The purpose of this thread, starting tomorrow morning, is to discuss the music of Elvis Costello (Declan MacManus) on a song-by-song basis. I searched and didn’t see that a song-by-song thread has been done, please correct me if I’m mistaken (this will be a VERY long thread, so happy to move on if this ground has already been covered). I will be going through the songs from Elvis, one song per day, to include all principal album tracks, bonus material that was included on re-issued releases, B-sides, non-album tracks, demos, collaborations in which he was a principal vocal performer, cover songs, and other unique entries released over the decades. Each day I will post a song for discussion/comment. I will be rating songs on a 1-5 scale (5 is highest), and participants are encouraged to provide ratings as well, although rating songs is not required to participate. The primary thread objective is to visit in-depth the music of Elvis Costello, whether you choose to post numerical ratings, simply provide comments and opinions, of just follow along without posting. Song/album ratings will be tallied and averaged each day. Elvis Costello’s catalog is massive, but the intent, nevertheless, is to cover as much of it as possible. I expect the thread to last two years, so it will be a significant undertaking. The songs will be arranged in roughly chronological order, by release date for the primary studio albums, and a mixture of release or recording date for everything else (I like to keep songs housed in the era to which they best relate, which means I’ll be making some judgment calls along the way as to when specific songs will be discussed). All this said, I don't plan to obsess over the possibility that certain obscurities and/or one offs might be missed. Given the amount of songs he's recorded over the years, there will almost certainly be songs that are missed. My goal is to try to capture as much as possible, but I'm not going to sacrifice smooth thread flow or extend the thread out to infinity to ensure every scrap of music is covered - with his catalog, this would be nigh impossible. I will be relying heavily on the Elvis Costello Wiki site for song information. It’s a terrific one-stop shopping destination for high-level info on virtually everything Elvis recorded. It doesn’t go into deep detail on stories and background on the songs the way a good book might; I will leave it to the posters here to add and share additional information that could be considered useful. Each song will be linked to the Wiki page for folks to find lyrics and information related to the songs. While this may seem deficient to some, given the volume of material to be covered, I’m going to rely on it to maintain my sanity! Here is a listing (not all-inclusive) of what will NOT be covered: · Any song which doesn’t feature Costello as a lead or co-lead vocal contributor (i.e., will not cover songs where he is a backing vocalist only; but will cover instrumentals credited to him); · Songs written and/or produced for others; · Live songs, except those that were given a commercial single release; · Demos/alternate versions of primary studio songs (these will be linked supplementally to the main studio track the day that track is discussed) There may be occasional exceptions to any of these in certain unique situations, but this is the general plan. More details to follow in subsequent posts…
Strap in, it's going to be a long and bumpy ride! By way of disclosure, I have all the albums up to and including When I Was Cruel except for Almost Blue, The Juliet Letters and Kojak Variety. After that I have only National Ransom, Look Now and The Boy Named If. Armed Forces was effectively the album that started my record collection in 1979.
Albums to be covered: · My Aim Is True · This Year’s Model · Armed Forces · Get Happy!! · Trust · Almost Blue · Imperial Bedroom · Punch The Clock · Goodbye Cruel World · King Of America · Blood & Chocolate · Spike · Mighty Like A Rose · G.B.H. (Richard Harvey & Elvis Costello) (one-day album discussion) · The Juliet Letters · Brutal Youth · Kojak Variety · Jake’s Progress (Harvey & Costello) (one-day album discussion) · All This Useless Beauty · Painted From Memory · For The Stars (one-day album discussion) · When I Was Cruel · North · The Delivery Man · Il Sogno (one-day album discussion) · Piano Jazz (Costello/McPartland) (one-day album discussion) · My Flame Burns Blue: Live With The Metropole Orkest (one day) · The River In Reverse · Momofuku · Secret, Profane And Sugarcane · National Ransom · Wise Up Ghost · A Face In the Crowd (one day) · Look Now · Hey Clockface · The Boy Named If As one can see, Elvis was/is incredibly prolific, so there is a ton of ground to cover. I will do my best to cover everything (or to provide explanation as to why certain material will be skipped). Rest assured that anything of the remotest consequence will have its day, but, as mentioned in my introduction post, it’s very possible certain obscurities will be overlooked. I will provide frequent updates as to what’s upcoming, and if you see something missing from these updates, please speak up, and I will try to include it. That said, if something is missed and is discovered weeks or months later, it will probably remain undiscussed, as I don’t want to stall thread momentum to revisit an obscure lost demo or something that wasn’t picked up in the applicable time frame.
