'The Return Of The Spectacular Spinning Songbook', Nov. '11

[migdd]

So is this being issued in December or what? I placed an advance order through Amazon. I'll take it at any price - don't care, I want it and want it early Dec. That is all.

Sorry, but your pre-order will soon be cancelled. I've already made arrangements to pre-order all 1,500 copies at a slight discount (and cannot be happier with my purchase) and will be sending them all to Elvis who will subsequently have them stuffed into pre-selected jumbo boxes of Cheerios and Corn Flakes to be distributed to grocery stores and other various food markets throughout the world.

[bil1cat]

Hipp-o also did the stones Some Girls Deluxe package and at 1/2 the price and about the same amount of goodies. http://www.amazon.com/Some-Girls-Rollin ... pd_sim_m_2
Is it because of the Autograph that the package is so high. Elvis will sign anyones disk after his shows for free, if you just wait. All the fans know that.

[strangerinthehouse]

Prices are set by the record label. Unless the artist makes a particular stipulation about a unit price before licensing the recording to the label to be distributed, they really have no control over the final price. Or sometime about a record being released period - just ask Tim McGraw about his third Greatest Hits collection. http://www.cmt.com/news/country-music/1 ... kage.jhtml

This presser shouldn't be taken as an indication that Costello has lost control over anything but the pricing of this particular record.

He's not releasing the record, the label is. The label is free to set whatever price they care to for it, and Costello is free to issue a statement disapproving of this. They also determine the release date. Again, Costello is free to denounce the release date and to not promote the album - not that artists normally do much promotion for a live record - but that's it.

Agree about the autograph part and how it really probably didn't figure much on the pricing of this thing.

Still the whole thing reminds me of the Tom Petty fight he had with is label over a CD price. His label MCA wanted to sell his next one, Hard Promises I think, for a dollar more than usual $9.98 (I know, hard to believe) but he fought them off until they left the price alone.

Now, I know it's been a long time since then and the music industry is pretty different but I would think Costello would have a better handle on what releases bear his name or at least how the songs that he's written are being sold.

In any case, the blame for this whole thing must fall on Hip-O, which he has been bad-mouthing for a while. Not only for the rehash of reissues or the greatest hits collection that was supposed to turn into theme collections, remember this:



Weren't there going to be other editions with ballads and such?

I know this has been brought up before but perhaps it's time he's started to release things by himself, the 78's seemed to be his own doing, and cut out Hip-O for good.

As for the whole piracy thing, I can't help but think he finds it humorous to hear/read complaints about a live release when they can find the live recordings through many other outlets. You can't bootleg the book or special postcard but video and audio from the show are found everywhere.

I don't care to know if he doesn't like people taping his shows, might be my dim conscience, but perhaps he's pointing out that this is supposed to be more than just the CD/DVD while still telling us to buy something much better for that price.

If you care to read more confusing reactions to this, check out the comments on Facebook. They remind me how many people can read the same thing and end up with a variety of conclusions.

https://www.facebook.com/ElvisCostello/ ... 3639652588

[Kevin Davis]

So how many on this forum are buying this, over priced or not? I still have it on pre order from Amazon, had this been released at any other time of the year I would have skipped it. I am due a year end bonus and have mentally adjusted that bonus by $250 lees than it should be, that is the only way i can justify (to myself) buying this. Will I regret it? Probably.

So put your hand in the air if your are coughing up for this...

TC

I won't be, especially now that he's confirming a music-only sans junk edition will be coming out next year. The price on this thing is ludicrous, and it's nice to see Elvis denouncing it.

[Kevin Davis]

Weren't there going to be other editions with ballads and such?

Like everything else, my guess is that they just weren't selling. It seems there have been a number of reissue programs in the last few years that have just stopped dead in their tracks--the last Van Morrison remaster series is an example, as well as the Costello Show live series--and it's hard to come up with anything other than money as the reason why.

[verbal gymnastics]

So is this being issued in December or what? I placed an advance order through Amazon. I'll take it at any price - don't care, I want it and want it early Dec. That is all.

