What the story behind ATUB (Entire album) ?

Pretty self-explanatory
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krm
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Re: What the story behind ATUB (Entire album) ?

Post by krm »

Otis Westinghouse wrote:The above has made me return to CD2. It's been a while. I bought all the reissues in such rapid succession that I'm not sure I drank all the details in slowly enough, instead I gulped them down and have to go back to remind myself and avoid confusion. My Dark Life is fabulous as ever, but why so much enthusiasm for Almost Ideal Eyes? I don't quite get it. I can't see it fitting the LP proper in mood or style. EC writes:

""Almost Ideal Eyes" is an out-take that should probably have remained part of the album – if only for the bizarre guitar playing in the fade."

I beg to differ. For me it's 200 syllabes per line, frantic into awkwardly slow rhythm switches make it a curio, worthy of CD2, but not a great EC moment, by any means.

The thing that leap out at me as especially enjoyable, and far more pleasurable to listen to, was the cover of Sleeper's 'What Do I Do Now?' which EC makes far more poignant than the original. He writes:

""What do I do now?" is a solo recording of a song by Louise Wener, made in response to her group Sleeper’s participation in the "Four singles in one month" series (see "The other footnote")."

But what was Sleeper's participation? Is it on CD2? I haven't checked all the credits.

Louise Wener is now a novelist (so that was what she did now):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Wener

They did a version of The other end of the Telescope
http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... ess_Beauty
cwr
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Re: What the story behind ATUB (Entire album) ?

Post by cwr »

I beg to differ. For me it's 200 syllabes per line, frantic into awkwardly slow rhythm switches make it a curio, worthy of CD2, but not a great EC moment, by any means.
I think it should sit on the album right where "Shallow Grave" is. It's the "Beyond Belief" of ATUB, and without it, the record is out-of-balance, IMHO...
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docinwestchester
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Re: What the story behind ATUB (Entire album) ?

Post by docinwestchester »

Just got the CD from ba and it's excellent. I'll have it up on Dime this weekend - maybe even tonight. If you're out there, ba, check your e-mail for an important question.

01 The Other End Of The Telescope (August 4, 1995)
02 Almost Ideal Eyes (August 4, 1995)
03 Speak Darkly My Angel (August 4, 1995)
04 I want To Vanish (August 4, 1995)
05 It's Time (August 2, 1995)
06 You've Been Cheatin' (August 4, 1995)
07 Temptation '95 (August 7, 1995)
08 Little Atoms (August 7, 1995)
09 My Funny Valentine (spoken) (August 7, 1995)
10 All This Useless Beauty (August 7, 1995)
11 You Bowed Down (August 7, 1995)
12 Why Can't A Man Stand Alone? (August 7, 1995)
13 Shallow Grave (August 7, 1995)
14 God Give Me Strength (August 2, 1995)
15 Starting To Come To Me (August 2, 1995)
16 Complicated Shadows (August 2, 1995)
17 Poor Fractured Atlas (August 2, 1995)
18 Dirty Rotten Shame (August 3, 1995)
19 Distorted Angel (August 4, 1995)
bronxapostle
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Re: What the story behind ATUB (Entire album) ?

Post by bronxapostle »

glad you enjoyed Doc, i think most will. plays nicely top to bottom; i left them in the original order i had put them to compiiation cassette 15 years back!
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docinwestchester
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Re: What the story behind ATUB (Entire album) ?

Post by docinwestchester »

Now on Dime:

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-deta ... ?id=342207

Elvis Costello And The Attractions
All This Useless Beauty Rehearsal Shows
August 2, 3, 4, and 7, 1995
Beacon Theater
New York, NY

Elvis Costello - guitar, vocals
The Attractions:
Steve Nieve - keyboards
Bruce Thomas - bass
Pete Thomas - drums

Source: master audience recording
Taper: bronxapostle
Equipment: Sony cassette recorder
Sound: very good (mp3 samples attached in the comments)

Lineage: CDR > EAC > WAV > TLH > FLAC 6 (align SB) > foobar2000 (flac tags)

