The Complete Armed Forces (Super Deluxe Edition)

Pretty self-explanatory
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fred darden
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by fred darden »

WindUpWorld wrote:So sorry to hear about your pandemic circumstances Fred. Wishing you all the best in tough times, with hopes that live music can get restarted for all our benefit. I’m sure we’ll share whatever we can with you here.
Thanks, great community here. Peace ya'll.
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And No Coffee Table
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by And No Coffee Table »

From the Mojo article:

The upcoming box set reissue, he says, includes "facsimiles of my original notebooks, all handwritten, lines scrawled out, half verses not used and all these subtle changes. It was a way of learning the songs as I wrote them, how to sing them, and also to understand the story the album told."

There are also comic books, postcards and six discs, including two 10-inch live records, the entirety of their June 4, 1979 Pinkpop festival show and the original album remastered directly from the studio tapes. "It sounds as close to the way it sounded to us in the studio as we could make it," says Costello. "That's a beautiful thing."
sulky lad
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by sulky lad »

Just out of interest, was Armed Forces the most commercially successful of all his early albums? I know they had shed-loads of copies of Get Happy! left over ( giving away freebies of the LP with the sale of the "From Head To Toe" EP ) but is it the one most likely to sell well (profitably) now?
Of course if there IS going to be a hispanic TYM, that pretty much boots out the idea of doing the same thing to that album but there are alternatives with possibly more interesting live performances.
Hawksmoor
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by Hawksmoor »

sulky lad wrote:Just out of interest, was Armed Forces the most commercially successful of all his early albums?
Possibly of all his albums ever? I don't have any figures, but according to Wiki, AF was Platinum in the UK and Gold in the US. His only other Platinum LP seems to have been MAIT which was Platinum on the US and Silver in the UK.
sulky lad wrote:Of course if there IS going to be a hispanic TYM, that pretty much boots out the idea of doing the same thing to that album...
I wouldn't completely rule it out. The interview implies that there are gong to be more of these deluxe/box-set-style reissues, but presumably not in chronological order. If the 2021 Spanish TYM is a one-shot, single-disc thing, it's entirely possible that, a few years down the line, it could be revisited as a box-set?
sweetest punch
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by sweetest punch »

And No Coffee Table wrote:From the Mojo article:

The upcoming box set reissue, he says, includes "facsimiles of my original notebooks, all handwritten, lines scrawled out, half verses not used and all these subtle changes. It was a way of learning the songs as I wrote them, how to sing them, and also to understand the story the album told."

There are also comic books, postcards and six discs, including two 10-inch live records, the entirety of their June 4, 1979 Pinkpop festival show and the original album remastered directly from the studio tapes. "It sounds as close to the way it sounded to us in the studio as we could make it," says Costello. "That's a beautiful thing."
Could it be like this?
Disc 1: remastered album (CD or vinyl?)
Disc 2: B-sides, outtakes, demos (CD or vinyl?)
Disc 3: live recordings 1 (CD or vinyl?)
Disc 4: live recordings 2 (CD or vinyl?)
Disc 5 & 6: 10-inch vinyl live recordings 3
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
sulky lad
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by sulky lad »

I guess my biggest concern is that the live stuff will just be professionally remastered stuff that’s already out there rather than some rarer exclusive material. I remember him saying all his shows were recorded going back around the late 80s so you’d hope there might be a different vest of concerts available going forward !
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krm
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by krm »

I want some Rude 5 gigs! Both the 1989 and the 1991 versions would be nice.
chickendinna
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by chickendinna »

I would imagine all of us would love for Elvis to do his own live archive series a la Springsteen, hopefully with better mastering and not nearly as brickwalled. However, he did try that a few years ago with very little success or support. Elvis's market is much smaller than the Boss is, but just as fervent. I'm also afraid that the live shows in the AF reissue will be the common bootlegs. Tentatively I'm in, as long as the sound is better.
bronxapostle
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by bronxapostle »

krm wrote:I want some Rude 5 gigs! Both the 1989 and the 1991 versions would be nice.

you do??? i'd opt for CONFEDERATES before this...but, i think i saw one VERY good RUDE 5 show, maybe two.
cwr
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by cwr »

The last time Armed Forces was reissued as any kind of extras was in 2002, so the idea that this is a "shakedown" is very funny.

