Elvis writes the song “Bad Waitress” for Nicole Atkins

Pretty self-explanatory
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sweetest punch
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Elvis writes the song “Bad Waitress” for Nicole Atkins

Post by sweetest punch »

http://www.elviscostellofans.com/phpBB3 ... 0#p7750648

JerseyPride78 wrote:

I saw Nicole Atkins perform last night and she shared an amusing EC anecdote.

After mentioning how excited she was to appear on A Boy Named If, she talked about how she and EC got to know each other. They were both playing a tribute show at Radio City Music Hall and they got to chatting backstage. During the conversation, Nicole shared with EC that she always thought he should have a song called "Angry Waitress" about, well, an angry waitress. A few days later, Elvis sends Nicole the lyrics to a song he's just written: "Angry Waitress." He also included a note saying that he could never perform it because he would sound too much like Jethro Tull.
Last edited by sweetest punch on Thu Dec 09, 2021 1:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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JerseyPride78
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Re: Elvis writes the song “Angry Waitress” for Nicole Atkins

Post by JerseyPride78 »

Thanks for making this its own thread!
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Re: Elvis writes the song “Angry Waitress” for Nicole Atkins

Post by verbal gymnastics »

Thanks to sweetest punch. I thought this deserved its own thread as it’s typically Elvis.
Who’s this kid with his mumbo jumbo?
bronxapostle
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Re: Elvis writes the song “Angry Waitress” for Nicole Atkins

Post by bronxapostle »

Now, in my head, I can not stop hearing EC singing "Locomitive Breath." :shock: :shock:
Hawksmoor
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Re: Elvis writes the song “Angry Waitress” for Nicole Atkins

Post by Hawksmoor »

Out of curiosity, do we know how long ago this was that they got to know each backstage at the Radio City Music Hall? If it was relatively recent, is it possible Nicole will even record a version of the song? If it was ages ago, it's probably just a bit of a giggle/a funny story between the two of them and it will never see the light of day?
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And No Coffee Table
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Re: Elvis writes the song “Angry Waitress” for Nicole Atkins

Post by And No Coffee Table »

Hawksmoor wrote:Out of curiosity, do we know how long ago this was that they got to know each backstage at the Radio City Music Hall?
September 2019.

Pump 'Em Up! Elvis Costello's Favourite Music
Elvis Costello wrote:Over the years, my brother T Bone Burnett has introduced me to a great number of people I never imagined I would ever meet, from the bassist, Ray Brown and guitarist, James Burton, to memorable encounters with Willie Dixon and Jerry Lee Lewis. In September 2019, T Bone invited me to a concert screening of Easy Rider that he was producing at Radio City Music Hall in which the soundtrack would be re-created live. John Kay was there to deliver roof-raising versions of, 'The Pusher' and 'Born To Be Wild' while Roger McGuinn sang, 'I Wasn't Born To Follow' as beautifully as ever.

Among the artists charged with singing songs by artists no longer with us was Nicole Atkins. She easily surpassed the soundtrack version of 'The Weight' by the group Smith. What astonished me more was that I had never heard this voice before. Between the near demise of the music press and the needle in the haystack searches on the internet, I am both dismayed and thrilled to encounter music I have somehow failed to register. I soon obtained a stack of Nicole's own records and found so many fine songs and some killer singing and playing, proving once more that you can respect the "Then" and still be about, "Now". On Nicole's new album 'Italian Ice', you'll sense a strong understanding of songcraft but the stories of 'Never Going Home' and 'St Dymphna', the humour, and the emotion of the voice are all her own. Don't let this one slip by.
The performance of "The Weight":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJxqbxvjy3k
JerseyPride78
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Re: Elvis writes the song “Angry Waitress” for Nicole Atkins

Post by JerseyPride78 »

Hawksmoor wrote:Out of curiosity, do we know how long ago this was that they got to know each backstage at the Radio City Music Hall? If it was relatively recent, is it possible Nicole will even record a version of the song? If it was ages ago, it's probably just a bit of a giggle/a funny story between the two of them and it will never see the light of day?

Who knows what will come of the song but I will say that they way Nicole told the story, I got the sense it was, in your words "a bit of a giggle" rather than something she intended to record.
sweetest punch
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Re: Elvis writes the song “Angry Waitress” for Nicole Atkins

Post by sweetest punch »

https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwmusic/ ... m-20211207

Nicole Atkins Announces Livestream Concert Ahead of New Album
The livestream and the album will arrive Friday, December 10.

Internationally acclaimed chanteuse Nicole Atkins will celebrate this week's arrival of her eagerly anticipated new album with an intimate one-night-only livestream Moment. Presented by premium digital live platform Moment House, MEMPHIS ICE: A LIVESTREAM MOMENT will air worldwide this Friday, December 10 at 9pm (EST). Replays will be available for only 24 hours following the event. Tickets are available here exclusively via Moment House.

