Elvis Costello Open Thread

I’m posting these rare live Elvis Costello videos because we listened to Armed Forces last night when ours pals Elisa and Mark were over and it made me realize that I don’t listen to him as much as I should.  You’d be hard pressed to come up with an artist or band who lunged out of the starting gate with three stronger albums than My Aim is True, This Years Model and Armed Forces. Feel free to do so in the comments.

“No Dancing” (live)

“Lipstick Vogue” (live)

“Green Shirt” (live)

MORE: The Attractions are one of the most underrated backing bands of all time. This guy’s got a whole bunch of videos that prove it.

Posted by Kevin K. on 01/04/09 at 12:49 PM • Permalink

Categories: MessylaneousMusicMusic Videos

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Hmmm…  Metallica, Steely Dan, Van Halen, Zeppelin, of course, and maybe The Eagles.  But there aren’t many who are consistently solid, esp. in their earlier material.  Of course, I’m probably showing my age and complete lack of hipness by not including or even knowing any hip hop stuff.

I was a never a big EC&A;fan, though I remember MTV played a fair amount of his stuff in the early days, so I knew a few of his songs.  I liked him well enough but I was heading into guitar god territory, so he was a little preppy for my tastes.

Still, fun stuff for a Sunday morning.  Thanks!

I should add - I don’t mean those artists had stronger albums, just noting some others who had a solid start.

I have a friend who is an audiophile and music maniac, and Elvis Costello is one of his favorite artists. He has all of his original recordings on vinyl and all of his cds. So when I need an Elvis fix, I know who to call.

In other news, Riverchucky, who is a really great liberal, is recommending a wingnut blog (Nice Deb) that’s also up for a Weblog Award in the same category as Rumproast.  What a surprise!  And an even bigger surprise is that it was suggested by myiq1/2u.

Nice Deb is a huge Hillary fan, too.  She was a strong supporter of Clinton way back in August of 2007:

The woman carries a huge amount of baggage with her everywhere she goes, and although much of the voting public have short memories….that’s what 527 groups are for.

 

In a multimedia presentation to the most diehard of GOP heartland activists, RNC Chair Mike Duncan played and replayed a video of Clinton talking about the economy in a manner he claimed smacked of “socialism.”

Use it!

 

when Duncan wrapped up his treatment of the Democratic presidential hopefuls, it was only Clinton that he admonished for being “one of only 22 senators to vote against [Supreme Court Chief Justice] John Roberts” and trying “to block” Samuel Alito’s Supreme Court nomination.

Use it!

 

And only she, as Duncan told it, “blasted the Supreme Court decision on partial-birth abortion.”

Use. it.

 

There’s a wealth of negative information about Hillary in the countless books written about her, starting with, in alphabetical order by author, Unlimited Access: An FBI Agent Inside the Clinton White House, by Gary Aldrich to Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House, by R. Emmett Tyrell, and Mark Davis.

Use it use it use it!

People need to hear about every lie, scandal, and dirty trick in embarrassing detail.

Roar.

In other news, Riverchucky, who is a really great liberal, is recommending a wingnut blog (Nice Deb) that’s also up for a Weblog Award in the same category as Rumproast.  What a surprise!  And an even bigger surprise is that it was suggested by myiq1/2u.

Country First!

Hillary is soooo 2008.

I can’t even read The Confluence anymore. They’re just a bunch of Republicans who hate black people—especially taggles.

For the longest time I didn’t like Get Happy!!, but eventually warmed up to it, and I think I even like it better than My Aim Is True now, but for the longest time those first three were all I needed. I’m pretty sure I’m not interested in venturing out beyond Trust, as I didn’t think much of it at all, but I was wrong before.

For what it’s worth, the demo of “Riot Act”, rather than the album version, was what really hooked me for Get Happy!!.

For the longest time I didn’t like Get Happy!!

I still want to take “Love for Tender” back in time so the 12-year-old Michael Jackson can sing it in the way it was intended to be sung.

Seriously, Costello was mind-boggling for a few years (for me, through Imperial Bedroom).  Even the Taking Liberties outtakes were amazing.

I’ve STILL got all my old EC&A;vinyl, don’t have a working turntable, but have the records! And didn’t ‘Armed Forces’ have a great cover, digital is great but we’ve lost something. Not to get all ol’fartish maudlin but remember that first listen to an album while checking out it’s cover art?

No Dancing.  A spare arrangement of a pretty spare tune, but at exactly 3 minutes long; pretty much a perfect pop song.

Also, those Bruce Thomas basslines on EC’s 2nd, 3rd, 4th albums are pretty much the reason I decided to be a bass player instead of a guitarist when I first started playing in bands.

Yes, the Attractions were very underrated.

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