Length: 1:09:21


"I was at the Beacon for the live rehearsals before they recorded All This Useless Beauty. I kinda felt
like I was in the band seeing them toss them around on stage for five NYC nights. Really GREAT shows
and the new songs were the glue, the highlights of each night. I made a compilation cassette of my
recordings with all the new songs only...quite the collection...and decided to share them as is. This
compilation contains all twelve ATUB songs plus a handful of other new/unreleased gems."

bronxapostle








01 The Other End Of The Telescope (August 4, 1995)

02 Almost Ideal Eyes (August 4, 1995)

03 Speak Darkly My Angel (August 4, 1995)

04 I want To Vanish (August 4, 1995)

05 It's Time (August 2, 1995)

06 You've Been Cheatin' (August 4, 1995)

07 Temptation '95 (August 7, 1995)

08 Little Atoms (August 7, 1995)

09 My Funny Valentine (spoken) (August 7, 1995)

10 All This Useless Beauty (August 7, 1995)

11 You Bowed Down (August 7, 1995)

12 Why Can't A Man Stand Alone? (August 7, 1995)

13 Shallow Grave (August 7, 1995)

14 God Give Me Strength (August 2, 1995)

15 Starting To Come To Me (August 2, 1995)

16 Complicated Shadows (August 2, 1995)

17 Poor Fractured Atlas (August 2, 1995)

18 Dirty Rotten Shame (August 3, 1995)

19 Distorted Angel (August 4, 1995)
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Otis Westinghouse
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Re: What the story behind ATUB (Entire album) ?

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Many thanks, the samples sound great. Other End of the Telescope with very different words and nicely slow, and great to hear them playing God Give Me Strength. Agree totally it would have enhanced the CD.

Weird scenario with Dime. Using it for the first time on a new Mac and so downloaded Bit Torrent, expecting it to be as before, but downloading the torrent activated Vuze and it downloaded it in next to no time through that. Impressive but confusing!
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
cwr
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Re: What the story behind ATUB (Entire album) ?

Post by cwr »

That Attractions arrangement of GGMS is THE definitive version of the song, IMHO. The Burt one is nice, and works well for the Grace Of My Heart movie, but it is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too slow and lumbering and loses some of the passion in the Steve Nieve-driven rendition...

And I've never fully warmed to the more cryptic ATUB lyrics of Telescope. It sorta feels like he took a simpler, more beautiful song and muddied it up, almost like someone would do if they were doing a parody of Costello's style. I miss the simplicity of "though your wristwatch always works, your necktie never fits."
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pophead2k
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Re: What the story behind ATUB (Entire album) ?

Post by pophead2k »

cwr wrote: And I've never fully warmed to the more cryptic ATUB lyrics of Telescope. It sorta feels like he took a simpler, more beautiful song and muddied it up, almost like someone would do if they were doing a parody of Costello's style. I miss the simplicity of "though your wristwatch always works, your necktie never fits."
My sentiments exactly.
Poor Deportee
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Re: What the story behind ATUB (Entire album) ?

Post by Poor Deportee »

cwr wrote:And I've never fully warmed to the more cryptic ATUB lyrics of Telescope. It sorta feels like he took a simpler, more beautiful song and muddied it up, almost like someone would do if they were doing a parody of Costello's style. I miss the simplicity of "though your wristwatch always works, your necktie never fits."
100%. And

when the head and the heart of it finally elope

is SUCH a great, suave rhyme for 'rope!' How he can throw that away for the cumbersome 'Chopin' rhyme is beyond my capacity. There's a law of diminishing creative returns when rewriting (check out Whitman's Leaves of Grass if you doubt it) and that is fully manifest with that inferior version of a fine song.
When man has destroyed what he thinks he owns
I hope no living thing cries over his bones
bronxapostle
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Re: What the story behind ATUB (Entire album) ?

