40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

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cwr
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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by cwr »

It's lovely listening to him interview McPartland in that two-part anniversary show. They seem to have a genuine affection for one another, and the way he expresses his admiration for her and her show is really nice to hear.

Costello as musical ambassador is one of the most important things about him-- there are SO many things I've listened to because of him that I probably never would have otherwise. His enthusiasm is infectious, and he has enough curiosity for twelve people.

I wish that the episodes of his Irish radio broadcasts with John Kelly were online somehow. The ones he did in the late 90s/early 00s were spectacular, just him picking songs and enthusing about them. He premiered the song "Bright Blue Times" on one of those and my cousin gave me a cassette tape of it, I think that's one of the only times it was ever even heard publicly. It would be great if people could hear those online somehow.
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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by Jack of All Parades »

This album, of all his collaborative efforts, has over the years seemed the most 'organic'. It has a heart and an easy flow and the songs of anger are not self-righteous but seem infused with an honest passion and hurt. It was a nice tour, as well. Another record I regularly play.
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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by noiseradio »

One of my favorites. I aw the last night of this tour, in New Orleans, and it remains the best live music experience of my life. Also the night I met EC, Steve, Pete, AND Alan Toussaint for the first time. Hell of an evening.
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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by Poor Deportee »

"The Sharpest Thorn" and "International Echo" always seemed the most memorable of the new numbers to me. I know that I'm in a minority, but as admirable as the intentions behind this record were, I was never 100% comfortable with the spectacle of an Englishman getting up there and condemning the internal politics of the U.S.A.. This strikes me as a tad presumptuous, not to say sanctimonious, even if perhaps beneficial in its effects.

One thing about the tour this record spawned: it made me rethink EC as a performer, and not entirely in a good way! Watching him and Toussaint on stage was, I thought, a study in contrasts - one performer charimsatic, gaudy, show-offy, excuding effort throughout, the other supremely tasteful and discreet, delivering the songs with impeccable taste and rhythm, never thrusting himself in our faces. While either approach is fine, I suppose, I thought that by the end of the night EC's overall persona came off as a tiny bit gimmicky, not to say tacky, by comparison. This was a most unexpected conclusion and one whose lessons I've been processing ever since.

I'm NOT trying to say that EC is a bad performer. God, no. I'm just suggesting that he might benefit from Toussaint's determination to let the song speak for itself - something that never really occured to me before this tour.
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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by cwr »

I never had a problem with EC commenting on US politics-- EC hasn't lived in the UK since the 80s, and makes his home in NYC and Canada for most of the past decade. He's an "Englishman", yes, but I actually think at this point it would be almost more presumptuous for him to speak out about UK politics at this point, wouldn't it?

The poor handling of Katrina and its aftermath was fully deserving of his vitriol. New Orleans is a place he has affection for, and it doesn't seem out-of-line for him to take a public stance on it and speak out.

As far as the charm thing, I'm sure Costello would not hesitate to concede that he does not possess the effortless grace and charm of Mr. Toussaint. The way he would quietly take ownership of the spotlight at various points in their shows was something I don't think any of us have ever witnessed Costello achieving on stage.

Watch any 1977 video of the twitchy, sweating Costello performing and it's a marvel that he's still performing, and sometimes with orchestras and string quartets!

Some people are Cary Grant and some people are Steve Buscemi. Different skill sets entirely!

(Costello would probably love to have that quality Toussaint has, but I'm not sure it can be learned or acquired with practice!)

I'm still stunned by how great "Six-Fingered Man" is. It feels like a variation on the themes of "My Science Fiction Twin" but the latter song has a kind of Costello in-joke quality to it, whereas 6FM has a more universal quality to it as a song. I would love it if this song started getting some covers by other artists, I think it's a really fun song.
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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by And No Coffee Table »

cwr wrote:I'm still stunned by how great "Six-Fingered Man" is. It feels like a variation on the themes of "My Science Fiction Twin" but the latter song has a kind of Costello in-joke quality to it, whereas 6FM has a more universal quality to it as a song. I would love it if this song started getting some covers by other artists, I think it's a really fun song.
I agree it's a great song... but did you know that the lines you quoted are lifted word-for-word from this commercial?

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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by cwr »

That's awesome! I had no idea.