I guess from a practical standpoint, it remains to be seen where on the price spectrum this lands-- closer to the Rhino editions' notion that you are essentially getting the original album free and paying for the cost of the bonus disc (since my recollection is that they were priced closer to a single disc than a double, at that time) or to the notorious disaster that was the Spinning Songbook box set, an item so overpriced that Costello himself publicly recommended not buying it and getting a new Louis Armstrong box set instead.

I think all of this is great news, especially if it does well enough to lead to a few more expanded editions down the line. It would be great to get all the classic albums but it is also fantastic news to learn that the post-Warner album rights will eventually revert to him because we have more than a half dozen albums that have never had a bonus disc of demos, outtakes and alternate versions released. Personally, I long to hear the original North demos, which has mentioned a number of times as being among his most harrowing recordings... (I imagine we are a ways off from any kind of North reissue, unless they are planning one for the 20th anniversary in a few years...)
sulky lad
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by sulky lad »

krm wrote:I want some Rude 5 gigs! Both the 1989 and the 1991 versions would be nice.
No no no never the 1991 lineup- leaden, plodding and unsubtle- possibly the worst show I ever saw was in 1991 !! :shock:
bronxapostle
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by bronxapostle »

sulky lad wrote:
krm wrote:I want some Rude 5 gigs! Both the 1989 and the 1991 versions would be nice.
No no no never the 1991 lineup- leaden, plodding and unsubtle- possibly the worst show I ever saw was in 1991 !! :shock:

for sure...Madison Square Garden was a disaster! good enough for us die-hards, but horribly plodding INDEED!!!
i got lucky 2 months later on August 10th at GSAC, New Jersey...but, still a laborious show despite the improvement.
sulky lad
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by sulky lad »

bronxapostle wrote:
krm wrote:I want some Rude 5 gigs! Both the 1989 and the 1991 versions would be nice.

you do??? i'd opt for CONFEDERATES before this...but, i think i saw one VERY good RUDE 5 show, maybe two.
Now The Confederates - they were absolutely I saw them at Cardiff in February 1987(
http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... 03_Cardiff) - and safely recorded too ! :wink:
and they had everyone on their feet in no time. Added to that was this astounding setlist of covers and KOA songs - If Elvis got them together now I'd even fly to NYC to see a week of gigs !
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krm
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by krm »

sulky lad wrote:
krm wrote:I want some Rude 5 gigs! Both the 1989 and the 1991 versions would be nice.
No no no never the 1991 lineup- leaden, plodding and unsubtle- possibly the worst show I ever saw was in 1991 !! :shock:
in a way, your comments makes it even more interesting :-)
sulky lad
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by sulky lad »

krm wrote:
sulky lad wrote:
krm wrote:I want some Rude 5 gigs! Both the 1989 and the 1991 versions would be nice.
No no no never the 1991 lineup- leaden, plodding and unsubtle- possibly the worst show I ever saw was in 1991 !! :shock:
in a way, your comments makes it even more interesting :-)
There's a first time for everything, even me being interesting :shock: :wink:
cwr
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by cwr »

There are tours I'd rather see releases from first, like some 1986 shows, but I'd love to get a Rude 5 live release. I kind of doubt it will happen, though, unless they start releasing a TON of stuff from the vaults.

I love their MTV Unplugged set and any of the clips from 1991 I've seen on YouTube seem fun and different, especially when Marc Ribot gets going.
bronxapostle
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by bronxapostle »

cwr wrote:There are tours I'd rather see releases from first, like some 1986 shows, but I'd love to get a Rude 5 live release. I kind of doubt it will happen, though, unless they start releasing a TON of stuff from the vaults.

I love their MTV Unplugged set and any of the clips from 1991 I've seen on YouTube seem fun and different, especially when Marc Ribot gets going.
no, you are correct...for variety sake indeed, it was a great little band. almost like Bruce did the year after with his "other" band. sticks in the mud despised them, yet, they provided a very good service allowing Bruce to fan out in a different manner. Zach the drummer and bvox galore alongside Shane on lead guitar and Crystal playing the sax etc. made for a very nice change of pace. just what any musician needs to remain FRESH!!! forgive my unpopular opinion here, but LUCKY TOWN and HUMAN TOUCH were worlds better than SPIKE and MIGHTY LIKE A ROSE however.
Hawksmoor
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by Hawksmoor »

