SONG TITLE: RIOT ACT

PERFORMER: ELVIS COSTELLO

SONGWRITER: ELVIS COSTELLO

YEAR OF RELEASE: 1980

-------------------------------------

SONG TITLE: DON'T LET ME BE MISUNDERSTOOD

PERFORMER: ELVIS COSTELLO

SONGWRITER: (Benjamin/Marcus/Caldwell) ?

YEAR OF RELEASE: 1986

COMMENTS: Elvis Costello had problems -problems with women, with the music business and with society at large. His neurotic behavior during the first couple of years of his career was legendary. He claimed publicly that his motivations for getting into the business were "guilt and revenge."

Despite the brilliance of his work, at some level Declan MacManus felt that he was a fake and a fraud, and that he would soon be found out and run out of the business. He basically dealt well with the early rejections from all the record companies. Rejection he knew how to deal with: he just kept hustling till he finally got a deal. What he didn't know how to deal with at all was success. His first album got rave reviews and sold like hotcakes. He just couldn't believe that he would in fact become a big rock star, just like his idols.

Elvis then went to great lengths to sabotage his burgeoning success. His most infamous incident came in some crappy little hotel bar in Ohio. He was being berated by some worthless, jealous dried up old singers not worthy of having their names mentioned in the same breath with Elvis. Having been taunted and baited with accusations that he was just a ripoff of James Brown and Ray Charles, he eventually dismissed them as "niggers." His nominal point was simply to piss off some smug liberal idiots who were harassing him

Now this was asinine enough to get him some serious humiliation. Naturally, the self-righteous pigs went tattling to every reporter they could find. They were going to make some ink! This was bigger news than anything in their pathetic careers. Of course Elvis didn't mean that stupid stuff, but his apologies still left him sounding like a fool. This stupid outburst was only a minor drag on his career, but left him with a little albatross of shame to carry around.

One good thing did come from all this foolishness. "Riot Act" is a merciless slow, grinding soul song. Feel the grand drama of bad karma coming inevitably back home. The organ and bass heavy groove works up tremendous torque. Hear the descending chords pulling down the narrator's ego and slowly grinding it into a fine powder.

He does not specifically invoke the Ohio nonsense, but it would be obvious to someone who follows his career. This is an outstanding tactic, making it autobiographically meaningful to his loyal followers, but not wrapped up in what to later generations will be boring and irrelevant personal details that would also make it difficult for others to cover the song. The narrator has been running his mouth, indulging his "pent up insolence," and finds himself having to step up and take his whipping. "A slip of the tongue is going to keep me civilian." By the end, he's volunteering to take it like a man.