"The Worst of Elvis Costello"

[wordnat]

Here’s a dream I actually had: I was in a record store (remember those?), and I picked up the above-mentioned LP (remember those?) – 20 crap songs by Our Hero! Here’s the tracklisting, as far as I can recall:
SIDE ONE
I’m Not Angry
You Belong to Me
Moods for Moderns
Beaten to the Punch
From a Whisper to a Scream
Town Cryer
TKO (Boxing Day)
Sour Milk-Cow Blues
Glitter Gulch
Honey, Are You Straight or Are You Blind?
SIDE TWO
Stalin Malone
Playboy to a Man
Why?
Still Too Soon to Know
Tears at the Birthday Party
15 Petals
Button My Lip
Put Away Forbidden Playthings
Broken Promise Land
My Three Sons

[bronxapostle]

at least 10 songs i LOVE and another five i LIKE a LOT!!! never a BIG bomb of a song from our hero!!!

[Ypsilanti]

Totally agree BA! I'd buy that record in a heartbeat!

[InvisibleMan]

yeah, some very good songs in there.

[Jackson Monk]

It's bland Elvis I don't care for. When he's being daring, I could forgive him anything.

I've never really liked Playboy to a Man, Pads Paws and Claws and Broken (all collaborations interestingly.....but most of the other stuff is cool by me.

[wardo68]

I posted this list to alt.fan-EC back in 2001; it would be a chronological one-worst-song-from-each-album mix:

MAIT -- Sneaky Feelings
TYM -- Living In Paradise
AF -- Moods For Moderns
GH -- I Can't Stand Up
TL -- Sunday's Best
Trust -- Lovers Walk
AB -- Colour of the Blues
IB -- Tears Before Bedtime
PTC -- TKO Boxing Day
GCW -- Room with No Number
KOA -- Glitter Gulch
B&C -- Honey Are You Straight
Idiot -- Stamping Ground
Spike -- Miss Macbeth
MLAR -- Harpies Bizarre
TJL -- Swine
BY -- My Science Fiction Twin
Kojak -- Bama Lama Bama Loo
ATUB -- Why Can't A Man Stand Alone
PFM -- Long Division
WIWC -- Dissolve
CS -- any of the remixes
North -- tough call; possibly Still (unless we can count Too Blue)
TDM -- She's Pulling Out The Pin
MFBB -- Clubland
TRIR -- Wonder Woman
Momo -- Mr. Feathers
SP&S -- Crooked Line

As ever, argue away.

[Jackson Monk]

I posted this list to alt.fan-EC back in 2001; it would be a chronological one-worst-song-from-each-album mix:
B&C -- Honey Are You Straight
Idiot -- Stamping Ground
TJL -- Swine
Kojak -- Bama Lama Bama Loo
ATUB -- Why Can't A Man Stand Alone
As ever, argue away.

Well, I wouldn't argue because taste is a personal thing. However, the tracks above are the only ones from your list that I don't much care for. However, I think I'd love Why Can't a Man if it was sung in a different key...or by someone else...possibly.

[InvisibleMan]

one of his songs that i really can't stand is battered old bird, right from the first chords.

[Jackson Monk]

Nah...love that one.

[DrJ]

Off the top of my head I've never liked Invasion Hit Parade, Coal Train Robberies, Sweet Pear, White Knuckles,LetMe Tell You About Her.

Then there's the overrated songs like When I Was Cruel 2 and I Want You (yes, I said I Want You).

But this is the fun thing about taste because I love Lovers' Walk, My Science Fiction Twin, Harpes Bizarre, Pad, Paws & Claws, and I'll defend My Three Sons to the bitter end.

[Lester Burnham]

"The Worst of Elvis Costello"? Wouldn't that just be "Goodbye Cruel World", minus 'Deportee's Club' and 'Peace In Our Time' and with 'Playboy to a Man'?

[Jackson Monk]

Off the top of my head I've never liked Invasion Hit Parade, Coal Train Robberies, Sweet Pear, White Knuckles,LetMe Tell You About Her.

Then there's the overrated songs like When I Was Cruel 2 and I Want You (yes, I said I Want You).

But this is the fun thing about taste because I love Lovers' Walk, My Science Fiction Twin, Harpes Bizarre, Pad, Paws & Claws, and I'll defend My Three Sons to the bitter end.

