50 Songs For 50 Days - Elvis Costello's October Surprise

[sweetest punch]

No.15 - 20% Amnesia

“The wine you drink has never seen a grape
And now your sci-fi suit has lost its shape
But it's a dangerous game that comedy plays
Sometimes it tells you the truth, sometimes it delays it"

From “Brutal Youth” -

[sweetest punch]

No. 16 - Beyond Belief

“History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies the same defeats
Keep your finger on important issues
With crocodile tears and a pocketful of tissues”

From “Imperial Bedroom” -

[sulky lad]

No. 16 - Beyond Belief

“History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies the same defeats
Keep your finger on important issues
With crocodile tears and a pocketful of tissues”

From “Imperial Bedroom” -

Having just seen our beloved leader make a hash of his knowledge of the rules of lockdown in the North-East, how chilling are these words still even now!

[Top balcony]

our beloved leader

"... I'm just the oily slick ..." : Alexander Boris de Pfeffel to a tee

[sweetest punch]

No. 17 - Walk Us UPTOWN

“Will you walk us uptown
Will you gather us near
As cowards flee
And traitors sneer
Keep a red flag flying
Keep a blue flag as well
And a white flag in case
It all goes to hell”

From “Wise Up Ghost”

[jardine]

Is there only pain and hatred and misery? No.
Is all hope lost? No.

His lyrics decry the loss of hope, but only indirectly. I am so exhausted trying to provide the hope needed to withstand this onslaught of scenes pain, hatred and misery and see through the indirection.

His lyrics...these lyrics, over and over again, well, I don't know anymore. Is there only pain and hatred and misery?

[Hawksmoor]

I'm loving this whole thing, but my eyes are continually drawn back to this: 'recordings made between 1977 and 2020, including several that will be issued here for the first time'.

A third of the way in, the only track that would really qualify is' Shut Him Down'. Which is a fantastic track, don't get me wrong, but...was hoping for a few more previously unreleased nuggets...

[And No Coffee Table]

I'm loving this whole thing, but my eyes are continually drawn back to this: 'recordings made between 1977 and 2020, including several that will be issued here for the first time'.

A third of the way in, the only track that would really qualify is' Shut Him Down'. Which is a fantastic track, don't get me wrong, but...was hoping for a few more previously unreleased nuggets...

I think the previously unreleased tracks are going to be from Hey Clockface.

[fred darden]

He's only a third of the way through, patience young Paduan.

[sweetest punch]

No. 18 - The River In Reverse

“So count your blessings when they ask permission
To govern with money and superstition
They tell you it's all for your own protection
'Til you fear your own reflection
But the times are passing from illumination
Like bodies falling from a constellation
An uncivil war divides the nation”

From “The River In Reverse”

[Hawksmoor]

He's only a third of the way through, patience young Paduan.

But I don't want to be patient. I want everything NOW!

I think the previously unreleased tracks are going to be from Hey Clockface.

Suspect you are right. I just had a hankering, from the way he kicked off the initial announcement with lines from 'Blood and Hot Sauce', that we might get some solo home recordings of 'Face in the Crowd' songs. One can always live in hope.

[fred darden]

[bronxapostle]

And i am still hoping for the inclusion of THIS rarity.... even if he needs to use THIS take!!! Lyrically fitting i think and a great missing gem indeed.

https://youtu.be/cqY-kcbFoUg

[sweetest punch]

No. 19 - Welcome To The Working Week

“All of your family had to kill to survive
And they're still waiting for their big day to arrive
But if they knew how I felt, they'd bury me alive
Welcome to the working week”

From “My Aim Is True” -

[sweetest punch]

No. 20 - Riot Act

“Why do you talk such stupid nonsense?
When my mind could rest much easier
Instead of all this dumb-dumb insolence
I would be happier with amnesia”

From “Get Happy”

[sweetest punch]

No. 21 - The Other Side Of Summer

"The automatic gates close up between the shanties and the palace
The blowtorch amusements, the voodoo chalice
The pale pathetic promises that everybody swallows
A teenage girl is crying 'cause she don't look like a million dollars
So help her if you can
'Cause she don't seem to have the attention span”

From “Mighty Like A Rose”

[sweetest punch]

No. 22 - Wise Up GHOST

“Old woman living in a cardboard shoe
Lost so many souls, she don't know what to do
So, say your prayers 'cos down the stairs it's 1932
Wise Up Ghost”

From “Wise Up Ghost” -

[sweetest punch]

No. 23 - Phonographic Memory

"Ever since the U.S. Mint was sucked dry and spat out, bookworms paid for rare tomes with wheelbarrows full of banknotes, some of them worthless Confederate money, stashes of which had been secreted in the plinths of various toppled statues.

They bartered with it on a Mississippi square with the irony of victors.

None of it helped the healing."

B-side of “We Are All Cowards Now”

[fred darden]

Funny how this project lets me know how many days until the election without having to math too hard. Also, why in England is it maths, plural? Any of our cousins know the reason? Also in hospital, not in the hospital as we say here. Weird little linguistic differences.

[Hawksmoor]

Funny how this project lets me know how many days until the election without having to math too hard. Also, why in England is it maths, plural? Any of our cousins know the reason? Also in hospital, not in the hospital as we say here. Weird little linguistic differences.

Just those little linguistic corners that sometimes get knocked off in translation, I guess. Some English people would say that 'maths' is 'more correct' in as far as it's an abbreviation of 'mathematics'. Although the Head of [that subject] in a school where I once taught was quite pedantic about that, too. If you said 'so, in Year 8, the maths results were...' he would always interrupt to say 'well, the Year 8 results in mathematics were...'

[fred darden]

Thank you Mr moor

[sweetest punch]

No. 24 - Bedlam

“I’ve got this imaginary radio, and I'm punching up the dial
I've got the A.C. trained on the T.V. so it won't blow up in my eye
And everything that I thought fanciful and mocked as too extreme
Must be family entertainment here in the strange land of my dreams”

From “The Delivery Man”

[bronxapostle]

No. 24 - Bedlam

“I’ve got this imaginary radio, and I'm punching up the dial
I've got the A.C. trained on the T.V. so it won't blow up in my eye
And everything that I thought fanciful and mocked as too extreme
Must be family entertainment here in the strange land of my dreams”

From “The Delivery Man”

Bedlam should have appeared four days sooner for St. Francis of Assisi feast day October 4!

[sulky lad]

I always felt Elvis should re-write some alternate takes on hymns - Bedlam, Stations Of The Cross CCIU no 4 have obvious spiritual references but if Elvis out his mind to it he could revolutionise modern church music rather than done if the vapid charmless drivel that passes for so much of
modern church Muzak!

[verbal gymnastics]

As Elvis nearly said in 13 steps lead down - Just stop playing that modern church Muzak