And his lyrics are good.

Nah, it's actually a pretty elaborate number, with crashing drums, big keyboard sound, drum loops and effects. I like the stripped down version better.

oh yeah, the nick cave stuff. I couldn't get into it.

I finished my first listen, which was a fairly superficial in the car kind of thing. This weekend I need to give it a headphones and lyrics listen. I didn't fall in love this first time through but given what I know about him the lyrics are a really important part of this package.

I always really liked this performance of the song. Gods Die, since you liked King of America so much, you'll probably be into it.

I really like the River in Reverse album. I just picked it up last week, but like it more than anything I've hear since King of America.

Elvis reacts to the exorbitant price of his Spinning Songbook Deluxe CD/DVD/LP package:


Steal This Record

A Pastoral Address From The Right Reverend Jimmy Quickly


There was a time when the release of a new title by your favourite record artist was a cause for excitement and rejoicing but sadly no more.

6th December 2011 sees the issue of “The Return Of The Spectacular Spinning Songbook” by Elvis Costello and the Imposters.

This beautifully designed compendium contains all manner of whimsical scribblings, photographs and cartoons, together with some rock and roll music and vaudevillian ballads.

Tape and celluloid were rolling at the Wiltern Theater, Los Angeles in April this year and present a vivid snapshot of the early days of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook show on “The Revolver Tour” of 2011.

The live recording finds the Imposters in rare form, while the accompanying motion picture blueprints the wilder possibilities of the show, as it made its acclaimed progress across the United States throughout the year.

Unfortunately, we at http://www.elviscostello.com find ourselves unable to recommend this lovely item to you as the price appears to be either a misprint or a satire.

All our attempts to have this number revised have been fruitless but rather than detain you with tedious arguments about morality, panache and book-keeping - when there are really bigger fish to filet these days - we are taking the following unusual step.

If you should really want to buy something special for your loved one at this time of seasonal giving, we can whole-heartedly recommend, “Ambassador Of Jazz” - a cute little imitation suitcase, covered in travel stickers and embossed with the name “Satchmo” but more importantly containing TEN re-mastered albums by one of the most beautiful and loving revolutionaries who ever lived – Louis Armstrong.

The box should be available for under one hundred and fifty American dollars and includes a number of other tricks and treats. Frankly, the music is vastly superior.

If on the other hand you should still want to hear and view the component parts of the above mentioned elaborate hoax, then those items will be available separately at a more affordable price in the New Year, assuming that you have not already obtained them by more unconventional means.

Tickets are currently on-sale for the Spectacular Spinning Songbook appearances in the U.S., U.K. and Europe during April, May and June in the Spring of 2012. More dates will be announced in the very near future.

i got the chance to give your mix a careful listen with the lyrics this weekend platy. As soon as i get caught up in chat and get the next round of lyrics up I'll give you my thoughts, for what they're worth

Looking forward to reading that, stip, even if something tells me I'll be responding to it in indignant anger

I suspect you will.

I went into this very curious since I know you and KD both swear by this guy, and you're two people whose opinions I have a great deal of respect for. I gave this three listens, two with the lyrics.

I was unfortunatley not really a fan. I didn't dislike it but few of these songs made really strong impressions on me one way or the other. He is a good lyricist with a lot of dexterity, but I was not wowed by many of the phrasings, so unfortunately that couldn't get me past my biggest issue, which was his voice. I don't really like him as a singer. There is both a scrappiness and a smugness to his voice which, while not exactly offputting for me, really kinda stopped me from getting sucked into the emotional development of the song. I usually like a combination of world weary wisdom, righteous purity (but not self-righteous) and howling defiance in my favorite singers, and I picture more of a middle finger and snide remark from him. That's entirely idiosyncratic, and that may be exactly what other people are looking for, but not me.

I do have to say that I think my favorite part of this may have been reading your narrative of your mix, since it made everything feel at least a little familiar even hearing it for the first time.

Anyway, individual thoughts

New Lace Sleeves: this was a very early 80s song. It actually kinda reminded me of Stepping Out for some reason

Stella Hurt: I liked the guitar on this

All The Rage: Although I'll never be unhappy as you want me to be was the first real standout lyric for me, as well as that first verse. Like you I like when complicated emotions get hidden in bright pop songs

Shoes Without Heels: This was the first one of these songs I liked. I am a fan of country songs without the irritating country vocal twang. I also thought that 'Now i'm driven til I'm crying or dreaming till I drown was a nice line

God's Comic: That was a fun song, and i like how catchy a chorus of 'now I'm dead now I'm dead now I'm dead now I'm dead' can be.