Christ, I adore Sweet Pear, love White Knuckles and think the whole of North sparkles in a dark sultry lake of love!!

I also think My Three Sons is a great tune, so I'll forgive you Dr.

Ps. and Harpies Bizarre is right up there!

PPs. In 1985 at the age of 19, I had a deep sweet sensual sexual relationship with an old woman of 29...I fell in love with her maturity and her sexual experience. She gave me the push for a 40 year old man a few months later, when I was still at the stage of life where Mr T was the ultimate in cool. In 1986 I listened to 'I Want You' for the first time. The emotional impact it had on me was so extreme that I had to take 3 days off work to recover. I guess that is the reason why that song can never be overrated to me. I just think it is one off his most powerful and literate songs. I guess you had to be there.

[sheeptotheslaughter]

Cant say there's many Elvis songs I dislike.

Im not overfussed by the 'Bama Lama Baa Loo' type songs he loves to cover. And some of the later albums have songs that somethings I think are a bit tuneless. Bit of the TDM (Button My Lip) and SPS (She Handed Me A Mirror) etc, other than that probably couldnt make up a twenty tracks album of songs I dont like

[Otis Westinghouse]

I can't match Jackson for being jilted by an older woman for an older man stories, but I too adore 'I Want You' as one of his very best things. I always think of it as the closing song at Hammersmith in Nov '02, where people were already leaving the theatre thinking it was over, and he came back and played it, leving most of us standing up, frozen, holding our breath. His face was picked out by a light, otherwise it was all very black. It was incredibly intense. Bruce Thomas was embarrassed by it, he'd have preferred to be playing 'Kung Fu Fighting', but I would place it in EC's top 5 songs ever.

The one song I can't abide at all is the above referred to 'Broken'. I bet that post-Cait he's been tempted to delete it from the CD.

[InvisibleMan]

putting aside the most personal idiosyncrasies (or trying to), the badly written ones that spring to my mind are: playboy to a man, broken (it seems we all agree about these two), glitter gulch, maybe after the fall. sweet pear is overly sentimental, but nonetheless has great impact. luxembourg is not that great. stamping ground is simply bad. oh, of course at least half of goodbye cruel world, particularly joe porterhouse, peace in our time, sour-milk cow blues, the great unknown.

and then, there are many that i simply don't like. the most recent albums, for example. he's stopped to write "solid" songs, in my view (except for the delivery man and north).

on the other hand, there are songs that are supposed to be throwaways, that i quite like, especially seven day weekend, or even baby's got a brand new hairdo with that demented guitar riff. they're not badly written: they're just silly!

and songs that should have been in the album they've have been excluded from, for example forgiver her anything. by the way, in blood and chocolate: next time 'round is too much "la bamba riff again" for my taste. and then he used that again in "how to be dumb" (which i don't dislike, instead).

[Ypsilanti]

Cant say there's many Elvis songs I dislike.

Yeah, me too. I can only think of a handful of songs I don't like. "Broken"? LOVE it--I'm really surprised it's so unpopular! "Button My Lip"? Eventually came to love it. "Joe Porterhouse"? Love the acoustic demo. "Pads, Paws & Claws", I'd rather if the opening part were different, but I still like it OK.
The few I don't like are probably going to be beloved by everyone else, but here goes...

Chewing Gum
You'll Never Be a Man
Luxembourg
White Knuckles
Black Sails
Seven O'clock
Tears Before Bedtime
Boy With a Problem
Pidgin English
The World's Great Optimist

I will, of course, continue to listen and try to love these songs. I find with EC that sometimes it takes many, many plays and then suddenly something clicks.

[Jackson Monk]

You'll never be a man would be in my top 5 EC songs ever. Black Sails top 20.

I agree with you that Chewing Gum is not much cop...not awful..just boring. Bu then again, I think Spike is the one EC album that has consistently dropped down my favourites list, year on year. I rarely play it anymore. The songs on GCW I prefer...even if the production is a let-down.

[InvisibleMan]

everybody "hates" spike. it's far from my comprehension why. i like both chewing gum and pads, paws & claws.

i like most of the songs listed b ypsilanti, excluding seven o'clock and world's greatest optimist, which i don't remember, or maybe i've never listened to.