It makes me love the song even more!!
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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by pophead2k »

As a victim of the federal disaster that was Hurricane Katrina and a long time resident (and lover) of New Orleans, this album obviously has a very special place in my heart. I wrote to Elvis for the first and only time when this came out and was thrilled to receive a personal reply. I saw the tour in Virginia and was extra excited a couple of years later when Toussaint showed up on stage at the 9:30 Club in DC to perform a couple of songs on one of EC's 'Greatest Hits' tours. I was with some fellow New Orleanians and it just seemed like a magic guest spot. In addition, I had no problem with EC (or anyone) helping to point out the failure of the federal government during this time. Over 1000 people died in New Orleans as a result of failure of the levees, which the government had been warned about for over fifteen years. Anyone who cherishes human life, regardless of their national origin, deserves to be heard when criticizing the incompetence of elected officials who had opportunities to avert disaster and did not.
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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Well put, from the voice of bitter experience.
pophead2k wrote:I wrote to Elvis for the first and only time when this came out and was thrilled to receive a personal reply.
Care to share some of what he said with us?
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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by FAVEHOUR »

And No Coffee Table wrote:
cwr wrote:I'm still stunned by how great "Six-Fingered Man" is. It feels like a variation on the themes of "My Science Fiction Twin" but the latter song has a kind of Costello in-joke quality to it, whereas 6FM has a more universal quality to it as a song. I would love it if this song started getting some covers by other artists, I think it's a really fun song.
I agree it's a great song... but did you know that the lines you quoted are lifted word-for-word from this commercial?

wow, that is freaky! Even freakier, I remember having one of these as a kid!

dave
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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by jsf »

Regarding Costello's performance style, I can't find much to process personally. To me he has always come across as often being extremely nervous and self-conscious, yet still a great performer. When he's talking he quite often seems more relaxed. But, yea, I also think he would be the first to acknowledge Troussiant's (and many others) superior stage presence.

I think part of what I love about that great SPIKE interview in which he played a number of songs is that he somehow comes across a bit more focused than usual, less concerned of how he appears maybe. I don't know.
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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by pophead2k »

Otis Westinghouse wrote:Well put, from the voice of bitter experience.
pophead2k wrote:I wrote to Elvis for the first and only time when this came out and was thrilled to receive a personal reply.
Care to share some of what he said with us?
This is the email I received from Elvis:

Dear Dave

Thank you for your kind words. It has been both a pleasure and a privilege to play any part in the recent musical events.

Who would not enjoy performing with Allen Toussaint and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and in all the company that we have been keeping. I wish it hadn't taken a catastrophe for us all to get together again but now that we have, there are lots of songs to sing.

See you down the road and I wish you all the best. Elvis Costello
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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Aw, lovely (even if he's omitted a question mark!).
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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by Ymaginatif »

Maybe it *still* has to grow on me, but 'River In Reverse' is low in my rankings of EC albums. It's one of those where he seems to have lost his identity. It could have been anyone singing an playing those songs. It's sounding like a well-crafted studio-musicians album to me. Elvis Costello's 'and this is a picture of me in front of the Mona Lisa' mode.
The best song on it is sung by Allen Toussaint - much props to him!
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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by Lester Burnham »

I liked River in Reverse at the time, but treated it more as a side-step than a full-on musical project (oh, how I bet Elvis would love to hear that!). It was born from catastrophic events, and part of me views it as a way of helping out Allen Toussaint – one of the most underrated songwriters I can think of. I don't doubt that there's a musical kinship there, and Elvis was excited to work with Allen again, having delivered the goods with Deep Dark Truthful Mirror, so I can't fault the record for that. The new songs are great, the covers are great, but it still sounds like a marking-time album to me. Plenty of musicians, American and not, donated their time and resources to help out a Katrina-stricken New Orleans, and it wasn't the first time that Elvis addressed American politics (the earliest I can think of is "there's already a spaceman in the White House / whatcha want another one for?"), so I'm not too worried about that.

His 2007 American Express tour (at the Electric Factory) was the first time I saw him live, though, and Allen joined him and the Imposters onstage for a few numbers, and I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the intense EC versus the laid-back Allen. But I think he also played a few newly-written songs, among them American Gangster Time, and it had that "classic" EC sound and feel, and I remember being excited at the prospect of a new EC album that year. Of course, we'd have to wait...

River in Reverse isn't an album I return to often, if much at all. To me, it's a very "of its time" album in terms of the message and the circumstances under which it was recorded. It doesn't detract from the quality of the songwriting (I still dig The Sharpest Thorn very, very much) but it's just that Elvis had released many other albums that resonated deeper with me.
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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by Poor Deportee »

Another excellent entry, Connor - capturing both EC's bizarrely tempermental career management (at least in this phase) and the spirit of Momofuku as an off-the-cuff and "old fashioned" Elvis Costello record, in the sense of being nothing more than a collection of pop/rock and roll songs. Imagine!!

I enjoy the record's carefree spirit, which you nicely encapsulate. Time has somewhat tempered my initial enthusiasm for this effort, however. I no longer think too highly of the CD's first half apart from the superb "Harry Worth." "Gangster Time" tiptoes, albeit knowingly, toward self-parody; you're right about the stellar chorus on "Turpentine," but it resembles "Episode of Blonde" in the specific sense of containing a fabulous chorus surrounded by unedifying verse materials; " and both "Drum and Bone" nor "Flutter and Wow" yield diminishing returns with repeated listens.

