Complete list of songs covered by EC?

[American Without Tears]

Does one exist?

[Otis Westinghouse]

John Foyle probably has a ready-made list, but I ain't seen one. This site tracks covers, but their list is pretty selective:

http://www.coversproject.com/artist/elvis%20costello

There's a space in the market for a Costello companion with an A to Z of all songs played ever (I have the awesome Bowie equivalent in mind as role model).

[TX_Fan]

http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Songs

I'm sure Elvis has covered a few more, but this is a pretty good list.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Good point. It has a handy link for unreleased covers:

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

But no way of separating out released covers from own compositions.

Never knew he'd covered gangsters. Would like to hear that. Saw a nice rendition yesterday with Terry Hall and Lynval Golding joining Lily Allen and band at Glasto for it.

[American Without Tears]

Thanks very much indeed.

Did he really play Mr Tambourine Man? If so, where/when? I'd love to hear this.

[Lester Burnham]

There's a space in the market for a Costello companion with an A to Z of all songs played ever (I have the awesome Bowie equivalent in mind as role model).

I have the book that you mention, The Complete David Bowie by Nicholas Pegg. In fact, I modeled my own book, Queen: Complete Works, after that book. I say this not to garner sales (though if you're a fan of Queen, it really is essential ), but to mention that I am thinking of a follow-up book.............

[Otis Westinghouse]

You're the man, Lester/Georg!

Bambooneedle would go for your Queen title.

[bambooneedle]

I own just a few Queen albums but had a look at the write ups on amazon, looks very good: "interprets and critiques every song the band sang", "concise reviews of solo projects, too", etc. I don't even own The Game.

The second Queen videos DVD had great footage of the band at work, if it's got anything like the insight and humour on that it should be great. Like of One Vision unfolding in the studio. They're standing at the mike laying down the vocals, seems like they're coming up with them spontaneously. Freddie goes, "One voice, one hope, one...", Roger Taylor interjects "...one real decision". Freddie lights up, tries it out, "one real decision". Yes! Solved, it's a keeper. The scene led me to think that they must have at least discussed what they were trying to communicate with the song beforehand, and that, to be privy to those sorts of discussions, to their no-doubt much guarded creative process and personal ideas, would be amazingly insightful. But then, one of the things that made them such an unstoppable force was that they were so professional, discreet and deeply respectful of their respective personal stuff and creative inputs.

At another point in that DVD, I think they were making a video or something, Freddie turns to someone and goes "Aw, you faggot!"

[Otis Westinghouse]

"interprets and critiques every song the band sang"

This is the joy of the format inherited from Pegg's Bowie. No matter how incidental or obscure, the song is in the list. He then works through all the LPs and tours. There's a great timeline at the end showing how recordings/performances/TB & film all lined up. And the Bowie one is very well written and properly edited. Could have done with all the lyrics too, but that minor point aside, it's perfect.

All artists with a significant body of work deserve the bobdylan.com treatment of not only complete lyrics A-Z, but also a concordancer. How many songs use the word 'knife', for example?

http://search.bobdylan.com/moderntimes/ ... f&range=50

(Appropriately enough for the above, 'bowie-knife' is included from I Shall Be Free No. 10. Is this where the teenage Dylan-fan David Jones first heard is future name?)

[ReadyToHearTheWorst]

... 'bowie-knife' ... Is this where the teenage Dylan-fan David Jones first heard is future name?

I always thought he got the name from 2001: A Space Oddyssey - the lead astronaut is Dave Bowman.

[verbal gymnastics]

Did he really play Mr Tambourine Man? If so, where/when? I'd love to hear this.

If you click on the song on the link provided by Otis all will be revealed...

[bambooneedle]

Whoever compiles a list of covers done by somebody should distinguish between the ones that were recognized successes and those that were just inferior one-off live attempts and so on.

It's a letdown when the idea of a certain person attempting to cover a song turns out to have been more interesting than the cover itself. What's funny with lots of indie bands is, they're supposed to be trying to forge their own identity but too often they'll prefer to trade on the interestingness of doing cool known songs in order to promote themselves, and fall short. After they butcher one of your favourite songs, you don't bother listening to their original stuff.

I'd like to hear EC's attempt at Mr. Tambourine Man, to see whether he could bring anything new or interesting to it, or reinvent it somehow like The Byrds did. Somehow I doubt it, it's too Dylan.

[Otis Westinghouse]

The Bowie listing will tell you in full detail if it was recorded, played extensively, played fleetingly, etc. I want the full list, e.g. if you are a huge Jarvis fan, you want to know each and every song he played on the current tour (different cover each night).

[King_of_Spain]

I have never had the opportunity to listen to the cover of Tangled up in blue. I have tried to search for it on the Internet but it seems practically impossible to find this song.

Could anyone please hang this song on a free space (with bad sound or whatever) or give some valid link to download it?

Thanx, anyway.

[EarlManchester]

Good point. It has a handy link for unreleased covers:

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

But no way of separating out released covers from own compositions.

It does now:
http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... sed_covers

.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Splendid. Thank you!