Elvis Costello & The Attractions: Get Happy!! - 1980
"You'll have noticed that there are ten (?) tracks on each side of this, Elvis' new LP, making it a real "long player". Elvis and I talked long and hard about the wisdom of taking this unusual step and are proud that we can now reassure hi-fi enthusiasts and/or people who never bought a record before 1967 that with the inclusion of this extra music time they will find no loss of sound quality due to "groove cramming" as the record nears the end of each face (i.e. the hole in the middle). Now get happy" - Nick Lowe - producer
What a great album this was. Released in 1980, following on from the success of Armed Forces and its hit single, Oliver's Army, Elvis Costello decided to turn his back somewhat on the "New Wave" and produce and twenty track album of Motown-Stax-Atlantic-Northern Soul sub-three minute pop-soul classics.
Any hanging on to the coat-tails of punk, whether intentional or not was long gone now, and, as mentioned, even the new wave was now something to be left behind as different styles were dabbled in. Indeed, when the band first recorded some of the songs back in 1979, they weren't happy with them, feeling they were "too new wave" (already, only a few years into the genre's existence!). So, they duly re-recorded them in an Atlantic-Motown-Stax r 'n' b style and this is what you hear on the eventual album.
Contrived it may be, but the songs are a delight. Only Sam & Dave's I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down (radically re-arranged here anyway) is a cover. The rest are Costello originals "in the style of". Even the cover had sixties-style artwork and a false imprint of the disc imaged on to the middle of the artwork, to make it look like a worn-out old sixties album.
He has the ability, however, to reinvent and interpret the past around his own image, making this very much a current, Elvis Costello & the Attractions album, as opposed to a revivalist exercise, or a tribute album.
Also up there are the atmospheric, staccato King Horse, the frenetic, punky Love For Tender, the beautifully bassy Temptation, the gloriously Stax-esque Beaten To The Punch and the lively contemporary ska of Human Touch. Only the final ballad Riot Act sounds like typical Elvis Costello.
The vibrancy never lets up on all the album's twenty songs. Just check out songs like the bassy, insistent groove of Secondary Modern, the vaguely Booker T-ish organ-driven funk of Possession, the short, piano-led new wavers Clowntime Is Over and Man Called Uncle. They are all no more than three minutes long and form part of the absolutely frantic first eleven songs that simply career through your ears like a fairground ride.
The pace and quality drifts off just a tiny bit after that, but even then, little gems like the smoky and beautifully bass-driven B Movie or the heart-rending country soul of Motel Matches turn up.
Or how about the new wave funk of Black And White World, the evocative, swirling New Amsterdam, the new wave-ish cod-funk beat of the oddly-spelt 5ive Gears In Reverse or the once more Stax soul vibe of I Stand Accused.
From beginning to end, Get Happy!! is an extremely enjoyable listen. In my top three or four Costello albums. Every time I put it on, it feels like the spring of 1980 again. I can't believe it is so long ago, because this album feels as vibrant now as it did then.
Some of the notable non-album tracks from the sessions for this album were -
So Young. A cover version of a song by Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons (no me neither!). It is played in a lively reggae style and, with its infectious organ notes, sounds like an Attractions original, something I always thought it was.
Girls Talk. This song was taken into the charts by Elvis's mate Dave Edmunds. This was his original of the song. It is a catchy song with a great hook that was, surprisingly, left off the album. I am amazed Costello didn't keep this for himself and release it as a single. It features that rather echoey backing that so characterised both the Get Happy!! and Trust albums.
Clowntime Is Over #2. The faster track from the Get Happy!! album is considerably slowed down here on a very evocative alternate version. It begins with an almost hymnal organ from Steve Nieve and Costello's vocal, together with the beat, is slowed-down to walking pace. It is a complete contrast to the fast, Northern Soul beat of the album's original.
Getting Mighty Crowded. The Get Happy!! album had a lot of Northern Soul influences and this was a cover of a Northern Soul original, by Betty Everett. Elvis covers it enthusiastically, in suitably upbeat fashion. The organ parps away and the drums pound behind Costello's throaty but soulful vocal. It is a good track and would have sat well on Get Happy!!.
Dr. Luther's Assistant. This was an odd out-take, sounding far more like something from Armed Forces sessions but it was actually recorded after the release of Get Happy!!, in March 1980. It is a mysterious song full of swirling, fairground-style organ parts and a bit of a grating vocal. What is was all about is unclear.
Ghost Train. From the same session as Dr. Luther's Assistant is this equally sparse, stark and enigmatic song. Both these tracks were deviations away from the sixties soul sound of Get Happy!! to a denser, more stripped back style. This is not something that would continue on to Trust, however, which was far more full-sounding and melodic.
Hoover Factory. Similar to the previous two is the appealing little song about a distinctive building on a road out of West London. I remember the building well (pictured below). The song is short and again minimalist in its backing. These songs were more in tune with the ambience of Imperial Bedroom than Trust and Get Happy!!.
Just A Memory. This was a romantic ballad with a distant-sounding vocal from Costello sung against a grandiose piano and organ backing. It has a bit of a "demo" feel about it.
