRACTIONS “PUNCH THE CLOCK””
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- Forty Year Friday (1983) – ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE ATTRACTIONS “PUNCH THE CLOCK”
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I have several other Costello albums and a compilation, but this particular record is not one I own or am very familiar with. “Shipbuilding” is a delicate, morose track with a wonderful Costello lyric–both the writing and the performance. What a great pairing with Chet Baker, too, who would go on to perform another Costello song, “Almost Blue,” as a final punctuation to his own troubled career. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving, Rich.
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Hi Bill. I had a nice quiet Thanksgiving, which was perfect. I hope you enjoyed yours as well. “Delicate & morose” is an apt description of “Shipbuilding.” I had forgotten about the song “Almost Blue.” Didn’t realize Baker recorded more than one song with Costello. Thanks for the reminder.
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There’s a video interview you can find on youtube where Elvis talks about meeting Chet. Apparently, he had started getting into Baker records a few years previously and then composed “Almost Blue” with the idea that it was a modern melody to a standard jazz progression and perhaps even influenced by a Chet song. I think he gave Chet a copy of Imperial Bedroom after the “Shipbuilding” session and told him he wrote “Almost Blue” for him. I think Chet started including it later into his setlist, but I’m not certain that they ever played it together. Chet’s live version in Tokyo is fantastic.
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Thanks for sharing that info, Bill. Very interesting. I will seek out the videos of Elvis talking about Chet and “Almost Blue” performed by Chet.
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I’m a big Elvis Costello (and Attractions) fan. I really love a lot of the stuff in the late 70s early 80s – “Get Happy”, “This Year’s Model”, “Armed Forces”, “Imperial Bedroom”. In fact “Get Happy” might be one of my favorites of all time. I also really like that brief period of time he teamed up with Paul McCartney (a little later)
This one was probably my least favorite of the early era. I think you picked the best songs. It’s not all bad for sure, and I think sometimes when some person or group is among your favorites, the standard gets higher. If this had just been from a new band I’d never heard of I might think differently. I’d probably think “wow this has three great songs, and a lot of interesting stuff…”
And it might also be the production, more than the songs. The brass section gets old. I don’t know – it doesn’t feel like it has a depth of sound that those others had
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Hey Rob. Get Happy was the first Elvis Costello album I owned, based on loving his version of “I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down” which got a lot of radio play at the time. I didn’t like the rest of the album so I returned it to the record store, but years later (late ’80s, I think) I came back to it and now it’s one of my favorites. I also love a lot of his work with McCartney, as well as the album he did with Burt Bacharach. I’ve mentioned here that I’ve had a love-hate relationship with Costello’s music, mostly because he can often be a little too clever for his own good. I still adore a big chunk of his catalog, though. Punch The Clock has its moments, and I really enjoyed it when I played it again earlier this week, but I completely agree that it’s probably the weakest of his albums from the early years.
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That’s funny that you got rid of “Get Happy” back then. I really liked it from the first time I heard it – although that was probably more like the mid 80s or something. I don’t remember exactly. One thing I liked was how short the songs were. It was exactly what I wanted to hear at the time
But I also agree he’s not for everyone. Even his voice can be grating for some people. One time I said something to the effect that “no singer has ever achieved more success not being able to sing, than Elvis Costello…” I’m not even sure what I meant by that. He can hit the notes, but it’s not a pleasant voice, I don’t know
Also I was also thinking of something he said about “success” meaning different things, but that he thought in his career he had reached all the different meanings it might possibly have (paraphrasing). That seems right to me
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I’m not sure why Get Happy didn’t connect with me in 1980, but I guess my 14-year-old ears couldn’t appreciate it yet. I agree with you about his voice. It does grate on me at times, but his singing is so unique and usually I love it. As for his views of success, it made me think of something I heard his old friend Nick Lowe talk about in an interview. He claimed that Costello loved fame & everything that comes with it. I think the context of that comment had something to do with why Costello had a higher profile than him even though they’re both great songwriters/singers from the same era.
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My knowledge of Elvis Costello’s music remains spotty. I’m mostly familiar with his first two albums and have also listened to some of his more recent work. Overall, I like what I’ve heard. “Punch the Clock” sounds pretty good to me, based on sampling some of its tracks.
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Hi Christian. I’m glad you liked what you heard from this album. Its strongest songs are among his best, but overall it’s a bit uneven and not on par with the best records he released in the first 10 years of his career.
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It’s a pretty big step down from Imperial Bedroom (an all time favourite) for me.
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It’s definitely not as strong as everything that preceded it, but it still has its charms (in spite of the production).
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I am a pretty big EC fan and my wife likes him too. We saw him a couple of years ago, and alas, he was heavily into balladeer mode. ( You may know his father was a musician and big band singer.) Lately, it sounds like his voice is shot. Anyway, last year, I had a long drive to the Catskills area for a band camp and decided to listen to every EC album, which was daunting but pleasurable. I don’t recall if this one stood out. “Shipbuilding” is a particular favorite of my wife’s.
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I haven’t played anything new from Elvis Costello in about 15-20 years, so I wasn’t aware that his voice was shot. I’ll have to check out some recent clips on YouTube. I can only imagine how daunting it was to play his whole catalog during that drive. Did you play them in order of release, or just randomly?
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Order of release. Very entertaining. I think I missed some of the slower ones and the Bachrach one sounded like Bachrach. Last album I bought by him was Spike which I really dig.
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I just started listening to the 4-disc expanded edition of the Costello-Bacharach compilation on Spotify, and I was reminded how much I love the original album. The music is pure Bacharach but it has more of an edge than Burt’s music usually does, thanks to Costello’s lyrics and voice. As for Spike, I love that album. I continued buying his releases after that for several years but, other than the Bacharach collaboration, Spike was the last one I really loved.
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