No Action: I didn't like this one, but I'm not a fan of poppy punk numbers for the most part (these are always the PJ songs i like the least). Well executed for what it is. I did like the 'sometimes I phone when I know you're not lonely but I always disconnect it in time'

Episode of Blonde: I never would have known that this was live (until the end) without you saying so. Nice energy and I liked the contrast in the verse and chorus. It's a shame you had to break the heart you could have counted on is a good lyric.

All This Useless Beauty: All this useless beauty is a great lyric, and the part ugly beast and hellenic deceased is great. Still, an understated song like this is gonna rise and fall on whether or not the vocals seduce you, and they don't do that for me. I bet I would like this one a lot if someone like Michael Stipe covered it. I also really liked the 'while the calender fades almost all barricades to a pale compromise' lyric

Bedlam: This is a very smart, very well written song. I am gonna take issue with your 'this is the song Eddie Vedder wishes he could write' just because i don't think these are the types of songs he really tries to write. He's rarely lyrically dense, and the songs that are usually don't have a narrative. I can only think of a handful of pearl jam cousins this song might have. Possibly my favorite song on the mix.

I'll Wear it Proudly: Some nice lines here "I hate the buttons on your shirt when all I wanna do is tear and the second half of the chorus is really nice, as is the final two lines. Still, given the way you sold this song at the start i was kinda underwhelmed. Maybe if EC is the voice you filter the world through, but even then I suspect that it is the sentiment more than the song itself. Granted I don't think he has a beautiful voice, which takes away from the impact this might have.

Do you know Dan Bern's Estelle? I won't call it the most beautiful song ever written, but it probably remains my all time favorite love song. It's about a painter who gets bored with life and stops painting and rediscovers his love for it when a beautiful girl walks into a bar and he spends months trying to capture her in a painting. I heard that song at just the right moment in my life and the chorus

'sometimes it feels like there's so much that you need
sometimes the world is upside down
Sometimes it seems like the only thing you need
Is holding someone's hand as you walk through town'

makes me feel the same way this one does for you

No Dancing: You describe this song better than I ever could

My All Time Doll: I really like the atmosphere the music makes here, although is voice kinda undermines the atmosphere. He doesn't strike me as a particularly dexterous singer (maybe that's unfair) and so some of the more atmospheric and musically interesting songs don't end up being as interesting as they could be (for me) since the vocals tend to take all the songs back to a fairly similar place. That was an ok song but i didn't like it as much as i should have

Next Time Round: See No Action. I didn't really like this one but the deck was stacked against it

Spooky Girlfriend: Very clever song and I can hear your Timbaland vision. I really liked the 'while the greeting cards are your most poetic lyrica and the flat champagne is sweet sugar syrup' as well as the skirt exchange. It's weird hearing a live version where there is very clearly audience participation that gets entirely cut out of the mix

Wave a White Flag: I liked this one.

Man Out of Time: This was another let down for me, if only because you claimed it as your favorite song, which upped my expectations for it. It was pretty good, and i like the way he sings 'a man out of time', the bridge lyric you mentioned, and the 'whose nerves are always on a knife's edge/who's up late polishing the blade.' I'd actually like to hear more from you on why this song in particular moves you the way it does.

Also, what was up with that early 80s U2 style ending

High Fidelity: This one was a bust for me.

Still: Like so many of the slower songs this one ran into issues with me cuz of the vocals. It's a pretty song I'd like more if someone else sang it

A Voice In The Dark: What a fun anachronistic song. I want to hear Tom Waits cover this one.

Lipstick Vogue: this one also reminded me of early era u2

Couldn't Call It Unexpected No. 4 I liked this one.

Deportee: This one too.

It seems like the stuff I went in for the most was either the more stripped down songs or the quirkier numbers.


So this didn't make me a fan, but I'm glad I had the exposure

Thanks for the thoughtful post, stip. That's all pretty fair. I will respond to your individual points a little later in the afternoon. In the meantime, I am curious as to what you'd think of this track, EC's most covered song and one that Tom Waits named as one of the songs that shaped him.



(please ignore the silly video)

I am at work right now and don't want to listen to this in a crowded office with shitty speakers but I'll take a listen later tonight.