Sorry, but your pre-order will soon be cancelled. I've already made arrangements to pre-order all 1,500 copies at a slight discount (and cannot be happier with my purchase) and will be sending them all to Elvis who will subsequently have them stuffed into pre-selected jumbo boxes of Cheerios and Corn Flakes to be distributed to grocery stores and other various food markets throughout the world.

Strangerinthehouse - there's no point in checking out the Facebook page. Let's face it, Elvis and his people know this is the place to come to.

Yanyna - if you really want this then PM me. I've bought UK releases and shipped them around the world for other board members. But even Elvis is saying don't bother and he is our God!

[cwr]

The Hip-O reissue series was bungled from the start. If you wanted to try a "themed" Costello compilation, for instance, why start with "Rock & Roll" when that could describe the bulk of ANY of the previous "greatest hits" collections he's put out over the years. At least if you started with "Ballads" it might get some traction with the casual listener who knows him primarily through songs like "She" or "Alison."

And that live series stopped JUST as it was about to get to the shows that hadn't already been released or widely bootlegged-- in short, BEFORE the live albums that more EC fans would've been inclined to actually buy.

I miss the days when Rhino was in charge of putting out EC archival stuff, it was Elvis calling the shots but he had people with good instincts who really cared about and knew his body of work and the quality was good and the price was right. What a great reissue program those Rhino 2-discs were...

[Ymaginatif]

Costello should eb able to cancel this release.

No.

why not?

[Jeremy Dylan]

Costello should eb able to cancel this release.

No.

why not?

He's not releasing the album - the record label is.

[Kevin Davis]

The Hip-O reissue series was bungled from the start. If you wanted to try a "themed" Costello compilation, for instance, why start with "Rock & Roll" when that could describe the bulk of ANY of the previous "greatest hits" collections he's put out over the years. At least if you started with "Ballads" it might get some traction with the casual listener who knows him primarily through songs like "She" or "Alison."

And that live series stopped JUST as it was about to get to the shows that hadn't already been released or widely bootlegged-- in short, BEFORE the live albums that more EC fans would've been inclined to actually buy.

I miss the days when Rhino was in charge of putting out EC archival stuff, it was Elvis calling the shots but he had people with good instincts who really cared about and knew his body of work and the quality was good and the price was right. What a great reissue program those Rhino 2-discs were...

No artist I listen to has ever been treated so lovingly by his/her record label as Rhino treated EC with their reissue program. I was lucky to have gotten into Elvis right as that campaign was launching--no having to "re-buy" old albums just to get bonus features.

[Jack of All Parades]

For me I can think of two others just off my head- Capital with The Band and Columbia with Miles Davis. Both received exceptional treatment with their back catalogs. That is not to say that EC's treatment by Rhino was not exceptional too; it is not the sole exceptional example, however.

[Kevin Davis]

I didn't mean to suggest EC's was the only one--just that I think that even others, no matter how great, fail to reach the gold standard set by those Rhino reissues. Essentially, it was two discs for the price of one, with the bonus disc featuring oftentimes more material than the album itself, much of it of significant interest. Miles Davis is only a notch below EC on my 'favorite artists' totem pole, and those Columbia discs are lovely indeed, but for me those EC Rhino reissues are the pinnacle.

[Jack of All Parades]

Agreed. All three for my spent money are worthwhile investments. The Band[to my knowledge had a sparse unreleased songs library, what for the most part was recorded made the initial album release] and Capital did make a strong effort to add worthwhile takes and additional songs to the re releases[ I have only to look at the added material for the Rock of Ages reissue to see and hear that]. What makes all three exceptional for me is the documentation that went into them- the photo histories, the essays and reminiscences by the artists really make these reissues for me. Those liner notes on the Davis reissues are very helpful and quite good.

