Elvis Costello (Photo courtesy Shore Fire Media)
In 1982, when Columbia Records released “Imperial Bedroom,” Elvis Costello and the Attractions' seventh studio album, Costello was — as he noted in the album's catchiest tune — a “man out of time” in the then-current dance pop landscape of Madonna and Michael Jackson. Today, the album sounds like a timeless gem; back then, even his record company wasn't so sure. They released ads with one word and a question mark: “Masterpiece?”
The 35th anniversary of the album will see Elvis Costello bringing his most ambitious songs to life on a special “Imperial Bedroom and Other Chambers" tour, with his current band, the Imposters, at the Classic Amphitheater at Richmond International Raceway on June 20.
The bespectacled new-wave veteran, born Declan Patrick MacManus, has said that he was listening to a broad range of music when he wrote “Imperial Bedroom” — Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Erik Satie, David Ackles, the Left Banke. “There was certainly something attractive about the way these records felt out of step with fashion,” he writes in the liner notes to the CD reissue. “They had a connection to so many musical threads.” Kaleidoscopic in its approach and filled with musical exotica — French horns, violas, New Orleans brass — the 15-song set contained complex, nervous rock (“Shabby Doll,” “Pidgin English”), torch songs (“Almost Blue”), psychedelic country (“Kid About It”), new wave soul (“Little Savage”), and a gentle tango (“The Long Honeymoon”).
Because of its orchestrations and elaborate overdubbing, "Imperial Bedroom” was compared to the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band” upon release, and it's true that former Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick, brought in as producer, used every psychedelic Pepper-ism in his arsenal to help build a hermetically sealed world for each of Costello's characters and scenarios. Thirty-five years later, the question mark has been removed. “Imperial Bedroom” is now considered one of the 200 best albums in rock music history, according to Rolling Stone and every record store employee you've ever encountered. Hearing it performed live is an event. Now start your engines.
Elvis Costello and The Imposters will appear at the Classic Amphitheater at Richmond International Raceway on June 20 at 8 p.m. $33 to $73. rir.com
