ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS PUNCH THE CLOCK

In search of a hit, Elvis embraces sleek modern soul. Includes the song Langer and Costello originally wrote for Robert Wyatt, “Shipbuilding”, featuring jazz trumpeter Chet Baker LANGER: The premise for the LP was: “Elvis needs a hit, and a hit in America. Keep that in mind.” We were going for a sophisticated soul sound – strings, horns and backing vocals. Elvis was up for that. When he came in with “Everyday I Write The Book”, it sounded like something from Beatles For Sale, and ended up like Marvin Gaye. It became quite a production, that album. The musicianship was amazing, and we were pushing our borders. For “Shipbuilding”, we went a bit Sinatra. We’d talked about getting Wynton Marsalis in, but Elvis found Chet Baker, who was in town. He was fucked, completely fucked. But lovely. He always messed up the chords, because, although it sounds jazzy, it’s not. It’s a pop song. WINSTANELY: Chet played live with the band, so we had to edit the multi-track just to get the trumpet right. What you’re hearing is three different band performances spliced together. Amazingly they’re all the same tempo, with no click track. LANGER: Elvis was loving it until the last night, when it all went pearshaped. We were drinking at the playback, and Elvis thought it just sounded crap. He freaked out. He’s always had a thing about the album, but we were on the journey together. It wasn’t like we were pushing him around. It was what they asked for, and they got some hits.