Music: England's Elvis: Gut Emotions

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Applause has not sweetened his disposition. He rails at his countrymen because "they settle for so little, and they are stupid for having a queen." He quickly adds: "I also hate the Americans because they've got so much, and they do so little with it." Of the 14 U.S. cities on his tour, Chicago suited Elvis best. "People were rude, you know? People on the West Coast were so nice it was driving me mad. If one more person said, 'Have a nice day,' I thought I might kill him."

Elvis enjoys running through the things that he is not. An artist, for one thing: "Even the word musician I kind of balk at." He is also not a pop activist. "The word issues conjures up an image of Joan Baez and placards," he allows. "What could be worse than that, now?" What he does approve of is short tunes, no more than three minutes, and gut emotions: "Many of my songs involve revenge and guilt. The stronger feelings, the ones you are left with at night."

Onstage, Costello moves from song to song with neither pause nor comment, often seeming to hide behind a howling wall of sound. When a drunken front-row heckler broke his concentration at the Whisky in West Hollywood, his temper was quick. He tossed a drink in the man's face, then brandished a broken drinking glass to fend off an attack. He finished the scene with his usual dramatic intensity—staring at his foe and breaking into an especially dark version of Watching the Detectives. The song is a demonic ballad about a fellow trying to get his girl's attention while she is enthralled by a violent TV cop show.

Elvis is returning briefly to the relative calm of London, where his wife and child are waiting. But he will not stay long. After finishing his second album, he will be back in the U.S. for another tour early next year. Even he may not be able to deny that life is beginning to sound like another one of his songs:

Well I used to be disgusted,

And now I try to be amused.

But since their wings have got

rusted,

You know the angels wanna wear

my red shoes...