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The biggest gaffe, and quite probably the greatest media coup of Elvis Costello's career took place in Columbus some three years ago when the former computer programmer from England became involved in a verbal — and later physical — sparring match with Stephen Stills and Bonnie Bramlett.
Costello had made some ill-timed and unfair racist remarks concerning Ray Charles in particular, and the roots of American music in general.
He has been apologizing for the incident all over the pages of national magazines almost ever since.
Costello's musical reputation seemed off to a good start with the release of his debut album My Aim Is True, but on his first American tour he became known as a terse man of record-short sets and few, if any, encores. In those days of punk rock, it was a reputation Costello was actually trying to nurture.
Image, you know.
But times change, and despite those previous circumstances, no apologies were necessary at Costello and the Attractions' Friday night show at the Ohio Center.
Costello's performance was one of the best to hit Ohio this year.
Too often, the closest central Ohio can come to the live roots of rock are revival shows and rare appearances by someone like Dave Edmunds or the Ventures. But Costello, dressed in black from his baggy slacks and sports coat to his Clark Kent-style horn-rimmed glasses, proved there is someone keeping the basics alive.
After an extremely enjoyable set by fellow Britishers Talk Talk, Costello & Co. opened the nearly two-hour show with a rocked-up "Accidents Will Happen" and immediately set themselves apart from the basic crowd of radio rockers. It was absolutely wonderful to see and hear a performer who didn't let himself get caught up in Spandex pants, swirling synthesizers, supercharged but repetitive guitar riffs and the rock idol image.
In fact, Costello looked more like Beaver Cleaver than he did Tarzan the Ape Man. The energy was in his hands and in his voice, not in Ted Nugent-style leaps from the speakers or Ozzy Osbourne theatrics.
It all went into the music.
Aside from Costello's frantic and heartfelt, rock singing and guitar playing on such songs as "Shadow Dog" and "Pidgin English" from his latest LP, Imperial Bedroom, the most memorable part of the show was the keyboard playing.
Although sounds ranging from grand piano and xylophone were achieved, the Farfisa organ sound made popular in the early to mid-60s stood out. A choppy but memorable sound most easily identified with Question Mark & the Mysterians' "96 Tears," it is a basic rhythm tool, meant to enhance and accent, rather than to dominate.
This less-is-more musical attitude showed itself on all arrangements and worked perfectly with Costello on tunes ranging from the rock of "Red Shoes" to the slower, more sensitive "Alison." The wild response of the half-full house was such that Costello — the man of no encores — gave no less that three.
When he first broke into the music scene, Costello was heralded as a great innovator in rock, and Friday night some people in the audience were heard to yell, "Elvis is king!"
We'll have to see where Elvis Costello goes from here, but on the basis of Friday night's show it is certainly an easy thought to entertain.
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