King of America reissue

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 3:01 pm

It's arrived! 4 days ahead of release. Good old Play.com. First time I've had it on CD. Now to listen to it...

LessThanZero · Post by **LessThanZero** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 4:33 pm

I can't wait to hear it! I think Jody really enjoyed all of the songs from KOA in Chicago the other night. Maybe it was the "catholic girls in the balcony" comment though...

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 5:22 pm

Jody wears a hat although it hasn't rained for 6 days.

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 8:25 pm

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 5:09 pm

Sounding great. Colour touch up of cover is kinda disturbing. Preferred the original.

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 5:25 pm

Listservers have been reading the KOA sleevenotes -

Sverre -

Again, Elvis takes the opportunity to have yet another dig at..ahem
"the least committed member of the Attractions" , deeming him a humourless paranoid, incapable of any self-awareness. Apparently, said Attractions member caught a glance of the front cover photo planned for KOA and immediately started a rumour that Elvis was "in the grip of some
unlikely collision between an identity crisis and megalomania...." Elvis
bluntly states that: " If our most persistent chronicler (sic) had been capable of any self-awareness, then it might have been acknowledged that I not only wrote all the songs but also took responsibility for such matters as sleeve design and all the public activities that didn´t actually require performance. This is what it took to keep the ship afloat...while
everyone else was on holiday or in the bar...!

Apart from this tiresome, Elton John-ish tirade, the revised liner
notes are as usual fun and insightful.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nunki adds -

I'm certainly not going to argue that the ongoing Elvis/Bruce feud
serves any useful purpose, but just to provide a bit of context...

Elvis is obviously reacting to this quote from Bruce on page 178 of
Graeme Thomson's book: "I remember going into his room at the hotel and he'd just had all the album sleeves done; there were all these pictures
of him with a crown on dotted around the room, big three-foot squared
photos. I thought, 'You're basically having your psychosis now, aren't
you? Your identity crisis.'"

In the KOA notes, Elvis specifically denies the suggestion that he was
decorating his hotel room with pictures of himself, explaining that
what Bruce actually witnessed was him selecting the final cover photo
from multiple contrasting prints.

ReadyToHearTheWorst · Post by **ReadyToHearTheWorst** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 8:11 pm

Bruce is certainly a card.

I remember some cutting words of his in a BBC radio feature on Elvis, c. 1989. Something along the lines "and then there was a song full of awfull references to tinder, fire, torches and so on - dear oh dear!" .

He obviously felt he had nothing to lose, yet amazingly, he was invited back!

BTW - Wonder how elegant his own lyrics are?

Dr. Luther · Post by **Dr. Luther** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 11:13 pm

As an avid proponent of the Attractions, I have often felt a "loss" when assimilating Bruce Thomas no longer being "Elvis's bass player".

I also had a tendency to give Bruce the benefit of the doubt -- that he was dealing (not altogether well) with a "difficult genious" in Elvis.

I'm beginning to think that he is indeed a difficult, or strange, bird in his own right.

Given that he is, apparently, quite enamored of the Martial Arts these days, I'm inclined to now believe that EC put up with more character flaws in Bruce than I had previously suspected.

A shame -- as he was one BadAss bassist.

sabreman · Post by **sabreman** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 11:42 pm

>>quite enamored of the Martial Arts these days,

What does this have to do with anything?

Dr. Luther · Post by **Dr. Luther** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 12:03 am

Personally, I find any glorification of violence innappropriate.

To elevate it to an "art form" is to excuse it.

Granted, it is a generalization. But in this context (with EC & Bruce), I suggest that it may be representative of certain character traits in Bruce that may have contributed to their incompatability.

sabreman · Post by **sabreman** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 11:50 am

I am pretty sure EC is a boxing fan. Seems like a stretch to me but you are entitled to your opinion. I think they just don't like each other (clash of egos?) and Bruce has lost interest in the music business.

Dr. Luther · Post by **Dr. Luther** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 12:57 pm

Yeah, I understand what you are saying.

I didn't express the point particularly eloquently -- I'm not saying it would have been a major factor in the problem.

More than anything, it just surprised me, as I didn't really see Bruce as being that type of guy.

What is interesting -- I just remembered this last night -- I had the occasion to hook up with the entire band in a bar after a 1983 show. Talked with all of them at fair length.
I now remember Bruce badmouthing Elvis's lyrics basically unsolicited.
(Something about -- "he's still writing this whining..." blah, blah blah)

I thought it odd at the time, the way he just threw it out there, but dismissed it as good-spirited heckling-type thing.

There really does seem to be some bent-out-of-shape element going on from both sides.

