Is Elvis your #1?

Pretty self-explanatory

Is Elvis Costello your favourite musician of all time?

Yes!
33
67%
Nope, there are others I'd put higher up
16
33%
 
Total votes: 49

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BlueChair
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Is Elvis your #1?

Post by BlueChair »

It's always interesting to see who on the forum considers Elvis their absolute favourite and who doesn't... so I was interested in the statistics.
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Post by Who Shot Sam? »

Think I'd rank Dylan higher, for one.
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BlueChair
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Post by BlueChair »

me too
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Post by lostdog »

I'm not altogether sure he's even be in my Top 5: Dylan, Bowie, Van would certainly get my vote first...
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Post by verbal gymnastics »

I'd have to put Elvis as top of my list.

Elvis, Paul Weller (in his Jam days) and Billy Bragg have been my three most influential musicians.

Whilst I am also an avid fan of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, they have not had the same impact on my life as Elvis.
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Post by invisible Pole »

Yep, Elvis is my # 1.
I'd put The Beatles just behind him.
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Mr. Average
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Post by Mr. Average »

Miles Davis is way out front.
Numero Dos is Richard Thompson.
Elvis is #3. With a bullet.
XTC is number 4
For the record, I need to put Graham Parker at #5
Beatles at 6
Metheny at 7
All things David Byrne at 8
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LittleFoole
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Re: Is Elvis your #1?

Post by LittleFoole »

BlueChair wrote:It's always interesting to see who on the forum considers Elvis their absolute favourite and who doesn't... so I was interested in the statistics.
Couldn't vote one way or another....He's one of my favorites, but there's no way I could assign numbers to any of them......EC's up there with Talking Heads/Byrne, Beatles, perhaps Laurie Anderson, etc....depends on my mood and the day... ;)
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mood swung
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Post by mood swung »

so, we're a fan forum but we're not fans???

my #1 changes daily, but Elvis gets heavy rotation. Him, Nick Lowe and John Prine: The Holy Trinity.

LF, you going to see Laurie Anderson?
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guidedbyvoices
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Post by guidedbyvoices »

For me it's:

1. Guided By Voices
2. The Beatles


Then a whole bunch of other people, but I keep going back to Costello. I'd rank him top 5 or so.
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Post by wardo68 »

I have to start with the Beatles. Then it's a four-way tie of Dylan, Neil Young, Elvis and Nick Drake. Then there's a big ugly pile of the Who, Rolling Stones, David Bowie, the Byrds, the Jam, etc. etc.

Some days Elvis is #2. But never lower than #5.
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John
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Post by John »

Elvis is way out on top. Quite clearly my no 1.
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Post by Emotional Toothpaste »

I'd put him in my top 5, and probably number 1.

Tom Waits, Graham Parker, Nick Lowe, I could easily put as my favorites on any given day.
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Post by VonOfterdingen »

no. 1 for sure
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Post by whar »

As people who have heard basically every album- I don't see how he wouldnt be your #1- even against Dylan.
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Post by verena »

Yes, number one today !
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wardo68
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Post by wardo68 »

whar wrote:As people who have heard basically every album- I don't see how he wouldnt be your #1- even against Dylan.
Since I doubt I'll be able to explain in a way that would satisfy you, I won't bother. It is what it is, and that's just part of what makes this board such a fine tapestry of opinions.
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Post by Jackson Monk »

Still number one. No musician has come close to havign such an impact on my life (esp in the first 25 years of my life).

If I'm honest though, he's become less and less significant to me since ATUB and the pack is closing.

I like all the stuff he's done since then, but I only 'love' North.
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Post by johnfoyle »

Elvis is , of course , number one for me. Besides the many musical avenues he has lead me down I find myself learning so much via him. Just now I've been learning about U.S. historical figure John Brown , after the reference to him in one of the Hans Christian Andersen songs.
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Post by migdd »

Elvis has been number one for me since I was a mere lad of 18 back in 1977! Not because he may or may not be the finest songwriter of his generation or because he may or may not be technically better than any other musician, but rather because we seem to share similar emotional dynamics and I can consistantly connect with something in most of his songs.

Holding EC up to the Dylan yardstick for me just doesn't work. It's like trying to measure Dylan with a Gershwin yardstick or a Dan Penn yardstick. . .or something. For me, the two great writers (EC and Dylan) are both diminished when placed side by side since their lyrical strengths are so dissimilar.
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Post by El Vez »

Things like this are in a constant state of flux for me but the usual suspects are Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Randy Newman, Gillian Welch and Hank Williams, Sr.
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Post by noiseradio »

Coltrane, Gillespie, Miles, and Monk are all in front of anyone else for me.

