SONG TITLE: HURRY DOWN DOOMSDAY
PERFORMER: ELVIS COSTELLO
SONGWRITER: ELVIS COSTELLO
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1991
COMMENTS: The best way to start explaining this little piece of wax from
some evil nether region of Elvis Costello's psyche is to cast it as
approximately equal measures apocalyptic horror and humor. "Dr
Strangelove" being my favorite movie, I'm probably a particularly good
audience for this record's ambitions.
The basic lyrical conceit is that the world has become so decadent that the
narrator is BEGGING for the end of the world. "Hurry down doomsday -
the bugs are taking over!" The funniest part is admittedly partly an
in-joke for Elvis fans: the first example of the irredeemable corruption
of the planet is some jerk "planting a trashy paperback book for accidental
purchase containing all the secrets of life and other useless
things." Besides the more universal junky tabloid level books, Elvis'
once and future bass player had recently published a tawdry little cash-in book
about his time with Elvis.
If you really had a sense of humor, you might call this concoction a
"country" song. The surrealistic twangy throb of this song
somehow puts me in mind of country music of some old order, but damned if I can
find anything specific to really pin it on. Extremely overeducated
rockabilly, perhaps. You could think of this as an extreme bastardization
of the basic Johnny Cash "I Walk the Line" beat. Maybe it is
"science fiction country," a new genre. Elvis should have give
them THIS for the X-Files album.
This recording represents one of Elvis' greatest achievements specifically as a
record maker. This recording is especially busy, to great effect.
Which is to say that all the clutter works. The clattering percussion, the
insistent little circular lead guitar riff, the most kickass backwards guitar
solo since Hendrix, the mad scientist organ all add up to one overall noteworthy
freaky groove.
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