Elvis appearance on TV show "Musicians" from 2002 - does anyone have a recording?

Pretty self-explanatory
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HungupStrungup
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Elvis appearance on TV show "Musicians" from 2002 - does anyone have a recording?

Post by HungupStrungup »

The Bravo cable network will rebroadcast the EC edition of its "Musicians" series next weekend, Saturday 12/6/03 at 4:30 am EST (check your local listings). For those who may have missed it, this is an excellent program, a full hour (minus commercial breaks) interview conducted in the spring of '02, around the time of the release of When I Was Cruel. He talks about the album and a bit about his writing process, shows off his home recording setup (brought to the show's studio for the purpose), discusses his career and plays a few songs.

It's well worth recording if you don't plan to be up at that hour.
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docinwestchester
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Re: Bravo to repeat "Musicians"

Post by docinwestchester »

Last edited by docinwestchester on Fri Sep 02, 2011 12:04 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Bravo to repeat "Musicians"

Post by SoulForHire »

Thanks for getting all of these uploaded so quickly

Looks like pts 3, 4, and 5 are identical
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docinwestchester
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Re: Bravo to repeat "Musicians"

Post by docinwestchester »

SoulForHire wrote:Thanks for getting all of these uploaded so quickly

Looks like pts 3, 4, and 5 are identical
Thanks. Problem fixed.
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Re: Bravo to repeat "Musicians"

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Thanks for loading. Have watched part 1 so far. Nice to see him up close with the guitar like that. Looks like c. 45 mins run time in total.
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Re: Bravo to repeat "Musicians"

Post by docinwestchester »

bronxapostle
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Re: Bravo to repeat "Musicians"

Post by bronxapostle »

i don't recall this one at all. where was it filmed please? this is the horrid leather jacket phase that i used to torment him for wearing.....like on a bright sunny april day at Grand Army Plaza for that CBS early show performance. i hope he gave it to the homeless! not that i'm a fashion plate. but, surely 2011 GQ EC surely agrees with me now! :P :P :P
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Re: Bravo to repeat "Musicians"

Post by FAVEHOUR »

I think it was filmed at Sony Studios in NYC. I was one of the last people to get in, despite having a very low number on the list (courtesy of Mr. Bodayle, who was unable to attend). A whole bunch of VIP types were let in ahead of those of us with supposed guaranteed access and names on the list. Barley made it in to sit in the bleachers. A great show, though.

Dave
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Re: Bravo to repeat "Musicians"

Post by bronxapostle »

this is NOT the first time that you were in attendance for a show that is sorely unrepresented at "the wiki" dave. if you have no knowledge of how to add at the wiki, i am certain ANCT would ably and willingly assist you. pretty please!!! thanks, ba

http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... 2002-03-09

according to this entry, it only states what was BROADCAST! did you keep better notes on the entire evening?
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Re: Bravo to repeat "Musicians"

Post by FAVEHOUR »

Nope. I don't take notes at shows!

I do remember he did a verse of "The Judgment" during a break, the first time he'd played any of that song.

I know that I and definitely others wrote extensive accounts at the time. Guess that was for the List on AOL? Probably lost in the mists of time now.

Hey, I've been going in and adding to the Wiki the last couple months. I've put in several full setlists and I've noted where recordings exist, if the Wiki had said there weren't any. I try!

Dave
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Re: Bravo to repeat "Musicians"

Post by bronxapostle »

oh, that is great to hear dave. last i recall, you were not in the mode of adding at the wiki. i'm very glad to hear that your INVALUABLE resources are being chronicled. thanks from every statistician freak! cheers man. ba
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Re: Bravo to repeat "Musicians"

Post by johnfoyle »

I know that I and definitely others wrote extensive accounts at the time. Guess that was for the List on AOL? Probably lost in the mists of time now.

Lost indeed - the archive only goes back to 2003-

http://listserv.aol.com/archives/costello-l.html
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Re: Bravo to repeat "Musicians"

Post by And No Coffee Table »

Lost? Don't be silly.
* I think the context of Elvis' remarks on discovering that "powerful" people were still shabby human beings was made in the context of describing how he came to write "When I Was Cruel." He explained that, after the success of "She," he had been given new opportunities to cross paths with a strata of society that he hadn't encountered before. He also, as I recall, indicated that his perspective now enabled him to appreciate that his own behavior during the early years of his career left something to be desired, and that he now directs, on occasion, some of the venom that he used to hurl at others at himself. (Hence, the title of the song WIWC.)