For those that are interested in biographical information, here is a link to a fairly thorough bio at the wonderful Elvis Costello Wiki: BIOGRAPHY
Here is what I plan to cover leading up to Elvis’s first proper studio album, My Aim Is True Jan. 2 – Demos from Elvis’s short-lived stint in the band Rusty, from January 1972 through June 1973. Not For Rating Jan. 3 – “Exiles Road” (Flip City demo) Jan. 4 – “Baseball Heroes” (Flip City demo, precursor to “Miracle Man”) Jan. 5 – “Radio Soul” (Flip City demo, precursor to “Radio Radio”) Jan. 6 – “Imagination (Is A Powerful Deceiver)” (Flip City demo; re-recorded version a bonus track on My Aim Is True re-issue) Jan. 7 – “Third Rate Romance (Flip City demo/Ace cover) / “On The Road” (Flip City demo) Jan. 8 – “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” (Flip City demo/Bob Dylan cover) Jan. 9 – “Packin Up” (Flip City demo) Jan. 10 – “Please Mister Don’t Stop The Band” (Flip City demo) Jan. 11 – “Wreck On The Slide” (Flip City demo) Jan. 12 – “You Win Again” (Flip City demo) Jan. 13 – “Sweet Revival” (Flip City demo) / “I Can’t Turn It Off (unreleased demo, later developed into “Watch Your Step”) Jan. 14 – “Jump Up” (Honky Tonk demo) Jan. 15 – “Wave A White Flag” (Honky Tonk demo) Jan. 16 – “Poison Moon” (Honky Tonk demo) Jan. 17 – “Cheap Reward (Lip Service)” (Honky Tonk demo) If I missed anything, please let me know. Any additions will be added as second songs to the entries above. We will begin discussion of My Aim Is True on Thursday, January 18. For those that are uninterested in hanging around for the early stuff, the date for the start of the first album discussion is firm. These first couple of weeks are a slow, leisurely ramp up, but once the big albums start, they come in a hurry!
Today I’ll be posting links to songs recorded during Elvis’s stint in the band Rusty. He performed in Rusty alongside band founder, guitarist Allan Mayes, supported by bassist Alan Brown and singer Dave Jago, from the beginning of 1972 through the middle of 1973. See the link below for more information: Rusty – Elvis Costello Wiki I’ll be sharing links to six demos recorded by Rusty. These are: "Silver Minute" "Love Is Like Everything" “Hemlock Tree" "Warm House" "Separate Ways" "Are You Afraid Of Your Children" Elvis does not sing lead on any of these, so they are being posted for completeness purposes, as we start to tell the story of Elvis’s musical journey. I will post them sporadically throughout the day. These are not for rating purposes, but feel free to chime in today, and in the coming days, to share any comments you have on these, or about anything at all re: how you came to be a fan of Elvis, and your experiences with his music.
I'm just happy I've actually found a song-by-song thread at the very beginning of the journey vs. stumbling in midstream. This is gonna be a fun one! I'm pretty well-stocked and well versed up through "All this Useless Beauty" but it gets a lot patchier after that... it's going to be fun/interesting to check it all out here! (Although, as I type this, getting to that point is a loooong ways off yet...)
Tomorrow I’ll begin posting the early Elvis demos, which will take about two weeks to work through. These will be collated for ratings purposes, for those that enjoy rating songs. Once completed, we’ll launch directly into Elvis’s first full length studio album, My Aim Is True. As indicated earlier, we’ll begin that album on January 18.
Following the thread though I likely won’t participate until we get past the demos. But count me in once we get to his released material!
Here is the link to the first track by Rusty, “Silver Minute” Written by Elvis Costello Elvis Costello Wiki Entry – Silver Minute
As mentioned, I'll be sprinkling these Rusty demos on the thread throughout the day (there's five more to come). They bear little to no sonic resemblance to what Elvis would ultimately become. I think (but I'm not convinced) that I hear him in the backing vocals at times. He only has writing credit on a couple of the demos. Otherwise, these are definitely just curios from the past.
This will be a long one. I once started a McCartney song by song thread and it gave me work for years. Costello thread will be much longer My Costello trip started with Less Than Zero followed by Alison on Stiff records a very long time ago I will follow this thread sporadically but it will be great
Link to the second Rusty track, “Love Is Like Everything” Written by Allan Mayes Elvis Costello Wiki Entry – Love Is Like Everything (lyrics not available)
A long one, to be sure! I have it laid out, and it's almost exactly two years. I thnk if we were to cover every single scrap and every EC-adjacent track that's out there, it could go for much, much longer. I'm trying to put some boundaries around it, though. I'm O.K. with the thread being long, but I want to ensure that there's an end in mind, and that it stays reasonably reined in and focused.
Link to the third Rusty track, “Hemlock Tree” Written by Allan Mayes and Alan Brown Elvis Costello Wiki Entry – Hemlock Tree (lyrics not available)
Link to the fourth Rusty track, “Warm House” Written by Elvis Costello Elvis Costello Wiki Entry – Warm House This song was re-recorded as “Warm House (And An Hour Of Joy)” for the 2022 album The Resurrection Of Rust, the Rusty reunion effort Elvis recorded with Allan Mayes. This re-recording will be covered near the end of the thread, and will not be linked to at this time.
I think you just don't recognize his younger voice. Elvis and Allan Mayes split the vocals pretty evenly, and there are only two voices. Elvis sings the first minute of "Are You Afraid of Your Children" on his own.
A They Might Be Giants thread AND an Elvis Costello discussion, all on the same day? I'm like a kid on Christmas morning. Count me in!
Adding this to my watched threads list, now watch as Imperial Bedroom flies by without me noticing and getting to rate the songs (they're all 5s, except for 'Boy With a Problem')
Link to the fifth Rusty track, “Separate Ways” Written by Allan Mayes Elvis Costello Wiki Entry – Separate Ways (lyrics not available)