Well, if the voice is a dealbreaker for you, trying to sell you on the rest of it seems kinda futile. I have a few artists like that--Lou Reed is one that springs immediately to mind--where I suspect there's some great art going on below the surface but I just can't stand listening to the guy sing. I was pretty indifferent either way to Costello's voice to begin with--he's got a weird, mannered voice that, unlike Waits or Dylan, isn't so weird that the weirdness ends up being the selling point--but I was so bowled over by the songwriting that it didn't matter. I love it now, of course, and always look forward to hearing him sing something I haven't heard him sing before; to come full circle, there's a B-side (from the album album that produced "My All Time Doll" on Jorge's mix) of him singing a bluegrassy version of the Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale" from a couple years back that's just a joy to hear. Elvis's catalog requires a high tolerance for stylistic detours, so if certain kinds of music just plainly don't work for you, there could feasibly be just big chunks of his discography that you find completely inaccessible, which is probably why a lot of the Costello fans I've encountered not on the internet (and plenty on the internet) only ever like Elvis with asterisks and caveats, i.e. "he was good before he started with all that showtune shit," or however they phrase it.

That you liked "Bedlam" so well, though, should bode well for there being other songs in the same aesthetic ballpark that you might also enjoy. If you've got any "trying" left in you, here's "Tokyo Storm Warning" (from 1986's Blood and Chocolate): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOQfJdewnG8

I also tried to find a clip of "20% Amnesia" from 1994's Brutal Youth, but nothing popped up on YouTube. If I can, I'll upload later.

I'd count him as among the more dexterous singers I listen to, actually, but I think it's something that sneaks up on you over time--once you've managed to stumble across odd performances here and there that cause you to realize just how much ground this guy has covered, and what a range he really has. Because of how much he's managed to take on with such reverence, with such willingness to learn the rules of something before setting out to make it his own, he's picked up techniques and vocal devices, while smoothing out what might previously have been described as "tics," that his voice now--fundamentally if not physically, and unlike those of many artists his age, especially those who record and perform with even half his regularity--is, in my opinion, in the best shape its ever been. His last record had a few performances--"Slow Drag With Josephine," "You Hung the Moon," "Voice in the Dark" (from Jorge's mix), "Jimmie Standing in the Rain"--that artists wait their whole careers to deliver. Compared to someone like Eddie Vedder, the condition of his voice is just stunning--and he's ten years older than Eddie.

I'd also point out that EC has a pretty stunning range-- he can sing up to A above middle C, which is tenor register (after all, he has sung opera). He also has the vocal power to fill an entire concert hall without a microphone. He's definitely a very accomplished, if idiosyncratic, singer.

that was a pretty song that I would really like to hear tom waits cover.


KD--I liked Tokyo Storm Warning quite a bit actually. That may be my favorite thing I've heard by him so far. I like the ramshackle energy in it.

In response to this (and Platy's follow up) I should probably clarify what I meant by dexterous, or apologize for a poor word choice. I don't know precisely how to describe what my issue is (maybe it just comes down to me not really caring for him as a singer) but there was a sameness to most of the vocal performances that started to drag the songs down for a bit.

Platy, were you a big fan of this guy on the basis of his voice, or were you drawn to the songwriting and then came to appreciate the voice like KD. Would the songs on that mix have changed if you were trying to sell someone primarily on the basis of songwriting more than a particular performance (if I can make that distinction) or do you think there is no difference.

At any rate, I've mentioned him before, but these are two Dan Bern songs, if you don't know him. He is a monstrously prolific writer and many of his best songs don't end up on records (and some pretty terrible ones do). He's more Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen than Elvis Costello but of everyone I listen to (excluding tom waits) he is probably closest to EC

these are both from his first record. The first one is pretty much the song everyone hears first (and it's just him and a guitar), the second is that song Estelle I mentioned earlier. When he's on I don't know that there is anyone whose writing I like more, although he is very streaky and has a habit of not editing himself so amazing lyrics are sometimes buried alongside half baked ideas

Jerusalem


When I tell you that I love you
Don't test my love
Accept my love don't test my love
Cause maybe I don't love you all that much

Don't ask what kind of music I'm gonna play tonight
Just stay awhile
Hear for yourself awhile
And if you must put me in a box
Make sure it's a big box
With lots of windows
And a door to walk through
And a nice high chimney
So we can burn burn burn
Everything that we don't like
And watch the ashes
Fly up to Heaven
Maybe all the way to India
I'd like that

All the ancient kings came to my door
They said, "Do you want to be an ancient king too?"
I said, "Oh yes, very much
But I think my timing's wrong"
They said, "Time is relative
Or did you misread Einstein?"
I said, "Do you really mean it?"
They said, "What do you think we come here for
Our goddamn health or something?"