After that, though, things really pick up. "Stella" and "Mr feathers" are one of my very favourite back to backs in his catalogue. The latter song is a particular gem - you're spot on in referencing The Beatles here, and this tune always seemed to me to exemplify EC's unique ability to combine both Lennon and McCartney in a single package. My only reservation thereafter is the grossly overrated "Pardon Me Madam" (though the chorus of "Go Away" could stand to be more explosive).

One track I'd like to single out is the opener. "No Hiding Place" is a great example of how later Costello can both entice and frustrate as a writer. The song gives us two verses, both a bit cumbersomely wordy relative to the melody and neither of which is up to much - basically, EC introducing his theme and then formulaically sleepwalking. But reservations are dispatched by the excitingly propulsive pre-chorus: now he's got you! Yet this effect is in turn ruined by what might be one of the laziest, most insipid set-up lines he's penned

My my it's a terrible disgrace

You bet it is - lazy writing incarnate. Talk about anti-climax. Fortunately, the "howling in a vacuum" part reclaims some of the ferocity of the pre-chorus. Then this flawed dynamic repeats itself...with the "howling" bit replaced by those hilarious and appropriate "na na naaaas" and a delightfuly Beatle-esque coda courtsey of Jenny Lewis ("ooo-oooo-oooo-AAAAHHH!").

A bit of a mess, then: great, engaging ingredients thrown into a hopper with some decidedly less appealing products of EC in snooze mode. A very interesting track in that sense, but hard to unambivalently endorse, and thereby characteristic of a lot of his post-Attractions work.
Last edited by Poor Deportee on Thu Sep 12, 2013 9:53 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by Jack of All Parades »

A flawed and half achieved record for me. I have always admired that he took up a self directed challenge and decided to record 'off the cuff' with little preparation. It did seem to re-invigorate him at the time. Like such efforts- some songs work and some do not. PD elaborates as to that, nicely. My favorites have always been "Stella Hurt", "Flutter and Wow", "Harry Worth", "My Three Sons"[although mine are daughters] and the stellar "Mr. Feathers". The backup efforts of the Rilo Kiley alums helped immensely. At the time it was fun to see such an unexpected collection of 'pop' songs. I used to play it with more regularity-of late it tends to languish on the shelf. The next regular release clearly does. :roll:
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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Poor Deportee wrote:Yet this effect is in turn ruined by what might be one of the laziest, most insipid set-up lines he's penned

My my it's a terrible disgrace

You bet it is - lazy writing incarnate. Talk about anti-climax. Fortunately, the "howling in a vacuum" part reclaims some of the ferocity of the pre-chorus.
That line makes me laugh in that the scan of it forces him to place the emphasis incorrectly on the first syllable, making it sound more like 'disc race' than 'disgrace', and also making the already lame sort of rhyme with 'place' work even less. All the same, I enjoy it in it's off-kilter silliness. I love the feel of the entire song and that Elvis kicks off an album with a diatribe against internet nastiness - and actually very prescient in terms of some of the high profile horribleness on Twitter of late. I enjoy the invitation to dare to say it to his face as if he's going to take the offender outside for a fight. It was always my highlight of this album, matching its rather slung together aesthetic to a pretty damn good song. I also appreciated My Three Sons a whole lot more when I saw him play it live, my wife at my side and in our case it being sons not daughters. Never really got Stella Hurt, it's OK I suppose. Mr Feathers OK but verging on pastiche.

The album was decent enough for a hurried effort but nowhere near as good overall as the high standard of WIWC and TDM.
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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by cwr »

DAY 37: SPECTACLE - ELVIS COSTELLO WITH...

http://connorratliff.tumblr.com/post/61 ... s-costello
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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by Jack of All Parades »

To slip into the host position with a Piano Jazz radio type gig would be ideal for him- nominal production cost and he could do it around his schedule just like Dylan's Radio Old Time Hour. Ah! One can dream. :wink:
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by grantprobst »

Wish Netflix had the 2nd Season of Spectacle, too! It is a major tease...
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Re: 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO: A Countdown To WISE UP GHOST

Post by Neil. »

I agree with all the thoughts on 'No Hiding Place' - fantastic rocker with a very weird choice of lyrics for the chorus! But, as ever, some great imagery...

"Two lovers jumping up and down in an elevator, thirty minutes later
They'll make a killing in the market, they know how to work it on that closed circuit"

...and the whole fist-shaking at the internet is great - no more royalties, and everyone's a critic now! But the fact that he's streaming the new album suggests he's come to terms with free music, even if he still gets annoyed with anonymous critics on forums such as this!

And I agree with Connor - 'Go Away' could be a great new staple of his live shows. Haven't listened to the album in ages, but I'll give it another spin because of your piece, Connor.
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