[Ypsilanti]

When Spike first came out I bought it and loved it--I played the shit out of it. In fact, I'm pretty sure my 1st copy was on a cassette tape which eventually broke and then I replaced it with a CD. Now...not so much. Now I feel like I appreciate it, but don't enjoy it, with the exception of God's Comic, which I love all the time. And maybe Miss MacBeth.

[sabreman]

I absolutely love "Sneaky Feelings"! It swings!

[Jackson Monk]

I absolutely love "Sneaky Feelings"! It swings!

...and me. I'd love it just for the killer opening lines, which are some of his best.

[Lester Burnham]

You'll Never Be A Man became one of my top EC songs recently, after I listened to the bonus disc version (which is very similar to the familiar studio version, except a bit slower and more aggressive, guitar-wise) and EC's voice explodes on the word "foreign" at around the 2 minute mark. Sends me into hysterics every time, and I can't explain why!

[sulky lad]

God's Comic x20
Every live version with a chat in between with comments about "God on a water bed filled with tropical fish, 2 of every kind and on and on " and what's even more depressing, he might just turn Sulphur To Sugarcane into the same sort of song. If he never plays God Comic live again it will be too soon for me. And ask VG about Deep Dark truthful Mirror !!

[FAVEHOUR]

Agree with you completely about God's Comic as a live song. On the record, it's actually a great track, cool bass playing and horns. I saw him do it at a soundcheck at the start of the 1987 Confederates tour, solo, when it was previously unperformed, and it sent chills down my spine (partly because I couldn't hear the words and thought it was more serious than it turned out to be). But the incessant stretching of the song with the long comedy bits (especially if you go to more than one show on a tour and hear it all again) has made it a chore. The only time I enjoyed it recently was when he played it with Steve in Vancouver in 2003, a quiet house, and when he did the line about "the crowd would hoot and holler for more", I decided to play along for once and shouted "MORE" very loudly from the 15th row or so, the only person to do so. It made Elvis laugh.

Thankfully, "Sulphur" has not turned into this kind of thing, at least not yet. It takes 6 or 7 minutes to play but it chugs right along, he doesn't talk, he just plays, and the band is great and the solos between the verses are great. If they just PLAYED God's Comic it would be fine too. Now, I don't know what he'll do with it in the solo shows in the fall.....!

dave

[alexv]

My Costello's Worst Songs, taken album by album, as best as i can remember. I'm not including the expanded edition songs (though things like black sails, town called nothing etc. would be on the list). Let's go with his first choices, and I just don't have the time. I see that others have included and i generally agree with the choices from the expanded list. Worst only in comparison to the rest of the stuff:

MIAT: love them all, still
TYM: ditto
AF: big boys is the one I skip, not a bad Costello songs, just a skippable
GH: Gears. I never liked this song.
Trust: white knuckles, lover's walk both are perennial skippables.
AB: love them all, still
IB: pidgin english is the only one i've ever skipped here and there, but not enough to be deemed skippable. No bad songs on this record
PTC: I know this record is flawed, but as I ran through the list of songs I found that I was humming each one and smiling. I'm not sure I ever skipped much here. Each songs has a bit here and there, some more than others that sets my toes-a-tapping. So, much to my surprise I'm not listing any as skippables or bad Costello.
GCW: Here we go, apres PTC the deluge: Porterhouse, deportees, sourmilk, home truth, comedians (though I liked the orbison version), the great unknown.
KOA: glitter, little palaces, eisenhower and misunderstood (though not his song)
BC: tokyo, uncomplicated, honey, crimes
Spike: dangle, chewing gum, satellite,stalin,coal, kings shilling
MLAR: parade, harpies, playboy, broken, pear
ATUB: stand (like the song, can't stand the singing), atoms, angel
BY: pony, soon, 20%
Juliet: Where do I begin? deliver,swine,rites,unrepeatable,filthy,burlesque,letter home. I saw him do this at Town Hall, however, and it was one of the best EC shows I've ever seen. Go figure.
PFM: Bring BBacharach back
WIWC: here i should only note the ones i like: wiwc, tear, spooky, episode
TDM: button, story, tdm, pin, monkey
RIR: again, I only like: brother, rir, ascension, tears
momo: hiding, gangster, stella, pardon, rose
Secrets: too soon, but does not look good.