Everybody's waiting for the messiah
The Jews are waiting
The Christians are waiting
Also the Muslims
It's like everybody's waiting
They've been waiting a long time
I know how I hate to wait
Like even for a bus or something
An important phone call
So I can imagine
How darned impatient
Everybody must be getting

So I think it's time now
Time to reveal myself
I am the Messiah
I am the Messiah
I am the Messiah

Yes, I think you heard me right
I am the Messiah
I was gonna wait till next year
Build up the suspense a little
Make it a really big surprise
But I could not resist
It's like when you got a really big secret
You're just bursting to tell someone
It was kinda like that with this
And now that I've told you
I feel this great weight lifted
Dr. Nusbaum was right
He's my therapist
He said get it out in the open

I spent ten whole days in Jerusalem
Mmmm Jerusalem
Sweet Jerusalem
And all I ate was olives
Nothing but olives
Mountains of olives
It was a good ten days
I like olives
I like you too

So when I tell you that I love you
Don't test my love
Accept my love
Don't test my love
'Cause maybe I don't love you all that much


and Estelle




I was painting a still life this morning
Of a throat lozenge sitting on a copy
Of Tropic of Cancer
The only thing weird about it
Is that a year ago,
I never thought I'd paint anything again
I decided I wasn't ever gonna paint again
It didn't bother me too much
Warhol's dead,
David Hockney's still alive
I don't need to paint

I painted over ten thousand paintings
Sad ones, funny ones, dark ones, and light ones
I've done haystacks
And rich old ladies by their pools
Wearing nothing but a scarf
I've painted everything there was to paint
Now it was time to sit back
Give interviews
Hang out at club med
Get on the internet
Take stock of what I've done

You know, the best friend I ever had was a dog
It sounds like a cliche unless it's happened to you
Some days that dog was the only reason I even got out of bed
That dog went everywhere with me
And then I heard the crack addicts
Were stealin' dogs and selling them for animal research
It sounded like an urban myth to me
Like the mouse in the Coke bottle
But I started leavin' her at home after that
You know, Paula was my wife for a while
She ran off to Paris with the great grandson of Van Gogh
A cartoonist who did fashion graphics for Le Monde
When Paula left she took my dog
I never saw her again
Except in the court during the custody battle
She won and got to keep the dog
And I didn't speak to anyone for months

You know sometimes it feels
Like there's so much that you need
Sometimes the world is upside down
Sometimes it feels
Like the only thing you need
Is holdin' someone's hand as you walk through town

I started hanging around with Dino
He used to run a poker game back east
Now he sells cappuccino to his old pals
Tommy Chicago and Jimmy the Wig and Ugly Rose

You know the best person I ever knew
Was a Mormon woman named Estelle
She still calls me drunk every few months
And asks me stuff I don't want to talk about
You can't talk to her very long unless you're drunk yourself
Then we go all night

She says, "Why baby, why baby, why baby, why

Have you turned your back on love?
You had so many chances
Why have you let 'em all go by?"

Well, one morning I was sitting in front of Dino's place
with Jake the Shears, a guy from Philly
Who gives free mohawks
There were a couple of young painters
I was hopin' to come by
So I could give 'em some advice
Yeah, I was sittin' there updating my list of enemies
When this girl walks in
And the universe kind of stops
Turned out she drank the same tea as me
It don't take more than that to start a conversation sometimes
She believed collage was the greatest of all the arts
And was busy pasting pictures of horses
Next to ads for laundry soap
Next to Mohammed Ali
She had a turquoise in her ear
And said Rachmaninoff was always in her head

Later that day I was trying to describe her to Jimmy the Wig
I couldn't find any words
And I realized I'd started to sketch her chin
Somehow it didn't look right
I scratched it out and tried it again
I filled an entire pad
I threw it away, I never even came close

For six days I sat at Dino's place
The rain wouldn't quit and no one came in
Finally on the seventh day it cleared
And in she walked
I asked her to sit with me
And I bought her a cup of tea
And I asked her to model for me sometime
That afternoon I was at a canvas
She was wearing a yellow dress
I swore if she let me, I'd get it right