Post by bronxapostle »

Re: Re-examination of "Punch the Clock"
by bronxapostle » Mon Jan 31, 2011 12:01 am

thanks Otis for appreciating my ATUB comp. dare i say...it IS better than the official release!!!!!!!!


that's my wisecrack at another thread about this here compilation. which prompted my further reflection on just what went wrong with the rehearsal shows and subsequent recording.

you clearly can see that in five nights in nyc (not that each song was performed nightly) there were definitive versions rendered of these songs. what E should have done perhaps was to release the LP wih the LIVE VERSIONS played in August 1995!!!!!! he would have saved studio time and pocket money to boot and done something pretty different by having the new songs released in live form firstly. i'm sure later we would have gathered some studio takes/demos on the songs anyway. thinking back to then, i recall believing that the LP would indeed feature at least a few of the songs from the Beacon. and then what happened? he lifted an outro (or was it audience applause only?) for COMPLICATED SHADOWS from one of the shows as the only tidbit from the five nights? please, of the folks who said they attended as well: am i correct in my recall that we were led to believe some of the LP would feature from NYC? cheers, b
johnfoyle
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Re: What the story behind ATUB (Entire album) ?

Post by johnfoyle »

Kind of related - a review in Record Collector seems to indicate that this release is on the way -

http://www.cherryred.co.uk/cherryred/ar ... leeper.php


Image

The IT Girl
cdbred476

DELAYED FROM INITIAL RELEASE DATE!! PLEASE CONTACT FOR DISPATCH DATE.

Released on 22/11/10.

Sleeper were massive! Hit singles, sell out tours, and at one point you could not open a magazine or a newspaper without seeing a picture of the band oh and they made some great records too!

Britpop delights part of the memory and scares other parts of the brain, Sleeper are from the right side of the tracks, yeah they looked good (even The Sleeper blokes) but more importantly they sounded great, no style over substance here. The IT Girl was their second album it followed the debut smart at pace and did not miss a beat, packed with singles and presented here with a hatful of B-sides and live tracks the time is right to dip your toe back in the Britpop waters.

Disc One

Lie Detector / Sale Of The Century / What Do I Do Now? / Good Luck Mr Gorsky / Feeling peaky / Shrink Wrapped / Dress Like Your Mother / Statuesque / Glue Ears / Nice Guy Eddie / Stop Your Crying / Factor 41 / Click... Off... Gone / disc two- Paint Me / Room At The Top / Disco Duncan (Live) / Vegas (Live) / Amuse (Live) / Atomic / Package Holiday / Oh Well / Pokerface / Blazer Sleeves / Inbetweener (Live) / She’s A Sweetheart / Statuesque (The Boxed Off Mix) / Atomic (Wubble U Mix) / Other End Of The Telescope / Spies

Disc Two

Paint Me / Room At The Top / Disco Duncan (Live) / Vegas (Live) / Amuse (Live) / Atomic / Package Holiday / Oh Well / Pokerface / Blazer Sleeves / Inbetweener (Live) / She Sa Sweetheart / Statuesque (The Boxed Off Mix) / Atomic (Wubble U Mix) / Other End Of The Telescope / Spies
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verbal gymnastics
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Re: What the story behind ATUB (Entire album) ?

Post by verbal gymnastics »

The IT Girl is a great album. It's one of the only ones that featured in mine and who is now Mrs VG's collections when we got together back in the day.

I remember thinking at the time that there would be more material issued from the Beacon shows. I'd learned my lesson not to expect more by the time of the rehearsal shows for The Delivery Man.
Who’s this kid with his mumbo jumbo?
johnfoyle
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Re: What the story behind ATUB (Entire album) ?

Post by johnfoyle »

When All This Useless Beauty came out in 1996 Elvis released four editions of a single with other artists doing cover versions of his songs as extra tracks. Further to that he covered songs by those artists. 'What Do I Do Now?' by Sleeper was one, which ended up as a track on a cd with a magazine and ,eventually, the Rhino reissue of ATUB. Only recently I noticed that an accompanying feature in the magazine was not on wiki. It is now , with this quote seeming to be especially telling in light of what The Book would reveal about that period in Elvis's life.

'What Elvis Costello has done to 'What Do I Do Now?' is to supplant a kind of innocence with an emotional Molotov cocktail.
"I just thought the song was brilliant. The words, the uncertainty in the relationship. The sadness." EC says. "Obviously the advantage of living that little bit longer than some other people — I'm 42 — I can use that to some advantage. I know the feeling that's on the song very well, but it's not my direct lyrical experience, it's Louise's."


http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... ember_1996

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuJJBJHDUcY
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