Elvis on Desert Island Discs , 1992

Pretty self-explanatory
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johnfoyle
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Elvis on Desert Island Discs , 1992

Post by johnfoyle »

Prompted by a comment elsewhere on this forum by Mikeh , I decided to check up details of this Feb. 1992 interview with Elvis. Besides a one line listing on John E.'s site little about it is on the 'net. So it was time to dig out the cassette and check it out again.


Here's what the show is about -


http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/des ... 0607.shtml

Desert Island Discs is one of Radio 4's most popular and enduring programmes. Created by Roy Plomley in 1942, the format is simple: each week a guest is invited by Sue Lawley to choose the eight records they would take with them to a desert island.

The discussion of their choice is a device for them to review their life. They also choose a favourite book (excluding the Bible or other religious work and Shakespeare - these already await the "castaway") and a luxury which must be inanimate and have no practical use.


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Elvis's 8 records were

1. String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135
Ludwig van Beethoven
http://www.amazon.com/End-Games-Beethov ... 26-1961745

End Games

The Brodsky Quartet

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. I've Got You Under My Skin

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Songs-Swingin-L ... F8&s=music


Songs for Swingin' Lovers
~ Frank Sinatra
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3. At Last - Joe Loss Orchestra , featuring Ross McManus

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4. Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), opera, K.
492 Act 1, Scene 5, No 6: Non so più cosa son, cosa
faccio
Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
with Cecilia Bartoli, Peter de Rose, Berlin
Philharmonic Orchestra, Gunter Von Kannen, John
Tomlinson, Lella Cuberli, Andreas Schmidt, Richard
Amner, Joan Rodgers, Graham Clark, Hilde Leidland,
Richard Brunner, Zuckermann, Phyllis Pancella
Conducted by Daniel Barenboim

http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-nozze-Figa ... F8&s=music



Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro / Barenboim

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5. You've Really Got A Hold On Me

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beatles/dp/B000 ... F8&s=music

With the Beatles
~ The Beatles

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6. Sonata In B Flat, D. 960: I. Molto moderato

Franz Peter Schubert


http://www.amazon.com/Schubert-Last-Thr ... 26-1961745
Schubert: The Last Three Piano Sonatas
Alfred Brendal

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

7. Dido's Lament
Henry Purcell

http://www.amazon.com/Purcell-Aeneas-En ... F8&s=music

Purcell - Dido and Aeneas

Conductor: Trevor Pinnock
Performer: Trevor Pinnock, Anne Sofie von Otter

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8. Blood Count
Billy Strayhorn

http://www.amazon.co.uk/His-Mother-Call ... F8&s=music

And His Mother Called Him Bill
~ Duke Ellington

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Elvis' luxury was a upright piano with this image reproduced on it -

http://www.bergerfoundation.ch/Sandro/4 ... glish.html

Image


Saint Barnabas Altarpiece - Sandro Botticelli

A magnificent commission from Florence's richest guild, the doctors' and apothecaries ', for their church which was dedicated to their saint, Barnabas, the protector of medicine. Within this guild, there were all sorts of imaginable and unimaginable sponsorships, all the names in Florence are represented, and this was thus a very important commission. Botticelli agreed to paint this strange painting, which, as we have already seen, is made up of a Greek temple pediment showing us a Virgin and Child, surrounded by saints. The composition is surprising, as it is absolutely and totally immobile and hieratical: it looks like eight statues set down, one next to the other. What gives the piece its mobility is the presence of the superb angels parting the curtain of the Virgin's dais and revealing all the characters to the faithful. Let's also note the beauty of the color appositions, the very bottle green of Saint Catherine's garment on the left and Saint Augustine's much more firmly stated green; the two greens stand in counterpoint to the Virgin's royal blue mantle. Botticelli was already showing the adventurous sense of color that he will develop. One of the figures in this altarpiece would become famous: the image of Saint John the Baptist, which was long thought to be another Botticelli self portrait, but which simply remains a deeply moving face because of the piercing quality of the eyes that Botticelli gave him.