* The story about how he wrote "Man Out of Time" after a desultory Swedish television appearance with the Attractions and after arriving at an uplands English estate where various parties involved in the Profumo scandal had hidden out. He told that story in conjunction with describing out he wrote "Accidents Will Happen," with the "I don't want to hear it" line from Randy Newman's "I' Don't Want to Hear About It" (which Elvis learned from "Dusty in Memphis") and described that "Accidents" was a song about being unfaithful. When he referred to himself at one point as having been "morally bankrupt" during this period and seemed visibly depressed at the line of questions, I thought for a moment that the show was going off the rails. That was when the first tape change occurred, thank God.

* How T-Bone Burnett "saved my life" during the "King of America" days. And how he fought with a television executive over the boom box volume controls when he went to a pitch meeting for the abandoned "Archangels" television series.

* How "Brilliant Mistake" was stolen from the Shaker hymn that underlies "Appalachian Spring" by way of some obscure Turtles song.

* The story, originally related to him by Michael Feinstein, that Ira Gershwin had dispatched Feinstein (who was Gershwin's personal assistant) to go buy a copy of "Imperial Bedroom" and Elvis cringing at the thought of Ira Gershwin trying to understand why EC was being compared to the Gershwins ("What have they done to my brother's [i.e., George Gershwin] music?")

* The bit about being under the impression from movies like "The Cole Porter Story" that you could simply walk into a music business person's office with a "Have I got a song for you!" attitude and how he frightened record company people because of his loud singing voice. Also the great impression of a record company man taking phone calls from his wife in the middle of Elvis' audition ("Yes, yes . . . shampoo the dog . . .").

* The stories about encountering Nick Lowe at the bar of the Liverpool pub (not the Cavern Club which, as Elvis pointed out, the Liverpool City Council had demolished, not realizing that they should have preserved it for thousands of Japanese tourists).

* His description of CCIU #4 as essentially a song about faith and what one is left with when faith has been lost.

* The song he wrote called "Nostar" [?] was titled (I thought) after some Welsh expression. I seem to recall the lyrics said something about being lost and now waiting to be found.

* The new song he played between the breaks was written for a new Solomon Burke album coming out on the Epitaph label. I seem to recall the lyrics suggested some kind of judge/courtroom/hanging sequence.

* The story about singing a "duet" with Van Morrison of a Ray Charles song, where Elvis sang a line and did a great impression of Van shouting out a jumble of words in response.

* He declaration that he hadn't been a big fan of Elvis as a kid and that he thought the other Elvis was singing Italian songs (". . . . "IT NOW OR NEVERRRRRRR") and reminded him of Mario Lanza. He said it was unfortunate that Elvis hadn't lived longer to have better songs come to him. This was when David Wild suggested that "Indoor Fireworks" would have been a good Elvis Presley song. Elvis (correctly, I think) disagreed, saying he couldn't see the other Elvis doing that one.

* His repeated comment that the Attractions as a band (excluding himself) were one of the greatest bands in rock history -- the equal of the Who. However, when he spoke about Bruce, and his affinity for playing high up on the bass neck, he began his comment by saying something like "When Bruce was having an "on" day . . . ., " implying that he could be erratic.

Celebrities spotted there: Garland Jeffries, Joe Queenan, VH1-guy/author Bill Flanagan, actor James Naughton, producer Bob Ezrin
Here are my recollections of the Bravo taping. I tried to edit out the ones that have already been posted, but I have probably left some in. Also please correct anything I got wrong in here.

One theme of the evening was definitely "where I stole my songs." Alison, Brilliant Mistake, a ton of other ones.... Talked about how he didn't have any formal training until ten (?) years ago. Said that he can name the notes on the piano, but couldn't tell you about the frets/strings... and then pointed out that he was clumsy talking about frets vs strings now.

How the host had given Elvis the Chet Baker cd after Chet Baker had died, and Elvis hadn't known about it and was very moved, because he and Chet had been together, but neither had said anything.

Said twice that he'd written about 300 songs.

The host skipped over KOA, and when Elvis mentioned it, the audience broke into the only bit of spontaneous applause (the only applause not meant for a song). Elvis said he didn't know if we were clapping for KOA or T-Bone Burnett, whom he'd just mentioned. And that if an election were held today, T-Bone would win because of his popularity via O Brother.

Mentioned that during Imperial Bedroom (?) he was listening to all kinds of stuff, including jazz (he was more specific, but I don't remember) and Debussy, etc.

Said he really regretted not learning how to play the trumpet, like his dad.

He talked about how Accidents and another song were about fidelity, and when he played them, I saw them in a new light. Very moving.

The host talked about Strict Time and the puns in it. Elvis denied then jokingly.

SNL performance... he didn't feel Less Than Zero was relevant to American audiences.

