A Goodbye Cruel World Poll

Post by **BlueChair** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:55 am

What's your thought?

whar · Post by **whar** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 11:16 am

Is this an honest poll, Blue... or a trip into the NoiseRadio trick sleeve?

Post by **BlueChair** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 11:27 am

I just thought that given the renewed discussion on GCW, it be worth seeing what the masses believe.

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 11:53 am

A poll on the Elvis Costello Fab Forum is hardly gonna reveal what the masses think!

whar · Post by **whar** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 12:02 pm

I'm actually surprised at the results. It may seem that the middle answer would be the safe answer, but given past opinions posted on this board- it's a bit of a shock.

whar · Post by **whar** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 3:47 pm

Honestly- I think that if GCW was made by anyone but Elvis- people would love it.

Say GCW was a McCartney album... hm? Or a Squeeze album? Both butchered their sound in the 80s, so this would be expected- and the true quality of the songs would be given a chance to shine through.

I still stick by my statement that GCW is incredible.

VonOfterdingen · Post by **VonOfterdingen** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 8:16 am

whar wrote:Honestly- I think that if GCW was made by anyone but Elvis- people would love it.

I think that if GCW was made by anyone but EC- people would hate it

Jackson Monk · Post by **Jackson Monk** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 11:52 am

Some great songs, some average ones.

Over-riding belief is though is that it was destroyed by Langer and Winstanley. Room with No Number, Flame, Worthless Thing and Home Truth are really good songs.

EC himself wanted it reproduced, but was forced to release it as he was on the brink of financial ruin.

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 12:04 pm

Jackson Monk wrote:

Over-riding belief is though is that it was destroyed by Langer and Winstanley. Room with No Number, Flame, Worthless Thing and Home Truth are really good songs.

I agree, and would add Comedians and Peace In Our Time. I love 'I Wanna Be Loved' but can see how folks could hate it. It's not his song but boy can he get inside it. Plus the video is hilarious and sad at the same time.

John · Post by **John** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 4:36 pm

Almost every time I've bought an Elvis album I 've played it over and over for months afterwards and then occasionally afterwards. Not with this album. I found it a big let down after the pure pop of Punch The Clock and have never really warmed to it. I still find it hard not to skip through a lot of the tracks. The first half is better than the second. Could never call an EC album crap, so middle option for me.

Mr. Average · Post by **Mr. Average** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 6:16 pm

A few decent songs that could have been arranged so much better, but next to the Juliet Letters this is my least favorite recording. Stupid title was the first clue.

"I was really down about lots of other things and I really just decided I wanted to do this one record, and I was asking them to make a record they weren't really set up to do, which was essentially a 'live-in-the-studio' record. And then we had a loss of nerve about that and started to edge it back towards the kind of production they did anyway. But the damage had been done, we'd started out to record a folk-rock record, which is what it originally sounded like, which you can hear in some of the more soulful songs, like Home Truth, which is an unbelievably painful, true song. I made Clive Langer's life impossible, and I take full responsibility for the failure of the production, 'cause I was asking them one time to do one thing and the next to do another, and changing my mind every 15 minutes and driving everybody in the band mad. And really just getting it as wrong as you can in terms of the execution of what are basically a bunch of really good songs." (EC) "

In principle, there ws nothing wrong with bringing in Daryl Hall, a very diverse and gifted artist. But the song, the pop format that he contributed to restricted him (them both?) to a very hall and oatsy sound, which is the least of Daryl's artistic achievements.

Joe Porterhouse · Post by **Joe Porterhouse** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 11:17 pm

I am one of those who thinks it is a great album.Maybe a large part of that stems from it being the album that got me into EC.Admittedly, I was also trying to impress a cute brunette in my neighborhood who told me Elvis was her all-time fave.I suppose that had no small part to do with discovering the man's music, now that I think of it.God bless her, I'm glad she did.

randrew · Post by **randrew** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 11:35 pm

There are three or four good songs, but it's one of his weakest records.

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 4:10 pm

While I agree with the conventional wisdom that the songs themselves are pretty good and could have been recorded to better effect, I think the album as is is crap.

WHAR,

The NoiseRadio trick sleeve? What the hell are you talking about?

randrew · Post by **randrew** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 5:06 pm

Personally I think there's a handful of good songs (my favorite being Deportees Club) but all in all it's definitely one of his weaker efforts. I would definitely prefer The Juliette Letters to this one.

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