This week's livestream Moment heralds the release of Atkins' milestone new album and full-length performance film, MEMPHIS ICE, arriving via Single Lock Records on limited-edition vinyl and at all DSPs and streaming services on Friday, December 10; pre-orders are available here. A reimagined companion project to last year's acclaimed ITALIAN ICE, the live recording includes such recently released tracks as "Promised Land" and "Mind Eraser," both of which are joined by official music videos taken from the performance film and streaming now via YouTube.

Hailed by UNCUT as "clear-eyed, warm, and stylish," ITALIAN ICE was among the best albums of 2020, its warmth, vivid color, and a tilt-a-whirl variety of musical grooves providing much-needed positivity in what proved a very difficult year. Unable to tour behind the album's release, Atkins began hosting a variety show from her attic. "Live From The Steel Porch with Nicole Atkins" soon received support from Amazon Music, with new episodes shot at Asbury Park, NJ's famed Paramount Theater with such special guests as Kurt Vile and the Dean Ween Group.

The back-to-basics performances inspired Atkins to explore new and previously untapped flavors in her vocals and songcraft. Backed by an ace trio of Dan Chen (piano), Laura Epling (violin), and Maggie Chaffee (cello), Atkins recorded MEMPHIS ICE live in one day at Memphis Magnetic studio, simultaneously filming the performance with painterly shadow and light. The stripped-down, smoky style of both brings all-new emotional vistas to fan-favorite songs like "Domino," "Captain," and "Forever," while opening the door even wider to where Atkins would like to go next as a singer.

"I always thought about my Judy Garland or Liza Minnelli moment coming later in life," she says. "But after we finished that day of recording, I had so much fun just singing and was so in the moment, I thought, 'I want to do that sooner, I want to do that for my next record.' I want to make a record of standards that are new if that's possible. Songs that make you feel like you're singing 'Stardust,' but you're not. I kept thinking that on my first record, NEPTUNE CITY, the songs felt old, but they were new. Why can't there be new songs that feel like the old standards?"

Indeed, that committed spirit of timeless songcraft has already earned MEMPHIS ICE praise from avowed Atkins fan Elvis Costello.

"Songs don't stop living when the red light goes out," says Costello." "Pulling the colors and curtains from the studio versions of these songs, you find yourself within melodies and their emotions. Borne up by some beautiful playing from the small ensemble, this is some serious singing."
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
sweetest punch
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Re: Elvis writes the song “Angry Waitress” for Nicole Atkins

Post by sweetest punch »

https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/na ... 12aaa.html

Nicole Atkins: The Cream Q&A
Catching up with the outstanding songsmith about her forthcoming album and concert film Memphis Ice, her duet on Elvis Costello's next LP and more

After a decade of making records that didn’t capture the full range of her musical personality, singer and songwriter Nicole Atkins broke through with 2017’s Goodnight Rhonda Lee. Cut in Texas with a band led by pianist and guitarist Robert Ellis, the record showcased Atkins — who moved to Nashville in 2015 — as a polymathic pop figure with an amazing voice. Atkins sings like a pop-soul diva who has absorbed the lessons of Roy Orbison, Cass Elliot and Aretha Franklin. As you can hear on Rhonda Lee, her 2020 full-length Italian Ice and a forthcoming reimagined live version called Memphis Ice, Atkins isn’t afraid to experiment. She has a feel for high-end pop-rock: She’s covered songs by Scott Walker and the Texas power-pop band Cotton Mather. More recently, Atkins has been a duet partner with one of the definitive pop polymaths, Elvis Costello — a fascinating story she tells in the interview below.

Atkins was born in Neptune City, N.J., in 1978, and grew up obsessed with music and singing. She signed to Columbia Records for a brief tenure with the big label that began in 2006, and released her debut album Neptune City the following year. She was clearly a remarkable singer with an arresting stage presence, but her early albums tended to be somewhat overproduced. Rhonda Lee and Italian Ice give her vocals space within dense arrangements. In particular, Italian Ice — recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Muscle Shoals, Ala., with a crew that included veteran bassist David Hood and keyboardist Dewey Lindon “Spooner” Oldham, both of whom made major contributions to soul music in the 1960s and ’70s — affords Atkins the room she needs to range across the landscape of American music. She covers a great deal of territory, from modernized funk and disco to echoes of Orbison, Harry Nilsson and Rufus Wainwright.