[Kevin Davis]

One thing I wish Columbia had done differently with the Davis reissues is make more of the material from the "complete sessions" box sets available as bonus materials on the albums themselves. Some of the boxes--the Cellar Door and Plugged Nickel sets, for example--make sense to have been released as they were, but other things like the Miles/Coltrane and '65-'68 boxes, each only had maybe a handful of tracks that were unique to the box sets, and it might have been nice if those could have been spread out across the albums, even if it meant occasionally adding a second disc. I know most of the albums did have a few tracks tagged on, which was great and generous, but now that I've bought enough of those albums to know that I'm a big enough fan to want everything, it feels kind of like I need to buy a bunch of expensive box sets, most of which will essentially be duplication of material I already own, just to obtain the oddball tracks. With the EC Rhino sets, even though I wasn't any kind of die-hard fan when I started my collection, since those 2CD sets were no more expensive than single-disc editions (in fact, I don't think there were even single disc editions on the market at the time), I ended up accumulating a bunch of stuff that I didn't know I wanted but now I'm extremely thankful to have.

I think a wise move on the part of any record company releasing a box set similar to the Davis sets would be to concurrently release a 1- or 2-CD edition of material exclusive to the box, for people who've already purchased the other material in the set. I know the marketing goal of those boxes is to get big-time fans to put up major cash for memorabilia, but I often wonder if just as many don't end up simply pirating the odd track that they don't have. I doubt companies would lose the "collector" demographic by doing this, i.e. the "we need to have everything for our shelves" contingent, but they might gain an audience of people who'd generally prefer to own official releases but can't justify spending large amounts of money on material they already own.

I agree that the liners to those Miles reissues are great, though--especially the session dates and that sort of thing, which really give some insight into the very rapid evolution of his art, particularly during the 1960's. The Coltrane reissues on Impulse are also really nicely done, if a little pricey.

[Jack of All Parades]

Agree with the notion of a disc or two of the 'additional' material solely on its own. Have not felt compelled myself to purchase the box sets other than the Davis/Coltrane quintet and the second great Quintet material. But can see where that additional option would have been helpful- now they have issued best of the box set editions for each major box set- the Plugged Nickle one is a favorite for me. Not a real complete freak so I have always leaned to editing out a chunk of the additional material in my own mind. Never felt compelled to have every demo or live version.

[Kevin Davis]

Some of the alternate takes etc. in the Miles sets are a little extraneous. But other tracks--like "Water on the Pond" and "Circle in the Round," from the 65-68 set, for example--are crucial to Miles's story (the former was the first Davis track to employ an electric instrument, Herbie Hancock on electric keyboard; the former was, I think, the first to feature a guitarist), originally released on retrospective comps or imports that, to my knowledge, are no longer in print.

Have you heard the new 1967 Bootleg Series set that just came out, Christopher?

[Jack of All Parades]

Yes I have- definitely worth owning. I have the Circle in the Round from the 1979 release. My favorite on it is actually the track, "Splash" with Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea dueling on either channel.

"They definitely were the pros' 'pros'!--what I purchased is the compilation of the box set- "Best of the Bootleg Vol.1". The box is too pricey for me at this time. There does seem to be repetition in the box- same song different nights. The Best cd has two evenings- one in Antwerp on 10/28/67 and Copenhagen 11/2/67. I have all the studio reissues from that time so the box would seem redundant to me. Picked this one up yesterday for $8.99- not bad for a brand new cd. The youtube clip I attached is not from this cd but from the same tour so it gives a close approximation to the fun on this cd. As good as Davis was, I think he was supreme at surrounding himself with superlative players. Williams is one of them and to think he was only all of 21 when this was made and still a teenager when he joined the band a few years earlier. Just as we note the cohesiveness of Wilco- this and the first Quintet from the Fifties are the models." From a thread in the annex.


You might like this little one from an earlier period. He is performing a song and working with my father in law. A wonderful surprise years ago when a sizable check arrived in the mail for my wife because the song was featured on a Sopranos episode and made it onto a soundtrack album from the show[one reason why I am so set against piracy].