He got slightly goofy during the retakes at the end. He was obviously much more comfortable. Towards the end of the show, he seemed to direct a lot more of his energy towards the audience, rather than the interviewer or certainly the cameras. In my opinion, he was most happy and comfortable when he was Elvis with the audience. Hence, at the very end, when he came back to thank us all for coming. Very different than the modest and slightly awkward bows he did in front of the cameras to our applause. As the evening went on, he kept looking over at the audience and asking us how we were doing.

Said someone couldn't play for shit. I think he was talking about how all of the bands played over each other... the Who, the Stones... and while there were a couple good musicians in the Stones, the rest of them couldn't play for shit. Or maybe I'm confusing a couple different moments in the evening.

Talked about how amazed he was when he realized he could hire the TCB band for KOA.

Talked about how simple Mystery Dance was... played a bit of it... started twice?

Talked about when Paul McCartney called him up. He said he felt like a 9 year old again, until he realized that Paul was calling him up because he was a successful 30 something, not a 9 year old, so he had to act like an adult.

The interviewer asked him about his son's band, and Elvis really didn't seem to want to talk about it. Said "you'll have to ask him about it." Not in a disconnected way, but in a respectful way.

Talked about Elvis Presley. Said he was very lazy musically, according to the Guralnick book. Said the show that's touring now is really amazing. He went to see it b/c he'd worked with the TCB band, but that to hear Elvis through a modern day PA system is something that doesn't ever happen and was incredible. He made a comment about seeing the fat Elvis in the show go back and do Jailhouse Rock and said something about how it just didn't work. And yeah, that his first knowledge of Elvis was the later stuff, and that it was only later when he heard Jailhouse Rock that he realized Elvis was "supernatural." And that he wished Elvis had made it into an era of better music. That his management kept the good songs from him too.

Played Abba's Knowing Me, Knowing You.

Talked about the Attractions: how they viewed them as a band including him, and he saw just the three of them as a band, and that it led to some falling out. He used plural (I think "a couple") so that it implied more than just Bruce. Said they were among the best bands at the time... as good as the Stones, etc. Spoke of each of them specifically.

He kept touching the back of his head the other night. Not very photogenic!

Played a snippet of Red Shoes early on. I was dying to see if he'd make it to the call and response, but he stopped just short of that. It seemed to me that he realized right at that moment that he should probably stop before the audience started singing along.

Called Burt Bacharach's songs erotic and said that Burt may not be thrilled to hear him say that. In my opinion, Elvis declined to tell the fax story. The host prompted him to, and Elvis responded saying that yes, they'd started out working by fax, but then later they got together to work.

Talked about getting his jacket for the MAIT cover from someone, and that it was "one of the jackets" on the cover. Then corrected himself saying it was of course the only jacket on the cover.

I thought it was odd that he didn't stay around during the tape changes, since I had heard that Randy Newman had. Also, when the host asked him to play his new stuff, he said he had to get the technical difficulties worked out, then walked off stage to his dressing room. (I heard the woman in charge say into her headset that he'd gone upstairs.) I didn't see them doing anything with his equipment, so I'm not sure what the technical difficulty was.

Someone posted that this was the longest taping in Bravo's history. But my friend overheard someone say that the Alannis Morrisette taping was six hours long!

When playing the new stuff, he told of the process of working with the samplers. He played a four note loop for the audience and said he started with that and listened to it for a whole day. Then he pointed out that he needed the cheap drum machine because you wouldn't want or couldn't have (I don't remember which) a drummer in your house all the time.

Talked about recording an album (B&C?) in a room like we were in that was really echo-y, with the mikes running through amps, or something. He said it wasn't an efficient way to work, but it got the sound they wanted.

Said he recorded MAIT in 24 hours.

How in England Burt's songs all got redone by English people and that Dionne Warwick was unhappy about her lost ground with that.

Said that originally he didn't like other people playing his songs, hence his rudeness to Linda Ronstadt (even though it didn't stop him from spending her money). But that now he liked other people to play his songs, and that he even has grown to like her Alison.

Working at the cosmetic company even though he has no aptitude for computers. Would write his songs at work.

Talked about the song he did on the Stiffed album, and about Brinsley Schwartz... played Peace Love and Understanding per the host's request, but said that it wasn't a very representative song of what they were talking about.

That's it for now. Thanks for listening.
I deleted a paragraph from the second review which seemed list-specific.

I want to know more about "Nostar".
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Re: Bravo to repeat "Musicians"

Post by johnfoyle »

The youtube clips earlier in this thread are defunct. Would anyone be able to post them again?
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