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45 Days Of @ElvisCostello: a twitter megathread in anticipation of the Oct 12 release date of LOOK NOW, the new LP by Elvis Costello & The Imposters

This is either a bright idea or a brilliant mistake, but this is only, this is only, this is only the beginning...

I did something similar to this 5 years ago, in anticipation of EC & @theroots' Wise Up Ghost LP, on tumblr.

(You can still find all those posts if you look, although a lot of the YouTube links etc are now dead ends. It was 40 Days Of EC then, so for 2018 I'm upping it to 45.)

Mostly I will be going chronologically from the early years right up to the present, but it feels right to start out with Costello's 2002 song, "45."

Music Video directed by @jessebdylan

(There's an alternate "diner" version I can't find anywhere online)

Here's my 1st "hot take" of this megathread: IMHO the best version of "45" is still the debut performance on The Tonight Show w/@jayleno, from 1999.

I can't find the video anywhere, so here is the audio (in 2 tweets)

(Jay accidentally mispronounces @SteveNieve as "Steve Nevy.")

(Hopefully it won't be too annoying that I'm posting partial clips of songs or occasionally splitting them into segments that fit twitter's 140-second video clips.)

Part 2 of the 1999 live version of "45":

In most cases, I won't be posting full songs anyway, or full videos-- just enough to get the point across so this isn't 45 days of tweeting about music with no examples. When possible, I will try to link to full videos on Vevo or Spotify or whatever is most legit.

The hope is that, if you like something you hear within this thread, you will be inclined to seek it out on LP, CD or streaming somewhere. Costello's body of work was daunting when I started and has doubled since then, but it is a fun musical rabbit hole to fall down into.

And while I'm getting started, I should go ahead and apologize for all the many mistakes I am likely to make while tweeting this thread for the next 45 days. This is just something I'm doing for fun & I just know I'm gonna get stuff wrong. #AccidentsWillHappen

Before I go allllllll the way back to the beginning, I'll answer a question that people sometimes ask, which is if I can recommend a point of entry for Costello, whose discography now spans 4 decades and can be intimidating to approach...

First of all, my point of entry was his 1993 collaboration with The Brodsky Quartet, which is as unlikely a place to start as any. Put on a blindfold and pick one, flip a coin, or select the record whose cover art catches your eye.

(Give it at least 3 tries if using a random method, to guarantee that you don't accidentally veer to the most obscure or uncharacteristic corners of his back catalog. By choice #3, you are guaranteed to land on a solid pick.)

You can't go wrong w/chronological of course (we will get to that in this thread pretty soon & you can follow along-- we have 45 days, folks!) + there are also a lot of "best of" releases & compilations out there, all reasonably priced. And basically all of this is on streaming.

But there is one "best of" that I still think stands head & shoulders above the rest, and it is @ElvisCostello's lovingly compiled & annotated GIRLS +£÷GIRLS=$&GIRLS, which covers his first decade of records in deliberately, defiantly non-chronological order.

It jumps around but I think it really gives you a sense of who he is as a songwriter and recording artist. Basically, if you like this collection, you'll probably want to keep on exploring.

Also: it was released on vinyl, cassette and compact disc and each format has a slightly different track listing and running order. Did I mention that it was a 2-disc/2-tape/double LP?

I took the liberty of putting together a Spotify playlist, although it blends the song selections and running order so it's not a perfect approximation but you'll probably play it in shuffle mode anyway, right?

open.spotify.com/user/12854279/…

And here are the liner notes, albeit in less pleasing form than if you track down a physical copy, which of course I highly recommend...

elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php…

And yes, that collection only draws from the first decade. A lot of popular opinion regarding EC rates his early work more highly than the records that follow, I like much of his post-1986 output even better. (It just doesn't lends itself as gracefully to compilation.)

Also, while Costello has never directly explained the arithmetic of the compilation's title, he drew his inspiration playfully from the "other" Elvis:

OK, let's get started (he said, nearly 20 tweets in)-- for Day 1 of this megathread, we're going to start at the beginning, or actually a little bit before the beginning.

Here's EC's dad, Ross McManus, in a clip he showed off regularly when promoting his memoir a few years back:

Every time I see that clip, it brings to mind this music video from 1980. The apple did not fall far from the tree:

This LP from 1970 is something I originally assumed was put out after Declan MacManus adopted the name "Elvis Costello" but it's not a quick cash-in, it's a marker that the McManus family musical roots run deep

Of course, it has since been reissued in an edition which takes full advantage of the Elvis/Elvis connection! These aren't radical reinterpretations, but it's a nice record of Presley covers (available here at a very nice price: m.bear-family.com/item/353231343…)

1973: R. White's Lemonade "Secret Lemonade Drinker" advert with lead vocals by Ross McManus & backing vocals by young @ElvisCostello:

At this point, we are still several years ahead of his debut album, My Aim Is True. The early 1970s saw young Costello join the Liverpool band RUSTY. Amazingly, there are TAPES.

I'm not going to go into too much detail about Rusty, but you can read pretty much every available scrap of info about them here: elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php…

"Are You Afraid Of Your Children?" (Elvis Costello; home demo, November 1972)

"Love Is Like Everything" (Elvis Costello; home demo, November 1972)

"Warm House" - noted as Rusty's most crowd-pleasing original song (Elvis Costello; home demo, November 1972)

Smash cut to 2015: @ElvisCostello is touring to promote his memoir, and Rusty reunites in concert! And they open with their hit, "Warm House"!

(Full clip at: )

Another early demo that has survived is for the song "No Star", a melancholy number that EC revealed to audiences on his 2015 book tour.

