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

[grantprobst]

National Ransom is very easily in my top five, as well.

On the topic of the title track, I like it quite a bit!
(but I like it even better when it is just Elvis playing the song with an acoustic guitar as seen in several of the live versions.)

Also, "All These Strangers" never fails to move me.

[grantprobst]

Thanks for this 40 day countdown, though! Sad it is drawing to a close.
It has been a great reflection and celebration of an amazing music career.

It has also been nice hearing all the thoughtful comments from board regulars.
I certainly feel like I have learned a lot,
and have grown a greater appreciation for certain songs and albums that I have previously overlooked somewhat.
((except for, "For The Stars"... that one still sucks! ))

Hope everyone enjoys Wise Up Ghost!
It has been a pleasure.

-grant

[cwr]

A lot of talk, in this context, about EC's understandable frustration with the commerical evaporation of this great record. And that's fair. But it's also worth noting that he is hardly the first musician to release terrific work and have it ignored by the broader public; and there might be just a smidgen of entitlement in his attitude that, just because he made a magnificent album, it should have hits and sell a lot. Well - why you, and not Ron Sexsmith or any of the other talents toiling in the wilderness?

Just a thought.

Well, I'm sure Costello would agree that Ron Sexsmith deserves much more success!

I think the thing that makes it more than just a sense of Entitlement is that he'd seen how easy it was for his label to make SP&SC a bigger success-- it's not like there was really anything about that record that made it more commercially viable than a lot of his other records of recent vintage, but Hear Music was able to push it and get it seen and I think his assumption was that NR would get the same level of support.

And I think after it really did so very poorly, after he had really pushed it a lot harder than he had any other recent release-- if felt like he showed up just about everywhere to play "Jimmie" and "Josephine"-- I totally get why he may have felt like "I've made plenty of records, what is the point of making another one if not even the good reviews get all that excited about it."

NR isn't perfect, and it's certainly not an "easy" record so I wouldn't have expected it to have "hits" but I think I can understand his feeling that maybe that's a good one to stop on, given how quickly it seemed like its moment in the spotlight was over.

I'm glad that working with The Roots has brought him back, but if had ended on NR I would have understood completely. (As opposed to any previous retirement threat in the 90s and 00s, which all felt semi-ridiculous to me... The NR one felt like I kind of "got" it...)

[cwr]

DAY 40: THE RETURN OF THE SPECTACULAR SPINNING SONGBOOK / POMP & POUT: THE UNIVERSAL YEARS / IN MOTION PICTURES / AND SO ON

http://connorratliff.tumblr.com/post/61 ... r-spinning

[Jack of All Parades]

The Spinning Wheel live disc is a bizarre one and for all the reasons CWR enumerates. I stayed away from the Deluxe set assiduously. "In Motion Pictures" I purchased as well and it is equally strange in its choices for inclusion and for its exclusions. I mostly enjoy the essay and in particular take pleasure in Moon's salute to that underclass- female directors. Thank you, Cwr, for this stroll down memory lane and the many links to obscure EC ephemora[particularly in this final post and the most current non-issued pieces]. It has been most helpful.

[John]

"Elvis Costello is my favorite singer, and my favorite songwriter. His enthusiasm for all kinds of music is infectious, and has led me to listen to so many different things that I probably never would have been drawn to discover on my own. He is the best."

I would like to second that.

Does anyone actually possess a copy of Pomp & Pout?

[sweetest punch]

"Elvis Costello is my favorite singer, and my favorite songwriter. His enthusiasm for all kinds of music is infectious, and has led me to listen to so many different things that I probably never would have been drawn to discover on my own. He is the best."

I would like to second that.

Does anyone actually possess a copy of Pomp & Pout?

I have a copy of Pomp & Pout, ordered on Amazon in Canada (now not longer available): http://www.amazon.ca/Pomp-Universal-Yea ... p+and+pout

[Little Fool]

Got the 'deluxe' edition on CD today and really looking forward to listening. The back page of the packaging/cover has a diagonal slot which holds the disc but unfortunately the glue used to assemble the package was all over the disc so had to spend 10 minutes cleaning gum off the disc before I could play it. !!!!!!!!!!!
Initial thoughts are good, I will keep you posted.

[Deportee]

Got the 'deluxe' edition on CD today and really looking forward to listening. The back page of the packaging/cover has a diagonal slot which holds the disc but unfortunately the glue used to assemble the package was all over the disc so had to spend 10 minutes cleaning gum off the disc before I could play it. !!!!!!!!!!!
Initial thoughts are good, I will keep you posted.

So is the packaging (outwith your manufacturing defects) anything special that merits the hike for 3 extra tracks. Normally Deluxes are around £14 not £20 unless al la Paul Weller is in a sort of book format?

[Little Fool]

It's a 60 page pamphlet with a potted history of the collaboration plus photos plus all the lyrics, can't return the disc to the rear pouch though as the glue as leeched into the inner folds of the packaging.

[Little Fool]

Also, noticed your in Chippenham. I'm just a few miles down the A350 in North Dorset. !!!!