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Elvis' book was a Thurber collection that had to include these -

Let Your Mind Alone!

http://www.amazon.com/Thurber-Writings- ... F8&s=books

Writings and Drawings
by James Thurber

The Dog That Bit People

http://www.amazon.com/Life-Hard-Times-P ... F8&s=books

My Life and Hard Times
by James Thurber

The Greatest Man in the World

http://www.amazon.com/Thurber-Carnival- ... F8&s=books

The Thurber Carnival
by James Thurber


The interview covered the , for 1992, standard Costello stuff.
Hopefully I'll have some sound clips to add to this later.
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Post by ramalama »

I find it surprising that none of these tunes wound up on the Artist's Choice CD. It's probably more a function of copyright difficulties than a change in taste.
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Post by ice nine »

Thurber?? I've always had a hankering to read something by him. I definitely will now. How does Elvis feel about Twain?
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Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Brodskys were playing in the Cambridge Music Festival week before last and the impressive programme included a Betthoven quartet. Not sure if it was the last or an earlier, but wish I'd read about it before the event and attended!
Last edited by Otis Westinghouse on Thu Nov 23, 2006 7:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by mood swung »

How does Elvis feel about Twain?
Elvis idolizes Twain and encourages everyone to read The Confidence Man.
Like me, the "g" is silent.
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Re: Elvis on Desert Island Discs , 1992

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Otis Westinghouse
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Re: Elvis on Desert Island Discs , 1992

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Fascinatingly, Malcolm 'Tipping Point / Outliers' Gladwell chose 'Deportee' on Desert Island Discs today. Couldn't believe my ears - definitely the most obscure Costello release to have been on the show. He also had some other nice choices, e.g. Eno 'I'll Come Running', which I hadn't heard in years, and Gillian Welch's 'Look At Miss Ohio', plus two Marvin Gaye tracks. Full list:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/de ... 9#b04d0xfx

The DID site is a pretty fabulous thing. As you see on the above, there are links to all other choices of songs by the same artist, so for Elvis it's:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/de ... s+costello

Going back let's say 10 years, you couldn't even listen to the programme on Listen Again during the following week, you could only read what they chose. Now you can of course do that (in the UK at least), but you can also listen to hundreds of previous programmes, and download them to keep in many cases. And where that isn't possible, you can still see what they chose. Fun for a bit of browsing.

The Elvis 1992 one detailed so perfectly above by John in 2006 is here (assume it's only for UK users, which is of course a bummer for the rest of the world). It's funny coming back to it as he was very much in his classical phase. I bet it would be substantially different now. Some great choices, though:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/de ... 0#p0093ybt
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Re: Elvis on Desert Island Discs , 1992

Post by Jack of All Parades »

Love that eclecticism and Poor Deportee will be 'over the moon' what with his moniker and Ms Welch-[a strong, vital song to boot] 8) making Mr. Gladwell's list. And let us not forget that he gives John Prine and Daniel Lanois a nod, as well[something else that will warm PD's Canadian heart.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
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Re: Elvis on Desert Island Discs , 1992

Post by pophead2k »

Thanks for the links Otis! This should provide endless hours of time wasting....and I love it!
johnfoyle
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Re: Elvis on Desert Island Discs , 1992

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/what-t ... st-guests/

Desert Island Discs: 20 great guests


Martin Chilton
4 AUGUST 2015

The instantly recognisable tune of By the Sleepy Lagoon (composed in 1930 by Eric Coates and with added seagulls) sounded for the 3000th time in 2014 as the BBC radio programme Desert Island Discs reached a magnificent milestone. Royal Navy test pilot Eric Winkle Brown was the landmark guest in a show devised by Roy Plomley that first aired on January 29, 1942. Think of all the wonderful musical choices, all the controversies (Oliver Reed shocking the gentlemanly Plomley with his request for a blow-up doll as his luxury item), the memorable tales (who would have thought that Vidal Sassoon spent his youth in street fights against fascist gangs in the East End of London?) and the way guests sometimes inadvertently revealed their own flaws, as when Norman Wisdom chose five of his own songs, including the appropriately titled Narcissus.

Most of the archive of wonderful past episodes is online. Not all are there (it would be interesting to hear Bob Hope and George Formby for example) but many treasures are available including Louis Armstrong, added in 2015. Forget the dull and self-serving politicians and economists, here are 20 of the best Desert Island Discs you can enjoy, for free, on the BBC website, or via iTunes.


