Elvis Costello, King of America album cover

Stripping away much of the excess that cluttered Punch the Clock and Goodbye Cruel World, Elvis Costello returned to his folk-rock and pub rock roots with King of America, creating one of his most affecting and personal records. Costello literally took on the album as a return to roots, billing himself by his given name Declan MacManus and replacing the Attractions with a bunch of L.A. session men (although his old band appears on one cut), who give the album a rootsy but sleek veneer that sounds remarkably charged… – Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Tonight as I was getting ready to do chores that should have been done much earlier today, I decided to look past the usual go-to’s for listening. Starting at the “A’s” I rejected everything up until I got to Elvis Costello’s album, “King of America.” I felt almost embarrassed because I couldn’t remember the last time this was listened to. Honestly the first track, “Brilliant Mistake,” is the reason I slapped it onto the CD player, but as I’m listening to it, the pleasure is flooding back as to how eclectic and pleasant the tracks are. It was a surprise at the country flavor of at least a few of them. The rest are various genres, but all are pretty pared down, focusing on the lyrics maybe even more than the music. There is even at least one cover song, “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” a song first recorded in 1964 by Nina Simone (per wiki.) 

From wikipedia:
King of America is the tenth studio album by British rock singer and songwriter Elvis Costello, credited to “The Costello Show featuring the Attractions and Confederates” in the UK and Europe and to “The Costello Show featuring Elvis Costello” in North America. Released on February 21,  1986, it peaked at No. 11 on the UK album chart and No. 39 on the Billboard 200. In The Village Voice’s annual Pazz & Jop critics poll for the year’s best albums, King of America finished at No. 2, and it was also selected as one of Rolling Stone magazine’s top twenty albums of the year. In 2000, it was voted No. 540 in Colin Larkin’s All Time Top 1000 Albums.

Released in the United Kingdom as F-Beat ZL 70946, and in the United States as Columbia JC40173, some songs have a country music feel, reflecting Costello’s interest in Americana, whilst “American Without Tears” deals with the experience of Irish immigrants in the US and “Little Palaces” references Costello’s working-class roots.

In the album credits, Costello uses three different pen names for himself: his given name of Declan MacManus; his stage name of Elvis Costello; and the nickname given him by producer Nick Lowe earlier in his career, the Little Hands of Concrete, this being a reference to his habitual breaking of guitar strings during recording sessions.

Main personnel on the album:
Elvis Costello – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, lead vocal
T-Bone Burnett – guitars, backing vocals
Mitchell Froom – Hammond organ, harpsichord, organ, doctored piano
Tom “T-Bone” Wolk – electric guitar, piano accordion, electric bass
Jerry Scheff – string bass, electric bass
Mickey Curry – brushes, drums, sticks
there are also a large number of additional personnel that you can see here

I encourage you to listen to the whole album if you can. The rest of this post will focus on the first track, “Brilliant Mistake.”

from wiki:
Costello first came up with the title of “Brilliant Mistake” in a conversation with David Was of Was (Not Was), who Costello had collaborated with to write “Shadows And Jimmy” for the latter’s 1988 album What Up, Dog?. They had been discussing Costello’s experiences in America; he later described the track as “about being deluded or imagining a life in exile.”

Lyrically, the song continues what Costello describes as continuing the “theme of exile and a simultaneous attraction and repulsion to an ideal” that he cites as defining the King of America album. The song also contains the title lyric for its parent album, King of America; in the song, the “King” falls in love with a woman who works “for the ABC News / It was as much of the alphabet as she knew how to use.” Costello later explained the song’s meaning,

It’s a sad song, but it’s also sort of funny. It’s about America and it’s about lost ambition, not lack of inspiration. It’s about a disappointed or frustrated belief. It’s a song that people are going to read wrong. One line in it is, ‘There’s a trick they do with mirrors and with chemicals.’ It means celluloid and mirrors, movie cameras. It occurred to me the other day that people will think it’s a reference to cocaine. I could have written a big song about America, like Paul Simon’s ‘American Tune’. But I think ‘Brilliant Mistake’ is more like ‘Peace Like a River’, a personal thing in the face of a big disappointing artifice.

DAMFINE SONG, ELVIS!

He thought he was the King of America
Where they pour Coca Cola just like vintage wine
Now I try hard not to become hysterical
But I’m not sure if I am laughing or crying
I wish that I could push a button
And talk in the past and not the present tense
And watch this hurtin’ feeling disappear
Like it was common sense
It was a fine idea at the time
Now it’s a brilliant mistake
She said that she was working for the ABC News
It was as much of the alphabet as she knew how to use
Her perfume was unspeakable
It lingered in the air
Like her artificial laughter
Her mementos of affairs
“Oh” I said “I see you know him”
“Isn’t that very fortunate for you”
And she showed me his calling card
He came third or fourth and there were more than one or two
He was a fine idea at the time
Now he’s a brilliant mistake

He thought he was the King of America
But it was just a boulevard of broken dreams
A trick they do with mirrors and with chemicals
The words of love in whispers
And the axe of love in screams
I wish that I could push a button
And talk in the past and not the present tense
And watch this lovin’ feeling disappear
Like it was common sense
I was a fine idea at the time
Now I’m a brilliant mistake

Songwriter: Declan MacManus aka Elvis Costello

Final Note: Elvis will be performing in NYC next week at Gramercy Theater!