bronxapostle wrote:
cwr wrote:...for variety sake indeed, it was a great little band. almost like Bruce did the year after with his "other" band. sticks in the mud despised them, yet, they provided a very good service allowing Bruce to fan out in a different manner. Zach the drummer and bvox galore alongside Shane on lead guitar and Crystal playing the sax etc. made for a very nice change of pace. just what any musician needs to remain FRESH!!! forgive my unpopular opinion here, but LUCKY TOWN and HUMAN TOUCH were worlds better than SPIKE and MIGHTY LIKE A ROSE however.
Not for me, I'm afraid. Colours nailed-to-mast: I'm nearly as big a Springsteen fan as I am a Costello fan. But whereas I regard Spike and MLAR as under-rated treasure-chests popping with uncelebrated gems, I'm afraid I regard Human Touch/Lucky town as the most bland and generic LPs Bruce ever made. The first two or three on Lucky Town, and possibly 'Another Roll of the Dice'...maybe. But I can think of easily a dozen tracks on Spike/MLAR that knock those into a cocked hat.

I mean...'Real World', 'Real Man', 'Man's Job'...can you really remember which is which any more? :D

I have an uneasy feeling about Bruce's upcoming LP - the two tracks released so far sound like generic guitar-based rock that could have been out-takes from any of his last three or four LPs. Elvis, on the other hand - fuck knows where he's going. And I love that!
Dr. Luther
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by Dr. Luther »

1991 Rude Five, at its best, is really really good.
bronxapostle
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by bronxapostle »

Hawk... please! You are surely confusing the sterility/vapidity of his recent 'band' efforts!! MAGIC has some high points, but the non cohesive efforts of WOAD, WRECKING BALL and HIGH HOPES are miles from what HUMAN TOUCH and moreso LUCKY TOWN presented. The last 30 years have been peppered with some of his greatest efforts....but, mostly the solo and non E Street LPs. TUNNEL, DEVILS AND DUST, SEEGER SESSIONS and WESTERN STARS all succeed because of the stretching away from his comfort zone. Human and Lucky also....please, may i name a few songs? My Beautiful Reward, Better Days, I Wish I Were Blind, Leap of Faith, With Every Wish, Soul Driver, Cross My Heart, If I Should Fall Behind, Lucky Town, Souls of the Departed, All or Nothing At All, Local Hero...and yes, Roll of the Dice, Real World and Man's Job too. Please think on these two records again.
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sulky lad
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by sulky lad »

cwr wrote:There are tours I'd rather see releases from first, like some 1986 shows, but I'd love to get a Rude 5 live release. I kind of doubt it will happen, though, unless they start releasing a TON of stuff from the vaults.

I love their MTV Unplugged set and any of the clips from 1991 I've seen on YouTube seem fun and different, especially when Marc Ribot gets going.
I'm afraid nothing will ever convince me that the 1991 incarnation of Rude Five was ever a great band. Kojak variety wold have been magnificent if played by The Confederates with either Austin DeLone or Benmont Tench ( who was FANTASTIC at Cardiff in 1987. Mighty Like A Rose has some of Elvis' best vocal deliveries and some great playing but live I thought they sucked as a band, maybe with the honourable exception of the Unplugged performance which had more nuance and less Marc Ribot! Anyway we've strayed enough from the thread and I apologise for trying to get the last word in! :roll: :wink:
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verbal gymnastics
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by verbal gymnastics »

Does anyone have anything to say about the Armed Forces set? :lol:
Who’s this kid with his mumbo jumbo?
Miclewis
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by Miclewis »

It would be great if the Armed Forces set included a remix, even with a blu-ray with a 5.1 remix. It is all the rage nowadays. Though Armed Forces doesn’t really need a remix - Get Happy!! would benefit from one definitely.
IbMePdErRoIoAmL
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by IbMePdErRoIoAmL »

Miclewis wrote:It would be great if the Armed Forces set included a remix, even with a blu-ray with a 5.1 remix. It is all the rage nowadays. Though Armed Forces doesn’t really need a remix - Get Happy!! would benefit from one definitely.
I dunno... Get Happy!! sounds great if you listen to the two disc 45 rpm promo.
Dr. Luther
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Re: Armed Forces Redux - 6 record set

Post by Dr. Luther »

:lol:
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