Why is "Get Happy!!" not considered among the Greatest Double Albums?

So we have 5 pages of discussion about the subject when this is the only answer to the thread topic?

 

Hey, thread topics are only a suggestion...I for one am enjoying everyone's takes and memories.

 

Some other suggestions for greatest double albums ever made:

Sgt Pepper
Born to Run
Sticky Fingers etc

 

I understand that this has become more of a global album discussion, but I disagree that thread titles are just a suggestion.

When you start a thread based on a specific concept/question, that's the subject for debate. Some thread digression is fine - God knows I've done that a lot! - but at its core, this thread ended with post 2.

It's not a double album!

You might want to ask Gorts to change the subject, as the current one just sets up the thread for more comments about the inherent fallacy in the title...

 

"Don't be sore." - Sol Rosenberg

 

Double or single, it's EC's best and in my top 5 of all time. The 30 song bonus CD only makes it better.

 

The only song I've never liked on Get Happy! is King Horse. Actually liked them all up to Goodbye Cruel World. Fave is This Years Model.

Bern

 

While we're at it: wouldn't EC be the most prominent/prolific artist whos never actually made a double album?

 

I think Momofuku and Delivery Man were 2LPs

 

Get Happy makes me want to kick everybody's (and everything's) asses and just, well, be happy.

 

Depends on your definition. The vinyl editions of some his recent albums (National Ransom comes to mind) were originally issued as double LPs even if they were just single CDs.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't classify those as doubles. Momofuku was two lps and it's only about 45 mins.

 

I don’t know about the other albums, but in the case of National Ransom, EC mentioned in an interview he conceived it as a double LP:

Vanity Fair: This is certainly an eclectic record.

Elvis Costello: It’s a group of songs that tell different stories using different methods to do that, that’s true. I didn’t set out to make an eclectic record. It’s diverse. Eclecticism is usually used pejoratively, sadly enough. People are keen to hang a very clean line on one story. That’s not really what I wanted to do here. It’s a double LP.

VF: You’re an artist who still creates full albums. Does it bother you that something conceived as a double LP will inevitably be broken down into pieces and heard out of sequence or on a computer?

EC: When somebody does a reproduction of a painting, you don’t know how big the original painting is. You don’t know if it’s the whole wall or the size of a matchbook—and for me, this collection of songs belongs best on a double LP. It’s also going to be available digitally and on CD. Those mediums are more commonly used, and I don’t necessarily think they’re superior, but they are terribly convenient. I think it’s a shame when people just take something when it becomes available digitally, only because they’re cheating themselves. They have no idea of the providence of the download. This record really sounds good. I make no apology for saying that—whether or not you like my singing or the songs, it’s a really good-sounding record and you should hear it the best you can. I think it’s more the question of a group of songs in an album framework—it’s laid out and tells a story—and if somebody wants to just take a bit out of that, that is their right.

Elvis Costello Says National Ransom Is His Best Record in Years

 

I'll grant him that, even though it's shorter than Spike.

 

It's not a double album!

 

Yes. My preferred playlist is swapping the LP sides.

 

I wonder how Elvis felt when "A Town Called Malice" was a huge hit a few years after "Love For Tender."

 

I wonder how Holland-Dozier-Holland felt.

 

After that "Blurred Lines" lawsuit, nowadays they could probably sue and win.

 

Not sure you can copyright a bassline, which is all the Jam took.

 

I for one am glad you started the thread. Despite the "false start"!

 

It was the best part of the song though!

 

Not a double album. But boy what an album.

 

I'm surprised how polarized EC fans are about Get Happy. For me it's the last of the Big Four. After that it becomes a series of very sophisticated, overly wordy, rather fussily arranged albums, including a lot of genre-hopping, with only 3-4 tracks that you really want to hear on each one.

 

Here's another post, just to annoy the people who think the thread should have ended on the first page...

There's a long history of double albums that are actually shorter than some single albums (I'm talking about before the advent of CD). And certainly plenty of double albums with less than 20 tracks. Get Happy is a double album in spirit.

I don't have a calculator with me, but I reckon Blonde on Blonde can't be all that long, with side 4 given over to a 12 minute song. And some of Dylan's single albums clock in at over 50 minutes. A pal of mine who's a big Todd Rundgren fan used to complain that the Todd double album was short-ish. And so on and so forth...