Elvis Costello Announces Massive ‘King of America’ Reissue With Unreleased Recordings
Elvis Costello’s King of America, the 1986 album that found the singer-songwriter exploring American music genres, will be the focus of a massive reissue that collects unreleased demos, outtakes, a concert recording, and more from the era, plus decades-later collaborations with the album’s co-producer T-Bone Burnett.
The super deluxe edition of King of America & Other Realms, out November 1, features the newly remastered 1986 LP — including its centerpiece, a rendition of the Animals’ “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” — plus a second disc called Le Roi Sans Sabots that includes solo demos, outtakes, first drafts and more from the album sessions, much of it culled from two recently unearthed demo reels.
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“If you are familiar with the songs of King Of America and then listen to the collection of sketches and solo performances on ‘Le Roi Sans Sabots’ you may see a different picture,” Costello writes in his 35-page essay included in the reissue.
“Assembling ‘Le Roi Sans Sabots’ has been a little like developing an old negative to discover a photograph, close to a very familiar image but crucially different in composition and implication. It seems that sometime after these initial solo sessions, I resolved to balance the break-up theme with lyrics with a more satirical note.”
Ahead of the reissue’s arrival, Costello shared the remastered version of King of America’s “Indoor Fireworks”:
In a 1986 review of the LP, Rolling Stone wrote of King of America, “It’s as if Elvis and coproducer T-Bone Burnett sought to bare the Costello soul by peeling away the layers of Brit-pop artifice. (And for the first time, the songs are credited to MacManus, rather than the pseudonymous Costello.) On all but one track, the Attractions have been replaced by a crew of Los Angeles sessioneers (including legendary guitarist James Burton), who are presumably better equipped to guide Elvis down the ‘boulevard of broken dreams’ described in ‘Brilliant Mistake.'”
The reissue, available to preorder now in a variety of formats, also includes Costello’s entire (and previously unreleased) Royal Albert Hall concert from January 27, 1987, featuring covers of songs by Ray Charles, Waylon Jennings, Buddy Holly and more American music icons.
Costello’s later collaborations with American artists are captured on the reissue’s final three discs — Il Principe Di New Orleans E Le Marchese Del Mississippi, El Príncipe Del Purgatorio and Der Herzog Des Rampenlicht, recorded in places like New Orleans, Nashville, Memphis, and Mississippi — including tracks featuring Kris Kristofferson and Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, and more.
Those discs also contain additional recordings between Costello and Burnett — notably tracks from the 2010 album National Ransom — plus three newly recorded tracks, including radical takes on the King of America songs “Indoor Fireworks” and “Brilliant Mistake.”
King of America & Other Realms Track List
DISC 1 – KING OF AMERICA (2024 REMASTER)
1. Brilliant Mistake
2. Lovable
3. Our Little Angel
4. Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
5. Glitter Gulch
6. Indoor Fireworks
7. Little Palaces
8. I’ll Wear It Proudly
9. American Without Tears
10. Eisenhower Blues
11. Poisoned Rose
12. The Big Light
13. Jack Of All Parades
14. Suit Of Lights
15. Sleep Of The Just
DISC 2 – LE ROI SANS SABOTS
Demos, Outtakes & Other Realms
1. The People’s Limousine – The Coward Brothers
2. Next Time Round *
3. Deportee *
4. Brilliant Mistake (First Draft) *
5. Suffering Face
6. Poisoned Rose
7. Jack Of All Parades
8. Sleep Of The Just *
9. Blue Chair *
10. I Hope You’re Happy Now
11. I’ll Wear It Proudly
12. Indoor Fireworks
13. Having It All
14. Shoes Without Heels *
15. King Of Confidence
16. They’ll Never Take Her Love From Me – The Coward Brothers
17. American Without Tears No. 2 (Twilight Version)
DISC 3 – KINGS OF AMERICA LIVE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL
Royal Albert Hall 27th January 1987
1. The Big Light *
2. Only Daddy That’ll Walk The Line *
3. Our Little Angel *
4. It Tears Me Up *
5. I’ll Wear It Proudly *
6. Lovable *
7. Riverboat *
8. Sally Sue Brown/36-22-36 *
9. American Without Tears *
10. Brilliant Mistake *
11. What Would I Do Without You *
12. Your Mind Is On Vacation /Your Funeral, My Trial *
13. Pouring Water On A Drowning Man *
14. Payday *
15. That’s How You Got Killed Before *
16. Sleep Of The Just *
17. True Love Ways *
DISC 4 – IL PRINCIPE DI NEW ORLEANS E LE MARCHESE DEL MISSISSIPPI
1. There’s A Story In Your Voice – with Lucinda Williams
2. Country Darkness
3. The Delivery Man
4. Nothing Clings Like Ivy
5. Heart Shaped Bruise – with Emmylou Harris (Live At The Hi-Tone, Memphis) **
6. Bedlam (Live At Montreal Jazz) **
7. Either Side Of The Same Town
8. Wonder Woman
9. In Another Room
10. The Monkey * – Rehearsal with Dave Bartholomew & The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
11. Monkey To Man
12. Deep Dark Truthful Mirror
13. Clown Strike (Live At Montreal Jazz) **
14. Who’s Gonna Help Brother Get Further?
15. The River In Reverse
16. The Greatest Love – from Treme *
17. Ascension Day
DISC 5 – EL PRíNCIPE DEL PURGATORIO
1. Stations Of The Cross
2. Quick Like A Flash (Previously Unreleased) *
3. Sulphur To Sugarcane
4. Red Cotton
5. Lost On The River #12
6. A Slow Drag With Josephine
7. I Felt The Chill
8. Complicated Shadows (Cashbox Version)
9. She’s Pulling Out The Pin
10. Condemned Man (Demo) *
11. Hidden Shame
12. Red Wicked Wine – with Dr. Ralph Stanley
13. The Scarlet Tide – with Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings (Live at the Grand Ole Opry) *
14. One Bell Ringing
15. Bullets For The New Born King
16. All These Strangers
17. For More Tears (Demo) *
18. You Hung The Moon
DISC 6 – DER HERZOG DES RAMPENLICHT
1. Stella Hurt
2. Mr. Feathers
3. Under Lime
4. Jimmie Standing In The Rain
5. Down Among The Wines And Spirits
6. Dr. Watson, I Presume
7. Church Underground (Demo) *
8. A Voice In The Dark
9. April 5th – with Rosanne Cash & Kris Kristofferson
10. Indoor Fireworks (Memphis Magnetic Version) *
11. That’s Not The Part Of Him You’re Leaving – with Larkin Poe *
12. Brilliant Mistake/Boulevard Of Broken Dreams (Cape Fear Version) *
13. That Day Is Done – with The Fairfield Four
* previously unreleased
** first-ever audio release
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