[Top balcony]

This tread has been a joy - thanks everyone

What's not a joy is my Wise Up Ghost purchasing experience. Despite UK release today I'm still on Countdown. Last week HMV Liverpool said they would be stocking today the vinyl and de-luxe CD both @£19.99. Willing to forgo the cheaper internet options, I asked them to reserve me one of each. "Sorry Sir can't do that" but we'll definitely have both in store on 16th Sept. Fast forward to today. Plenty of ordinary CDs around and WUG is even blasting out on the store's stereo. But, and it's a big BUT, only one LP in stock and they can't find it, yes they can't find it. And the de-luxes never even arrived.

Will try again tomorrow and then resort to t'interweb if I draw blanks.

Should have called this rant Wise Up HMV.

Colin Top Balcony

[Otis Westinghouse]

Thanks Connor for your immense amount of hard work compiling all this. A labour of love, I'm sure, but a very time-intensive one. I will keep the final index bookmarked forever and spend a lot more time than I've been able to of late. Even though I own pretty well almost all the released material and have a fair bit of unreleased stuff and bootlegs, you've posted stuff I didn't know existed, for example the cracking Attractions (that's a point, though, is it Bruce on bass still, can't recall) version of God give Me Strength. And all the video links. Well, I hope it all stays there forever. It's like a brilliant companion piece to all the Rhino reissues.

It's been fun seeing his entire output reviewed this way, even if I didn't open this thread till KOA. I'ver learned a lot of new things. It's made me realise there's quite a lot of later work that I haven't spent enough time with. It's also shown that oftentimes there's no accounting for taste!

[Neil.]

Yep, thanks, Connor, for your wonderful pieces! It's been a ball!

[Ymaginatif]

I REALLY enjoyed this.

Thanks for all the hard work

[cwr]

DAY 41: WISE UP GHOST AND OTHER SONGS

http://connorratliff.tumblr.com/post/61 ... -songs-day

Thanks, everybody! It's been fun! (I'll do one final post with all the links this evening...)

[invisible Pole]

This countdown has been immensely enjoyable and informative.
Thank you so much, Connor, for all the hard work you've put into this.

[jardine]

thanks Connor. loved it.

[sweetest punch]

Big thanks, Connor!!

[Deportee]

Also, noticed your in Chippenham. I'm just a few miles down the A350 in North Dorset. !!!!

Perhaps see you at next Bristol gig then. Hoping to pick up deluxe version at FOPP or Rise in Bristol tomorrow. So will probably be ordering it via amazon marketplace tomorrow night when I get back after the Kelly Joe Phelps gig!

[John]

What's not a joy is my Wise Up Ghost purchasing experience. Despite UK release today I'm still on Countdown. Last week HMV Liverpool said they would be stocking today the vinyl and de-luxe CD both @£19.99. Willing to forgo the cheaper internet options, I asked them to reserve me one of each. "Sorry Sir can't do that" but we'll definitely have both in store on 16th Sept. Fast forward to today. Plenty of ordinary CDs around and WUG is even blasting out on the store's stereo. But, and it's a big BUT, only one LP in stock and they can't find it, yes they can't find it. And the de-luxes never even arrived.

Will try again tomorrow and then resort to t'interweb if I draw blanks.

Should have called this rant Wise Up HMV.

Colin Top Balcony

Any luck Colin?

[cwr]

FINAL POST: A HANDY REFERENCE PAGE WITH LINKS TO ALL 41 OF THE 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO:

http://connorratliff.tumblr.com/post/61 ... to-wise-up

Thanks again for making this fun! I'm glad that so many people really got into talking about these albums and I hope it helped create a good feeling leading up to the new record. I know it made it fun for me.

Feel free to message me if you find any errors or if you ever notice a dead link in any of the posts. A few people would message me when there were typos (frequently, as I was often scrambling to finish these in the wee small hours of the morning) and it was always helpful to be able to correct them as quickly as possible. And I know I've already had to replace at least one link in an earlier post because the "Radio, Radio" I had linked to on YouTube got taken down...

Gonna go listen to Wise Up Ghost again now...

[Otis Westinghouse]

Saved to favourites and sure to be frequently referred to. Thanks again.

[Top balcony]

Should have called this rant Wise Up HMV.

Colin Top Balcony

Any luck Colin?

Halfway there. Now have the double LP from Fopp in Manchester, giving them and other physical record shops in Liverpool and Manchester till Friday before I go for the web, you've ordered from a virtual site, have they arrived yet?

Colin Top Balcony

PS thanks Connor for setting this tread up and everyone who's posted comments

[docinwestchester]

FINAL POST: A HANDY REFERENCE PAGE WITH LINKS TO ALL 41 OF THE 40 DAYS OF ELVIS COSTELLO:

http://connorratliff.tumblr.com/post/61 ... to-wise-up

Amazing job. This is a must-have reference for any fan of Elvis. Thanks for all your hard work.

P.S. Feel free to add a link to that drum corps version of Puck One to your Il Sogno page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA0H_NbBZfw