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 4:46 pm

Here's my review of Bruce's 2003 book -

http://www.elviscostellofans.com/phpBB2 ... 9345#19345

Extract -

What’s of primary interest, I suppose, to this forum is what he writes about his return to The Attractions. His `producer friend Mitchell` (Mitchell Froom , one presumes; as with `Wheel no names are used in the Attractions sequence) had been `hired to produce an album with old band.` After reconciling with `the `Singer``they went on to record and tour together for three years. This all detailed over a thirty page section of the book, Pp.55 - 86, interspersed with referrals to earlier elements of the text. I’m not going to quote much from this; it really wouldn’t be fair to Bruce’s right to have you actually spend money to find it out for yourself. Like `Wheel it’s achingly funny in parts, tedious in others. It didn’t illuminate any aspects of the Costello recordings of the period; Bruce was very much a hired hand. He quite honestly tells of the emotional crisis he was going through at the time; to be brutal I found myself feeling sorry for Elvis `n co. in having to put up with him all that time.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why Elvis keeps referring to whole matter this I really cannot fathom - no one comes out of it well.

guidedbyvoices · Post by **guidedbyvoices** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 7:11 pm

Just found a copy at my Best buy. YAY! True Love Waits is good but not as great as I'd hoped in my mind, but the new demos are really nice.

It's funny, in college 10 years ago, I got into EC on my own- friends didn't dig him so much. And all the stuff I'd initially read had made it seem like most fan's favorites - IB, Get Happy - weren't the albums I picked. I always loved KoA and it's pretty cool to see that sticker say "the album the critics, fans, and Elvis calls their favorite."

Fishfinger king · Post by **Fishfinger king** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 7:33 pm

Exactly. It's been my favourite for more years than I care to remember. Got it from Play 4 days early like Otis. More of a chump, this is the third CD version I've had, plus orignal vinyl, plus King of Americana boot. Great to hear official releases of End of the Rainbow and Having it all. Betrayal is the real coup - I prefer it to Tramp the dirt down. Still could have been more alternate versions rather than just duplicating the previous version - or is that just carping? Everybody sing - it was more of the alphabet than she knew how to use....

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 8:05 pm

Fellow early birds! For me it's a huge pleasure, until now I've been playing a tape from 1985. I did buy the tape twice, funnily enough, cos the first one was reproduced locally in Spain and was shockingly bad sound quality, so I got a mate to send one from England. The tape snagged in a player once, and I had to reconnect its severed parts with sellotape, so was missing a couple of lines each on I'll Wear It Proudly/American Without Tears.

Have now played the whole thing and read half of it. Fair dues to Elv if he wants to respond to Bruce being quoted in Comp Shads over megalomania etc. Why not? It's his LP, why not set the record straight? I love the detailed notes over the sessions and who played on them. Made me more attentive than ever to the range of musicians.

CD2 is great. I've now got all the reissues, and it was frustraing to know there were songs out there already released I hadn't checked out. The demos are great. Very different version of I Hope You're Happy Now. Interesting to read how drunk he was on sme of these! Yes, Betrayal is fascinating. I love End Of The Rainbow (don't know the original, great song, amazingly bleak lyric), and True Love Ways too. It's all good.

I like the chutzpah of more or less claiming respnsibility for the melody of Crowded Houses's Don't Dream It's Over!

The one thing that bothers me is the repeated use of 'side' for 'track/song/number' in the notes. I don't believe he's done this before, but could be wrong. Is it standard use? Never heard it. Reads like an affectation.

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 2:40 am

Otis Westinghouse wrote:I like the chutzpah of more or less claiming respnsibility for the melody of Crowded Houses's Don't Dream It's Over!

Well Mitchell Froom did go on to produce Crowded House's self-titled debut in '86... was that mentioned? He played on Don't Dream It's Over and the very similar sounding keys in places on KOA.

Are the new liner notes online yet?

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 5:09 am

One very simple reason for the colourisation maybe to make this particular edition of KOA easy to spot. This kept occuring to me as I searched in vain for it in the racks of Dublin disc stores this weekend. Plenty of copies of the Rhyko edition were available, as it always has. Indeed , knowing the short-mindedness of most stores here I would reckon most of them declined to order/stock it , believing they had sufficent stocks of the older edition.

Connor on listserv has also noted -

The demos sound so great and clean-sounding compared
to the bootlegs, which makes it that much more galling
that we don't get "My Youngest Son", "Feel Like Goin'
Home" "She Moved Through The Fair" or any of the other
great demos that were bootlegged a few years ago. In
particular, I find it peculiar that he would leave out
the anti-war "My Youngest Son", which he even MENTIONS
in the liner notes. Strange. It would have been nice
to have these with remastered sound, since my bootleg
sounds hissy by comparison to what Rhino has included
here.

