songs Elvis should retire (if he hasn't already)

[docinwestchester]

Thanks Doc, that's exactly the version that I was thinking of. Though I also love the version Natasha posted, much more than the original.

What I find interesting is that there are at least 3 completely different live versions of the same song in recent years; more of course if you go back to the Punch The Clock tour. That's why, IMO, it makes no sense to retire a song - it can always be reconfigured in a positive way.

Another example (already cited): Pump It Up in 6/8 Time > Busted was absolutely fantastic at the Beacon show. Always cool to see EC at the keyboards.

Even Alison can be nuanced into something noteworthy. When he opened with it at the Palace show on Oct 1, it was played with an audible and palpable anger, annoyance, and spite, which we all "got" after reading about what happened the night before in Huntington.

Retire a song? I say NO.

[the_platypus]

I actually count four different, recent versions of "Every Day I Write the Book".

- The original "rock-lite" arrangement played by The Imposters recently.
- The punky version posted by Natasha.
- The Sugarcanes arrangement, with the modified chorus.
- The solo acoustic version, mirroring the Ron Sexsmith cover.

[bronxapostle]

I actually count four different, recent versions of "Every Day I Write the Book".

- The original "rock-lite" arrangement played by The Imposters recently.
- The punky version posted by Natasha.
- The Sugarcanes arrangement, with the modified chorus.
- The solo acoustic version, mirroring the Ron Sexsmith cover.

in the detailed archives of my live shows attended...i have just the three: CANES and SEXSMITH are markedly different. whereas, the song has been morphing back and forth from what you call the rock-lite version, the original, a punkier version, a more Motown version and i'm probably missing yet another. so, i never differentiated to call it a different arrangement platy as it would kinda be like trying to notate DYLAN and the way he is forever re-interpolating his tunes. but, this is an interesting topic regarding what initially appeared to be his most banal attempt at U.S. top forty. glad he's kept it interesting through the subtle changes. any chance someone (PLATY) would want to archive the different takes here if all are indeed available upon video please? it could be fun to sit and view them all in a row to further investigate, evaluate and discuss. cheers. benny

[Otis Westinghouse]

So it's not clear if EC already has given up on Party Girl as well, in the case of AF.

I saw him play it in July '94 at the RAH:

http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... 1994-07-05

I recall he said they hadn't tried it in a long time as it was very hard to pull off live. I seem to recall it being very powerful. Don't know if it's had an outing since.

Elvis has often been better than many artists at reaching back and pulling out a long since unplayed song, but even so, there's something odd a song as good as, say, 'After the Fall' just being left to gather dust.

[strangerinthehouse]

So it's not clear if EC already has given up on Party Girl as well, in the case of AF.

I saw him play it in July '94 at the RAH:

http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... 1994-07-05

I recall he said they hadn't tried it in a long time as it was very hard to pull off live. I seem to recall it being very powerful. Don't know if it's had an outing since.

Elvis has often been better than many artists at reaching back and pulling out a long since unplayed song, but even so, there's something odd a song as good as, say, 'After the Fall' just being left to gather dust.

He hasn't given up on Party Girl. It's was played during the beginning of the Spinning Songbook tour as part of the "Girl" Jackpot.

http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... 05-07_Reno

I also have a bootleg from 2002 in Florida where he performed it with the Imposters.

I don't think there's a conscious effort to retire songs, some just work better live than others. Also, there is only so much room during a concert for such rarities. You figure that a big chunk of the show will be the crowd pleasers, the other must be from the latest album, then a cover or two (the Sugarcanes tour was filled with covers which is great but must've left a few fans wishing for a few classic originals,) and finally there's room for a few catalog songs or deep cuts (which must somehow fit with the remainder of the setlist or songs chosen by the wheel like when he followed Town Cryer with Little Fool recently)

In any case, this leaves me wishing that one day he'll do tour of complete album performances, like he did with My Aim is True a few years back. Maybe do two albums back to back. That would be amazing though, I admit, kind of improbale.

[Jeremy Dylan]

It would be interesting to do that with records that seemed complimentary, as a single album wouldn't fill a show.

Perhaps a night of
THIS YEAR'S MODEL > BLOOD & CHOCOLATE
or
KING OF AMERICA > NATIONAL RANSOM

[sulky lad]

Get Happy - Punch The Clock with horns !! Whoo-hooo - I think I'd died and gone to heaven !

[docinwestchester]

He hasn't given up on Party Girl. It's was played during the beginning of the Spinning Songbook tour as part of the "Girl" Jackpot.

http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... 05-07_Reno

I have video of Party Girl from the Beacon show on May 24, 2011. It was on my old YouTube channel (RIP). I'll put it up on the new one tonight. Needless to say, it was amazing!

http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... 4_New_York

[docinwestchester]

Get Happy - Punch The Clock with horns !! Whoo-hooo - I think I'd died and gone to heaven !

Just getting to hear B Movie live would be worth the price of admission.

[docinwestchester]

Party Girl May 24, 2011:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBfqiIm3xU4

[bambooneedle]

Cool, thanks for updates on Party Girl and for the videoclip. The song does not look very hard to perform, Elvis is a liar. But it gave occasion to surf the newly discovered (by me) Elvis Costello Performance Index - http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... ance_Index , where i discovered that there was a link to FLAC song downloads of the solo show I saw at the Enmore Theatre, Sydney in '09, including the awesome performance of Our Little Angel.......