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw0mnNT0I-4

[Kevin Davis]

Wow, what a great story--and that's among the Miles albums that I don't own, despite owning almost 60 of them. Which player is your father-in-law?

[Natasha]

This postscript was extremely unecessary. It was rude and didn't add any useful information. I don't think he needs to do such things to save face but this misinformation really bothers me. Most of the times we are understanding and also smart enough to find out what's going on by ourselves - he/they don't need to explain us everything but sometimes we deserve some further explanation. What about telling us what's really behind the overpricing? That would be "sparkling clear" not some unecessary statement about piracy.

And on piracy, there's a phrase from a brazilian singer/composer called Lenine about this: "Don't ask me for free the only thing I have to sell". Well, I'm ready to buy anything Elvis wants to sell me, if I can afford it, of course. If he's not selling, well, I think I have the right to have it - I mean, I'm not stealing anything, I'm not taking profit or something, nobody is getting hurt (in my opinion).

And, frankly, it's not like many people in the world wanted material like bootlegs, etc. and even this box set. Let's face it, the only people interested in what he's doing are people who will buy anything he does if they can. I don't see the point of his irritation.

Although I really want this stuff I won't buy it because... Let's see: $270 dollars = R$ 487,51 reais (brazilian currency). Minimal wage in Brazil at the moment is R$545 (about $300 dollars) and most of poor brazilian families live with only this ammount of money a month. - Not to mention that If I buy it from Amazon I'll pay 50% of import taxes so it would cost me R$731,26 plus shipping (probably $15 dollars, more or less, which means more R$27). Total= R$758,26 (this is almost my salary!).

So I won't buy it - although I have the money and I really want it - because my consciousness won't let me.Will I buy it later? Probably. But, after all this discussion, it's better be in a very good price.

And, Elvis, if you don't want me to "steal" the audio or video of a concert I will never be able to attend, please come to Brazil, reschedule those dates in South America and then we talk.

[bambooneedle]

EC was so annoyed by this attempted ripoff that he said steal it. The only reason he censored that initial gut reaction was so he wouldn't be seen condoning theft, but that's how disgusted he felt about it. Obviously some bastard at the record company thought they would get a hefty payday out of this. So while it is not available for a reasonable price I might "sample" it.

[MOJO]

Whatever about the price of the limited edition release...

I'm a consumer and a fan of E.C. I just want the goods described in the offering. Hopefully, I'll get the full package limited edition deal... I guess Elvis thinks I'm really lame for ordering his product after he told his fans to buy the Louie Armstrong Boxset, but whatever.... The dude should have his own release network if he is going to complain about the product that is being distributing in his name.

On a separate note, I have a bunch of guitar picks and a 2011 VIP laminate pass that was part of the VIP Spinning Songbook 2011 tour in the U.S. I bought the VIP pack for the front row seat and not the extra stuff... I did keep the poster and gave my friend the 45 (major record collector dude).. As for picks and laminate, does anyone want them? Sorry, I just don't know what to do with the plastic. COST: FREE!!!

[bronxapostle]

i'd love them...i dig all the plastic crap. thanks mojo

[Ymaginatif]

He's not releasing the album - the record label is.

Yes, but the artist is providing the recordings, which he can always withdraw. It might cost him a lot of money to do so (depending on the nature of his contract), but he should be able to. It's hard to imagine that an artist like ELvis Costello would sign a contract that has him waver any right to quality-control to his output.

Prince, despite his many wranglings with Warner Borthers, was able to delete albums weeks before they were supposed to come out, leaving large stocks of already pressed albums unreleased. That was the 1980s. And artists have become much more contract-savvy since then.

My point is that EC should put his money where his mouth is and either do something about or admit that he is partly responsible for this kind of product coming on the market.

[SoulForHire]

A recent Rolling Stone article quote the price as $340

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/photo ... 22/0151625

[MOJO]

i'd love them...i dig all the plastic crap. thanks mojo

Hey BA, top balcony wants them, too. Pick heads or tails. I'll flip and let you know who wins.