In pop music, I'd put the Beatles and Johnny Cash above Elvis. I think Dylan is a better writer, but Elvis is a better performer. Some days, I'd put Bowie and Brian Wilson up there, too.
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King Hoarse
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Post by King Hoarse »

You kinda like different things in different performers. I would put Richard Thompson on top, I think, because despite his obvious individual strengths - incredible songwriting skills and guitar techniques (acoustic and electric of course, as well as mandolin, hammered dulcimer, etc.) spanning many genres but always sounding original, much thanks to his personal and very expressive voice etc. - the sum is so much bigger than its parts. And, as Greil Marcus wrote in the sleeve notes for Watching the Dark, his is such a consistent body of work, thematically as well as in quality.

Of course, most of the above would go for Elvis as well, and he's in the Top 5 for sure, but he wouldn't be famous for his instrumental prowess alone, and sometimes his voice can be quite irritating, even ruining some otherwise great songs for me.

Lou, Van, Bob and Loudon are probably the other contenders for me in the long run. Then there's John, Tom, Randy, Nick, Nina, Mose, Johnny, Hank, Frank Black...We'll see in twenty years time if Martha, Ron, Gillian, Eels, the Weakerthans or someone else has that kind of staying power.



PS. Elvis admiration of Richard isn't unrequited:

"I was asked to play on Goodbye Cruel World and I would have liked to have done it, but i think i was just in the wrong country. But in the end he struggled through, he managed to play everything - he's a good guitar player - a self-effacing sort of chap. What he played was really good, I don't know that I could have done any better. I do admire him, I think you have to say he's the most intereting songwriter generally in the pop world. As a pop writer he's the most interesting and the most hard to keep up with because he writes so much stuff. I actually struggle to hear everything, but i do hear everything. (...) I used to do a solo version of Pump It Up, which was quite fun - just to strip it down and take it somewhere else. I like a lot of his songs, yeah. I can think of about a dozen that would be quite fun to tackle."

Let's hope for a change in the setlist for the 1000 Years of Popular Music shows of 2006! I know Richard knows and likes Shipbuilding, and I think he would come up with a sublime solo acoustic arrangement.
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Post by alexv »

Blue, if by "absolute favorite" you mean the musician that I have seen the most times live, or the one musician whose every record (except WIWC) I own, and certainly the one (and only) whose Fan Forum I frequent, the answer is clearly EC. If by favorite, you mean the musician whose music I enjoy the most, the one whose records bring me more musical pleasure than any others, I would have to say that long ago the Beatles bested him, as did Marvin Gaye, Juan Luis Guerra, Dylan, Van, Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins and others I can't recollect right now.

The weird thing, for me, is that what attracted me to EC from TYM through IB was a connection to his music, to what I perceived he was trying to do (literate songwriting with an edge and a beat) that connected in a way with my life at the time that none of the others I've mentioned ever did. I was passionately literate (pretentiously so, I fear) but wanted that beat, and I felt that he was the one to provide the combination ( unpretentiously). The connection that was formed in those years was strong enough to survive some shaky decades since, and things like BY, ATUB, PFM and North shore it up when it weakens.

I certainly think that when all is said and done his work, good as it is, does not stack up against the best of Van or Dylan or the Beatle boys, or even my favorite Spaniard, Serrat, and when I compare his best records to their best I find him lacking (by comparison), but for whatever reason they are not my favorite musicians, he is.

By the way, a question to those posters who list other musicians as their favorites. If that is the case, do you guys spend as much time on the Net obsessing and analysing about them and their work as you do over EC here? Where do you find the time?
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King Hoarse
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Post by King Hoarse »

This is the only board I tread with any frequency, because I like the company here.

I've spent a little time on Ron Sexsmith's, which is cool mostly because he answers your questions and plays your requests live, sometimes even if it's a cover he hasn't done before. But that crowd is a lot like his records, in that it's warm and welcoming and almost totally tension free. However, it's not terribly wellwritten, humorous or thoughtprovoking.

Ron's site is also a good contrasting example, because when Elvis releases something new there's generally a lot to think about and discuss, new musical directions and collaborations, intriguing lyrics, and of course ever changing setlists, etc.

And when he's keeping to himself there's always the annex, which is often educational as well as entertaing, something I haven't found on other boards.

If I had the time, I'd probably check out some of my other musical heroes' webbed followers, though.
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