Here's the concert page: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... -17_Sydney

[Otis Westinghouse]

Get Happy - Punch The Clock with horns !! Whoo-hooo - I think I'd died and gone to heaven !

Just getting to hear B Movie live would be worth the price of admission.

I'd love that combo. Getting pretty close to recreating the Birmingham Dec '83 show written about elsewhere.

Doc I take it you have this bootleg of B Movie, which (according to the index) appears to be its last outing for Elvis:

http://www.mediafire.com/?fdymugmngi5

Re Party Girl, it wasn't that it was hard to play, per se, but hard to nail it. Could be an issue of trying to get his head back to where it was when writing/recording it more than an objective thing that you or I would observe. It's a very dramatic and tender song with big contrasts in the low key verses and big sustained notes at the end, so I can imagine how it would feel a challenge to get the feel of it right. It comes over well on that recent clip, though (and maybe with 17 years more experience now he finds such things less of a challenge).

[docinwestchester]

I actually count four different, recent versions of "Every Day I Write the Book".

- The original "rock-lite" arrangement played by The Imposters recently.
- The punky version posted by Natasha.
- The Sugarcanes arrangement, with the modified chorus.
- The solo acoustic version, mirroring the Ron Sexsmith cover.

I found a fifth version. It's the 2 1/2 minute Beatle version:

http://vimeo.com/32726706

[Ypsilanti]

I actually count four different, recent versions of "Every Day I Write the Book".

- The original "rock-lite" arrangement played by The Imposters recently.
- The punky version posted by Natasha.
- The Sugarcanes arrangement, with the modified chorus.
- The solo acoustic version, mirroring the Ron Sexsmith cover.

I found a fifth version. It's the 2 1/2 minute Beatle version:

http://vimeo.com/32726706

Maybe this is what Platypus meant by "rock-lite", but there is this ska-ish version he played in Atlantic City last year...
http://youtu.be/QE2XVnlwQnI
So does that make 6?

[verbal gymnastics]

This is not a song Elvis should retire but I wonder if he'll play The Birds Will Still Be Singing again because of the emotion now attached to it as Ross' favourite and possible epitaph.

[the_platypus]

I actually count four different, recent versions of "Every Day I Write the Book".

- The original "rock-lite" arrangement played by The Imposters recently.
- The punky version posted by Natasha.
- The Sugarcanes arrangement, with the modified chorus.
- The solo acoustic version, mirroring the Ron Sexsmith cover.

I found a fifth version. It's the 2 1/2 minute Beatle version:

http://vimeo.com/32726706

Maybe this is what Platypus meant by "rock-lite", but there is this ska-ish version he played in Atlantic City last year...
http://youtu.be/QE2XVnlwQnI
So does that make 6?

Those were both part of my original count. So we're still at 4.

[The imposter]

Not recent, but what about the unreleased reggae version ( of Everyday I Write..) from the PTC sessions?

[DeathWearsABigHat]

I actually count four different, recent versions of "Every Day I Write the Book".

- The original "rock-lite" arrangement played by The Imposters recently.
- The punky version posted by Natasha.
- The Sugarcanes arrangement, with the modified chorus.
- The solo acoustic version, mirroring the Ron Sexsmith cover.

I found a fifth version. It's the 2 1/2 minute Beatle version:

http://vimeo.com/32726706

That version is great, although I'm not sure about the melodica tootling.

[Natasha]

Excerpt from the book High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (which all of you guys must have already read. I'm rereading it right now)

“We are so happy, in fact, that between throwing the customers out and leaving for the day, we list our top five Elvis Costello songs (I go for “Alison”, “Little Triggers”, “Man out of Time”, “King Horse”, and a bootleg Merseybeat-style version of “Everyday I Write the Book” I’ve got on a bootleg tape somewhere, the obscurity of the last cleverly counteracting the obviousness of the first, I thought, and thus preempting scorn from Barry) and, after the sulks and rows of the last week, it feels good to think about things like this again.”

Do you guys know which version is he talking about?

This is just trivia but I got curious.

[docinwestchester]

Excerpt from the book High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (which all of you guys must have already read. I'm rereading it right now)

“We are so happy, in fact, that between throwing the customers out and leaving for the day, we list our top five Elvis Costello songs (I go for “Alison”, “Little Triggers”, “Man out of Time”, “King Horse”, and a bootleg Merseybeat-style version of “Everyday I Write the Book” I’ve got on a bootleg tape somewhere, the obscurity of the last cleverly counteracting the obviousness of the first, I thought, and thus preempting scorn from Barry) and, after the sulks and rows of the last week, it feels good to think about things like this again.”

Do you guys know which version is he talking about?

This is just trivia but I got curious.

It's gotta be what I called the Beatle version:

http://vimeo.com/32726706

[Neil.]

Yeah, it's the version from the Punch the Clock bonus disc.

[Goon Squad]

Just off the top of my head...

Alison
Watching The Detectives
Pump It Up
(I Don't want To Go To) Chelsea
The Beat
Every Day I Write The Book
American Gangster Time
National Ransom
The Delivery Man
Sulphur To Sugarcane
The Long Honeymoon
Alibi

[noiseradio]

I found a fifth version. It's the 2 1/2 minute Beatle version:

http://vimeo.com/32726706

That is the version my band plays.