I've painted over ten thousand paintings
Sad ones, funny ones, dark ones, and light ones
But sitting there, it was like I couldn't even
Write my own name
I apologized and said, "It's been a few months
If you have patience, I'll get the hang of it again"
In the next few weeks, I painted her hundreds of times
If I get the nose right, the chin's too long
If I get 'em both right, the face is too thin
But I keep after it and one day
I get it all right

I painted a still life this morning
Of a throat lozenge
sitting on a copy of Tropic of Cancer
The only weird thing about it
Is I never thought
I'd paint anything again
I think I might go visit Estelle
Those Utah mountains are good for the soul
I'll bring my brushes
And some Jack Daniels
And we can make up for lost time

She said, "Why baby, why baby, why baby why?
Have you turned your back on love
You had so many chances
Why do you let 'em all go by?
Why baby, why baby, why baby why?
Have you turned your back on love
You had so many chances
Why do you let 'em all go by?"

Sometimes it seems like there's so much that you need
Sometimes the world is upside down
Sometimes it seems like the only thing you need
Is holdin' someone's hand as you walk through town

I told Jorge the same thing about this one. It still might be my favorite on the mix he made.

Good?

"Ice is melting a the distant Pole
The gin and tonic glasses overflow
Dissolve
The precious little else that I could say
Your stupid tears of laughter washed away
Dissolve"

No, this guy is not merely "good". He is one of the finest lyricists alive.

Another one,

"Now there's a tragic waste of brutal youth
Strip and polish this unvarnished truth
The tricky door that gapes beneath the ragged noose
The crippled verdict begs again for the lamest excuse"

one more,

"Her soft breath was gentle on his neck
If he could choose the time to die
Then he would come and go like this
Underneath a painted sky
She woke up and called him Charlie by mistake
And then in shame began to cry
Tarnished silver band peals off a phrase
And then warms their hands around the brazier"



Fair enough, he does have a very distinctive voice, and a lot of people can't get past it (Reid expressed a similar opinion to yours). I've always been a fan of it. I like that scrappiness and I like how malleable it is; how it can go from being a punk sneer to a smooth, velvet croon to power-belting his way through a ballad.

I can't help but be absolutely wowed by this particular performance, from his last album:




It's only my favorite song of all time. I think the songwriting, lyrics and performance are nothing less than majestic, from Steve Nieve's grand piano to Bruce Thomas's off-center bass line. I can't really say much more about it without feeling like I'm pontificating on the tenants of pop songwriting. I just think this song is genius.



I think the voice grabbed me very early on. The first prolonged exposure I had to EC was his Live By Request concert from 2003. At one point in the set he took a break from all the rock and roll and started singing these gorgeous, delicate piano ballads and I remember being moved to tears and wowed by his voice.

This is the performance that grabbed me, I think:




Thanks for giving it a listen. I'll check out those Dan Bern songs tomorrow.

I think I've finally accepted the fact that Costello is the best lyricist of whom I'm aware. It's tough to rank him above Cohen, Waits, Dylan in his better moments--people who've all, at times, affected me a great deal more. He just has such the range as a writer--he can go from being painstakingly direct to being eloquently poetic to being snide and comedic, the majority of his writing usually managing a meaningful conglomerate of the three, the best of it redefining the parameters of what I knew the English language was capable of bringing to a mere pop song. Just read the words to the song Jorge posted above--I mean, that chorus? Good grief, man.

YOU HUNG THE MOON

The homecoming fanfare is echoing still
No tapping on tables
And sensing a chill
Poor families expecting a love one’s return
Only summon some charlatan spectre
Oh, when will they learn?

You hung the moon
From a gallows in the sky
Choked out the light
In his blue lunar eye
The shore is a parchment
The sea has no tide
Since he was taken from my side

The lines of the fallen are viewed through the glass
You cannot touch them at all
Or hear their footfall just as they go past
The drunken ground is where they are bound

You hung the moon
From a gallows in the sky
Choked out the light in his blue lunar eye

The shore is a parchment
The sea has no tide
Since he was taken from my side

So slap out his terrors
And sneer at his tears
We deal with deserters like this
From the breech to the barrel, the bead we will level
Break earth with a shovel, quick march on the double
And lower him shallow like tallow down in the abyss

You hung the moon
From a gallows in the sky
Choked out the light in his blue lunar eye
The shore is a parchment
The sea has no tide
Since he was taken from my side