The liner notes (like B&C and a few of the others) are
basically a revised version of the Ryko liners, which
is fine, since the last few Ryko releases had such
perfect and in-depth writings by EC that it would be
sort of silly for him to have to throw them out and
start from scratch without repeating himself.

One thing I did notice is that he has eliminated the
references to Cait which appeared in the original
liner notes (such lines as "you can only marry the
bass player once" have seemingly lost their
playfulness) and he has added a Diana Krall reference
in a passage about Ray Brown....

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 4:22 pm

Good point, John.

bambooneedle wrote:Well Mitchell Froom did go on to produce Crowded House's self-titled debut in '86... was that mentioned? He played on Don't Dream It's Over and the very similar sounding keys in places on KOA.

Are the new liner notes online yet?

Don't know, probably by now somewhere! He tells the story that he hummed the melody as he wanted it to Mitchell, and next thing it's a global hit!

Want those other demos, why didn't they make this a 3CD set?

ReadyToHearTheWorst · Post by **ReadyToHearTheWorst** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 7:29 pm

1986 was such a prolific year for EC (well, he'd had 2 years off) and there's more 'still in the can'.

So, King of Americana may be one boot that's not made redundant by these reissues.

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 7:44 pm

johnfoyle wrote:One very simple reason for the colourisation maybe to make this particular edition of KOA easy to spot.

They could have left the photo intact and applied this...

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 7:09 am

"in places on KOA."

I'll Wear It Proudly has that melody, to be precise... the forlorn organ bits.

Was the early recording of Blue Chair ever heard?

Will kane · Post by **Will kane** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 5:55 am

I like the chutzpah of more or less claiming respnsibility for the melody of Crowded Houses's Don't Dream It's Over!

It's also the keyboard melody for Radiohead's 'Fake Plastic Trees'. Thom Yorke was quoted as saying that 'I'll wear it proudly' was "the song that changed his life" in a BBC Radio interview about 10 years ago.

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 1:08 pm

Joel posts to listserv -
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=am ... oibkh9dakb

All Music KOA reissue review

Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Unlike the other installments of Rhino's ongoing Elvis Costello expanded reissue series — started in the summer of 2001 and only now coming to an end in the spring of 2005 — King of America is not release as part of a set of three albums. It is released on its own, reportedly because the album is Costello's personal favorite and so he and Rhino wanted to spotlight via a stand-alone release. That makes a certain amount of sense but bear in mind, there is only one other album in his 1977-1996 catalog that has yet to be reissued in this campaign and that is his 1993 collaboration with the Brodsky Quartet The Juliet Letters, which isn't exactly his most beloved album, and wouldn't have made a good companion to King of America, which certainly is among his best-regarded and best-loved albums.

Fittingly, King of America has been given a generous 21-song bonus disc, a lengthy new set of liner notes from Costello and, in a series first, slightly altered cover shot (the black and white photo of Costello in a crown, which was once sepia-toned, now has shades of color, so his cheeks are now a rosy red and there's gold highlights on the crown). Of these 21 songs, 11 appeared on the 1995 Rykodisc/Demon reissue — the two sides of the Coward Brothers single ("The People's Limousine," "They'll Never Take Her Love from Me"), the demo "Suffering Face," the outtakes "Shoes Without Heels" and "King of Confidence," plus a covers-heavy set of six live tunes that was initially released as a bonus disc in '95 — leaving 10 new songs. Of these, the highlights are a stark solo reading of Richard Thompson's thoroughly depressing "End of the Rainbow" and the bitter, politically-charged "Betrayal," a song cut with the Attractions that would later mutate into Spike's "Tramp the Dirt Down." The rest of the new cuts are all solo demos, many of which were recorded on the verge of extreme drunkeness according to Costello's liner notes.

Unfortunately, to the average listener they don't sound like they're on the verge collapse, they merely sound like straightahead, mildly interesting demos that are the kind of thing you listen to once and then file away (which applies equally to unreleased songs like the torchy "Having It All" and to such alternate versions as an early, bittersweet version of "I Hope You're Happy Now" (which would surface later in '86 on Blood & Chocolate and "Deportee," a reworking of "Deportee's Club" from Goodbye Cruel World). Of course, Costello fanatics will be happy to hear these rarities — which are, by and large, quite good, even if they wouldn't warrant frequent plays, since they're curiosities more than forgotten treasures — but most fans that own the Ryko/Demon reissue don't need to replace their copy with this new reissue, since with the possible exception of "Betrayal," all the major songs here are on that previous incarnation of King of America. Plus, the cover art looks better on that '95 edition, too.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 8:53 am

Just got my copy of the KoA reissue today. I'm a little confused - will there be a re-issue of The Juliet Letters or not? Some of the KoA reviews make it sound like this is the last one in the series.