Cut live at the Bluff City studio Memphis Magnetic Recording, Memphis Ice reworks eight of the songs Atkins recorded for Italian Ice. Atkins revisits those songs, and two others, with pianist Dan Chen, cellist Maggie Chaffee and violinist Laura Epling providing the spare backing. The performance was filmed, and you can check out a stream of said film Friday, Dec. 10, when the album is out — check out Atkins’ website for all the details.

In addition, Atkins has sung a duet with Elvis Costello, “My Most Beautiful Mistake,” that will appear on his forthcoming album with his band The Imposters, The Boy Named If. As she says, she connected with Costello at a September 2019 event at New York’s Radio City Music Hall called Easy Rider Live, which combined a screening of the 1969 movie with performances of the film’s soundtrack tunes by the likes of John Kay and Roger McGuinn. Atkins sang “The Weight,” and her take on The Band’s song caught Costello’s ear. As Costello told Paul Stokes for a 2020 piece in The Quietus, he wasn’t familiar with Atkins' work before he saw her in New York. Their collaboration is the latest in a string of career moments for Atkins, who says she’s working on a record of new material.

I sat down with Atkins at her Nashville home, where we talked shop for a couple of hours. Atkins is a lifetime enthusiast of every style of music, and she occasionally slipped into a rich New Jersey accent to make what were often comic points about her life in the music business.

What was the concept behind Memphis Ice?

Singing the disco songs with no rhythm section, I thought, “How the fuck is that gonna go?” They sound creepy. It’s the songs as they are when I first wrote them, before you get into the spirit of having a band in the room—the camaraderie and everyone playing together. I felt really tethered to my singing, which I don’t get to feel that much, because I’m lost in the music. I thought I wanted to have my Liza Minnelli moment later, or my Bette Midler moment later, but I want to have it now. I’m making a new record of standards that sound like standards, but they’re my songs. There should be a way to write about modern things in an elegant way, when you’re not, like, fuckin’ Michael Bublé schlocking it up.

How did you come up with the look of the film of the Memphis Ice performances?

We looked at those old Sinatra films from his TV show. We wanted it to have that kind of vibe. I’m Italian, so talking with my hands is pretty easy. When I was singing, I thought about what were the words I was actually singing, and what was the tale I was trying to tell. You almost feel like a bard: Here’s the story. It’s a movie, so you can’t just stand there and sing.

You sang in the 2019 Easy Rider Live show in New York. How did you look at doing “The Weight,” and how did you meet Elvis Costello?

It was more like Aretha’s version, but, like, mine. I just kinda sang it like myself. I don’t really do runs or ad-libs or anything. [Costello] showed up in my dressing room. I hadn’t thought about Elvis in a while, even though I’ve always felt kind of musically connected to him. I was gonna go to this thing for John Hiatt during AmericanaFest [in September 2019] at BMI in Nashville. [Hiatt received BMI’s Troubadour Award.] I was told it was a casual thing, and I thought, “What do I wear?” And I was watching AC/DC videos and I was, like, “I’m gonna dress like Angus Young today.” You know, the debut of me in shorts and knee socks. And I’m an hour late for this thing and dressed like an asshole. I go to the thing and it’s a formal, sit-down dinner, like, John Prine, Bonnie Raitt and Emmylou Harris. I heard Elvis Costello do “This Year’s Girl” and I thought, “I want to sing with him.”

What happened next?

The next day, I was with Carole King’s daughter Louise [Goffin]. She was living here for a while. We were talking about New York, and I said, “I was a bad waitress, so they let me book music instead of giving me the good shift.” And she said, “ ‘Bad Waitress’ is a great song title. Elvis Costello, can’t you hear him singing ‘Bad Waitress.’ ” And I told her about the night before.


So you met Costello in New York at Radio City later that month, and you ran the idea by him?

He came into my dressing room, and I said, “We gotta talk.” He sent me the lyrics two weeks after we met. He said, “I can’t say ‘bad waitress’ because I feel like that sounds too Grand Funk Railroad.” So he changed it to “part-time waitress.” [Sings] “She was a part-time waitress / With a dream of greatness.” [“My Most Beautiful Mistake”] came out of the idea of writing a song about a bad waitress. I didn’t think I’d be singing on it. I thought I was gonna write the song with him, and he just kinda ran off and wrote it. But I thought: “That’s cool. If I can put a little mark on music somehow, that’s fine with me.”
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
JerseyPride78
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Re: Elvis writes the song “Angry Waitress” for Nicole Atkins

Post by JerseyPride78 »

Thanks for posting this Sweetest Punch. It seems I misremembered the song title as "Angry Waitress" rather than "Bad Waitress" and I also misremembered the reference to Grand Funk Railroad as Jethro Tull. Ah . . . the frailties of human memory. Feel free to change the title of this post accordingly.
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