Punch The Clock Revisited (Again)

Post by **BlueChair** » Sun Jan 11, 2004 12:54 pm

I really like this album... I'm not sure what about it put me off the first tiem I listened to it.

It has a lot of the elements that make Get Happy!! fun. And I'm just as likely to get up and bounce around the room listening to Punch The Clock as I am listening to Get Happy!!

I wanna be like Harry Houdini

Jackson Doofster · Post by **Jackson Doofster** » Sun Jan 11, 2004 6:26 pm

Good call BC. I loved PTC when i first bought it in 1983 and i played it to death. Over the years I've grown out of it a little but the song you quoted ...'The Invisible Man'.... made my shortlist for the top 15 you are torturing us all with...

Still play it when I want to feel 17 again

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Sun Jan 11, 2004 6:57 pm

Good on ya Blue...I cant believe all that 'over-produced' jive...the horns and the beat on this album rock my socks. I love Love went mad, Charm School, Invisible Man and King of Thieves to death!!!!! In fact, this record can do no bad...turn it up so I can hear!

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Sun Jan 11, 2004 7:57 pm

Put it down to its popularity and 'accessibility'-- kiss of death to the anti-pop snobs. There's just great songwriting here; it doesn't display his whole range but what does, and who cares? EVERYDAY I WRITE THE BOOK is still the EC song you're most likely to hear in the supermarket, and I don't mind a tad. It's a catchy, clever song and the I love the arrangement, esp the Afrodesiac (sp?) backup.

I have huge sentimental attachments to this record, too, for loads of reasons ('self-made mug' being from the precious throw-away LOVE WENT MAD), among others that was the first tour I saw 'im on... summer of 1983, NYC Pier 54, if memory serves.

lapinsjolis · Post by **lapinsjolis** » Sun Jan 11, 2004 8:16 pm

I love 'Punch the Clock'. It's one that improves upon repeated playing. It's so catchy that I find once in my CD player it takes complaints from others to remove it. The bonus disc was such a gift. I think Elvis fans are singular in that they are a fan base that thrills to have the same song in 80 versions. It shows the amazing and impressive strength of his songwriting.

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Sun Jan 11, 2004 8:19 pm

Me a year ago in re: PTC:

"Meh."

Me now after getting the reissue and listening to the bonus disc and hearing the songs in a new light, then listening to the album proper again, repeatedly:

"Pretty darn good."

Goody2Shoes · Post by **Goody2Shoes** » Mon Jan 12, 2004 10:23 am

The intro to The World And His Wife is so great. That piano/organ thing sounds like something from an old movie, but then you get that little shriek before the horns come in. Nice.

Poppet · Post by **Poppet** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 10:09 pm

Look what i bought today!!!!!

i'm so giddy.

i LOVE the bonus disc. stripped of all the 80's *schtuff* the songs are lovely.

so, they must do Pills and Soap tomorrow. and justify me buying this thing at full frickin' price!!!

and what about that cover picture? is he an extra for fiddler on the roof??? except, no beard. that would be a problem. maybe an extra for dr zhivago then. it's just so odd!

off to hit replay on the cd player!

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 5:07 am

Goody2Shoes wrote:The intro to The World And His Wife is so great. That piano/organ thing sounds like something from an old movie, but then you get that little shriek before the horns come in. Nice.

I wholeheartedly agree. That's always been my favourite bit of the song!

I still like the album although the 12" remixes to cash in on the trend at the time still make me cringe. And most artists would kill to write a song like Heathen Town, let alone be able to relegate it to a B-side! And we haven't even started on Pills and Soap or Shipbuilding.

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 5:41 am

I really like the piano intro to King of Thieves......is ace!

10 · Post by 10 » Fri Feb 27, 2004 6:54 am

I loved this when I was 16 or so. Still like it now.

Mr. Average · Post by **Mr. Average** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 1:53 pm

Well, count me among the born-again "Punch the Clock" zealots.

Two comments:

1. I purchased the vinyl upon its release. I was initially disappointed (as were many of my peers) because we kept holding on to the earlier 'groundbreaking' records like MAIT, TYM, AF, and GH. With an epic like Imperial Bedroom inserted into the discography (probably my favorite next to Get Happy) prior to this release, I had a hunger for a return to the earlier sound. But Elvis had clearly moved on (forward?), and somehow, the horn arrangements had a negative initial impression. With the Rhino reissue, and hearing it with both the benefit of retrospective (to complement my anterospective) review, it is fresh and exciting. Maybe it's just me, but I think Bruce Thomas begins to take more artistic freedom with this record, and maybe, just maybe, he became a little to liberal in treating his bass as a lead instrument. I have no idea of the history, but I wonder if this is where the schism started between EC and BT, or not. If any of the EC GateKeepers and KeyMasters of the board have knowledge of where that breakdown began to occur, I would be interested. As much as I appreciate Farragher, he ain't no Bruce Thomas in the studio. However, seeing Dave live is another situation entirely...he cannot constrain the pure enjoyment that he is feeling on stage with EC and the former Attractions. At the LA House of Blues Show, during the prolonged Pump it Up rendition, he was playful and flippant with the bass line more than once, and Elvis looked at him with a huge smile, reciprocated in kind by Farragher. This is one of the special things about EC live...the mutual respect amongst the band members and the fact that, after all these years, they are having fun. I imagine that in the studio Elvis is very demanding of a particular sound, like Miles, Becker and Fagan, and Frank Z. But he let's loose a bit on stage.