(extract)

EVIS COSTELLO (1992)

Sometimes you just want guests to talk in a revealing way about their profession. Singer-songwriter Elvis Costello is so good on what it's like to come from a musical family - both his father and grandfather were trumpeters. Elvis Costello appeared in February 1992.
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Re: Elvis on Desert Island Discs , 1992

Post by sweetest punch »

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/elvis-cost ... -playlist/

From Sinatra to The Beatles: Eight songs that Elvis Costello couldn’t live without
Far Out Staff - February 12, 2020

Elvis Costello may not share the same acclaim as some of the notable acts that were born out of the mid-seventies creative surge that came out of Britain but it’s undeniable that the singer and songwriter is rightly a national institution.

Costello came face to face with another such established touchpoint of intrinsic British culture in 1992 when he went on the iconic radio show, Desert Island Discs. During the meeting, Costello shared eight songs that he simply couldn’t live without.

It’s impossible for us to over-sell the importance BBC’s Desert Island Discs has in the dense tapestry of British pop culture. It’s a time-honoured tradition that has seen Prime Ministers and rock stars alike walk through its studio doors. Created by Roy Plomley way back in 1942, the format is always the same, each week a guest is invited by the host to choose the eight records they would take with them to a desert island.

As well as their eight discs, a complimentary collection of the complete works of Shakespeare and bible, the star in question also gets to choose one luxury item and one book.

It was a premise that the always industrious Costello took advantage of. As his book the singer picked a collection of works by Thurber. He was equally stuffing the ballot box when he chose as his luxury item, an upright piano complete with a painting Saint Barnabas Altarpiece by Sandro Botticelli. Crafty.

It’s an indication of the music that Costello would choose to pack in his suitcase. Not stuck to the mammoth list of 500 records Costello once deemed as essential that the singer compiled once upon a time, he instead opens up the spectrum of music to something a touch more classical.

Costello instead of picking tracks steeped in the history of rock, excluding perhaps Frank Sinatra and definitely The Beatles, the singer/songwriter showed his musical chops were far beyond the pop sensibilities some of his music had shown. It’s born out of his musical family, something he discusses with present Sue Lawley.

First up for discussion for Declan McManus, AKA Elvis Costello, was that name change. “As you just illustrated,” the ‘Oliver’s Army’ singer replied to a question he’s likely heard thousand times over, “it’s a rather difficult name to say, particularly over the telephone, all the way through school I was tortured by teachers imitating the sound of an elastic band when saying my name.”

It would also prove unhelpful when contacting record companies about his early work, so he decided to adopt his grandmother’s name, Costello, and when his manager of the time, Jake Riviera, introduced him one day as Elvis, the name stuck. When pressed on whether he felt silly changing his name at 23, the singer, embodying his work, replied: “there was a sort of dare element to it.”

When faced with the possibility of being cast on to a desert island on his own, Lawley asks whether he would suffer from loneliness, “you wouldn’t sink into the depths of despair?” she asks. “Well I don’t think that’s unhealthy, I do that anyway, even now.” It’s a matter that Lawley questions may have had an influence on his choices of song.

Costello responds, “Yeah. It influenced the choice particularly in the records I didn’t choose. If I had chosen say what would be my favourite eight songs, if such a list could even exist as it changes minute to minute, it would be such a depressing experience that perhaps I wouldn’t be so resilient.”

It is the perfect way to not only introduce a series of records that are curated for his particular experience but to speak to Costello as an artist. He has chosen dense pieces of music, layered enough to be lost in, and embued with the kind of intellectualism that he put into all his own work.

Below you can find the full list as well as a playlist of the track selected by Elvis Costello as essential. Make sure you visit BBC to get all the information on all of the artists interviewed for the show and listen to Elvis Costello’s full Desert Island Discs appearance below.

‘String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135’ – Ludwig van Beethoven
‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’ – Frank Sinatra
‘At Last’ – Joe Loss Orchestra
‘Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), opera, K. 492 Act 1, Scene 5, No 6’ – Mozart
‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’ – The Beatles
‘Sonata In B Flat, D. 960: I. Molto moderato’ – Franz Schubert
‘Dido’s Lament’ – Henry Purcell
‘Blood Count’ – Duke Ellington
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
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