Well, this point lost its focus. Sorry for the meandering. Dammit, thats the first time I've ever done that!

2. The marketing strategy of the reissues has proven to be a brilliant on. I probably would not have purchased the CD of the original release simply because of the aged impression I had of it at the time. But with the bonus disc (and this thread, to be honest), I decided to pick it up. Good thing I did. I really like this record.

I wonder how the idea came about? I know that the process is nothing new, but Elvis seems to have derived more market presence because of it than any other artist I am aware of.

Poppet · Post by **Poppet** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 2:35 pm

the bonus disc is just a wonder, isn't it? it seems, to my ears, that the final cuts deviate more from the originals here than on any other EC album i've heard. you could cut an entire album with the style of the original demos for PtC, and it would be fresh and new and worth buying.

maybe i'm just ignorant, but i don't know of anyone else whose work is so vibrant - it works this way, it works that way, twist it around some more and it's yet another wonderful thing.

do other artists do this? do they have, say, four different versions of the majority of their songs that all work well? feel free to start a thread outta this.

(edited to add - and look at me! i passed 500 posts! damned chatty thing.)

HungupStrungup · Post by **HungupStrungup** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 4:49 pm

Mr. Average wrote:. . . . maybe, just maybe, [Bruce Thomas] became a little to liberal in treating his bass as a lead instrument.

Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays? Nudge nudge wink wink! Choking the chicken, baptising the bishop, treating his bass as a lead instrument . . . . what's the next euphemism, battering his corndog? Dicking his Cheney?

Post by **BlueChair** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 4:52 pm

If you mean that Bruce was being more ambitious in his bass playing, I think he was doing that as early as Armed Forces, and certainly be Get Happy!! and Imperial Bedroom he was doing some fancy bass work.

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 4:53 pm

HS--whatever you're on, send me some!

and way to go Poppetster! don't stay out too late tonight!

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Sun Feb 29, 2004 6:26 am

(May be repeating myself, but) I've wondered just how much pre-PTC EC fans were turned off at this point, a sort of unashamedly brave leap into the pop climate of the time? He was going for big pop singles, what with Everyday I Write The Book and the bold political statements of Shipbuilding, Pills And Soap... and, with its general sound, it might have seemed like a too desperate or cringe-inducing sense of make or break, or sellout.

As with Goodbye Cruel World, my discovery of PTC was way post its release, so I was kind of immune from any associated fashion cringing of the time, so appreciated firstly the more conspicuous material on it perhaps more on just the basis of the songs (always really liked EDIWTB, and I Wanna Be Loved from GCW)... but, since the reissue, really the entire rest of it (+ demos etc).

What a salvage job this Rhino reissue seems to have done for PTC... with the focus squarely on the songwriting craftsmanship (& far better sound than my scratched up PTC LP) it's also let the older folk reconcile their relationship with it and probably forget their fashion consciousness of the time. I'm old enough though to remember people dressing as the Attractions did in the reissue booklet (I was 13). I'm glad to see that Rhino have reflected and even seem to have embraced all that graphically, rather than try to avoid it. When was GCW coming out again..(?)

crash8_durham · Post by **crash8_durham** » Sun Feb 29, 2004 9:26 am

The first EC LP I bought was This Year's Model so I was pretty schooled in his sound before PTC and GCW arrived. I liked them all. I have never thought it was in a band or artist's best interest to keep the same sound forever. If you want that then be a Boston fan. Artists must get bored with it after a while. I bet there are some songs EC would love to put away and not perform for a few years. They may lose some fans along the way by changing, (remember how outraged fans of Bob Dylan were when he picked up an "electric" guitar) but they are sure to gain new ones when they do. Some of us like the change and the fun of unexpected. I have had many LP's grow on me over time by just giving them a chance and sometimes I need to do that with a new album by an old favorite.

crash8_durham · Post by **crash8_durham** » Sun Feb 29, 2004 9:29 am

One other thought.....our tastes in life an music mature over time and we welcome in new sounds and artists. Artists are the same and their abilities in song writing and lyric compostion grow and improve so their music is going to enevitably change or they are going to have short careers. The few that last a long time not only need to change but will usually do so naturally.

Elvis Costello Fan Forum

Punch The Clock Revisited (Again)

Punch The Clock Revisited (Again)

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