@ecsongbysong has written more about this rare track than I ever could, so I will just link to that excellent site: ecsongbysong.com/2015/12/21/no-…

And that brings us to 1975 and Flip City, Costello's last band before turning pro.

The Flip City Demos have been widely circulated for decades, and include a mix of covers and early versions of familiar Costello songs. I first heard these on bootleg cassette in the mid-1990s.

You might have seen this recently unearthed clip of EC performing w/Flip City, demonstrating both his good taste in songs + his pre-punk fashion choices.

Here he is performing Holland/Dozier/Holland's "This Old Heart Of Mine."

(Full clip: )

The Amazing Rhythm Aces' "Third Rate Romance"

Fake Stiff Records label on this bootleg LP, playing an embryonic version of "Living In Paradise" which would later appear in souped-up form on his first Attractions album, 1978's This Year's Model...

The only officially released track from these demo sessions is the lovely EC original, "Imagination Is A Powerful Deceiver" which has graced multiple reissues of My Aim Is True and is easily the highlight of his Flip City recordings:

However, I do really enjoy this cover of @bobdylan's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door," which at the time was a relatively new Dylan song:

Side note to @google: stop identifying this song primarily as a Guns N' Roses song just because they recorded it for the fucking Days Of Thunder soundtrack.

"Radio Soul" the earlier, more optimistic version of what would later become the scathing "Radio, Radio":

"Exiled Road" - Costello singing with his thickest American accent on this one (as thick as the Cockney one he would put on a few years later in concert)

And if I had to bet money on any Costello song never being pulled out of obscurity for a one-off performance in concert, I think I would put all my money on "Baseball Heroes" which somehow seems off-brand even for an artist whose brief is that he can & will do any kind of song:

Dammit, caught an autocorrect typo 2 tweets up, but this thread is a frieght train that cannot turn back-- it's "Exiles Road" not "Exiled Road." #AccidentsWillHappen

And that's Day 1 of 45 (unless I think of something else from the "pre-professional" days.)

Tomorrow, Day 2: My Aim Is True

DAY 2: My Aim Is True!

This debut album opens with a masturbation reference and its lead track is over in less than 90 seconds, a perfect start.

@ElvisCostello recorded this LP on sick days and almost immediately became a sensation.

Released on July 22, 1977.

To be honest, it has always been hard for me to hear in this debut the raging "Angry Young Man" thing that was so immediately clear in his live appearances & the next album.

I hear a lot of humor on it & "Alison" alone seems to pull against that image

Looking at his first TV appearance, there is intensity, but also more tenderness than spite. And while about half of the album points the way towards the "Revenge & Guilt" character that would soon emerge, the other half paints a more nuanced picture.

Less than 6 months later, his legendary appearance on SNL, which would get him banned until 1989. A totally different energy. Part of that is his formation of The Attractions, obvsly, but it's all a part of his first big shape-shift. His MAIT "sound" was over almost instantly.

One of the strengths immediately on display is Costello's ability to take his record collection & make something new out of it. The sound of a song like "No Dancing" is instantly recognizable as a Phil Spector/Ronettes-style song without feeling like a pastiche or a rip-off:

Costello would get better & better at slipping in quotes/tips of the hat to other people's music. Occasionally it would be overt, almost like sampling; other times, he'd sneak in The Twilight Zone or Looney Tunes theme into a song & it would take a dozen listens to recognize it

I should give more context than I'm giving! EC got himself signed to Stiff Records on the strength of his demo tape. At one point, I think the plan was for him to do a "split" LP where he was on one side and the other side was Wreckless Eric.

Nick Lowe was kind of Stiff's "house producer." EC didn't have a band yet, so he was given the band Clover to record with. Huey Lewis was a member of Clover but wasn't part of the MAIT sessions, and parts of Clover would eventually become Huey Lewis & The News

FYI: Clover have made a new album & Costello sings a guest vocal on a new recording of one of their old songs, "Mr. Moon"!

(Right now, I think the record is only available at @MillValleyMusic)

Here's their recollection of their MAIT experience, from FB:
m.facebook.com/pages/category…

Here's a sample of EC's guest appearance. (About 45 seconds in, I think John McFee's guitar sounds almost exactly like it does on the original recording of "Alison.")

Costello's demos for MAIT are much folksier than the persona he would adopt & it was a savvy move on his part. This doesn't feel like the vibe one associates with London 1977.

(Flashing forward, this feels closer to 2009's "Sulphur To Sugarcane" & Prairie Home Companion)

So far, I am dwelling more on what I feel is the lighter side of MAIT, but that's just bc we will soon shift into the overtly darker and more ferocious energies. Some of these songs just sound like a good time (even though there is usually a bit of poison mixed in, lyrically)

Costello holds auditions for a backing band, hires @SteveNieve (keyboards) Pete Thomas (drums) & Bruce Thomas (bass) to become "The Attractions"

Here they are on Top Of The Pops in Sept 1977. (I believe this is lip syncing to a new live performance?)

Arguably the most significant song on MAIT wasn't even on the original LP release: "Watching The Detectives"

Steve Nieve's overdubs combined with some of Costello's most ominous, cinematic songwriting make this feel like the way forward.

Sinister & threatening, it felt like this song was closer to capturing the moment than songs like "Sneaky Feelings."

It's also a song that somehow never gets tiresome, no matter how many times it shows up in concert. This is partly to do with the way Costello never stops playing with the arrangement but mostly it has to do with the strength of the song. It was built to last.

It's a song that commands your attention, even if you've heard it a dozen times before. Those first lyrics just grab you by the collar and don't let go.

Costello was almost immediately covered by Linda Ronstadt; he was (by his own admission, later) rude & dismissive about her versions of his songs, while still cashing the checks. (That's his self-burn I'm paraphrasing.)

As much as the aggressive pose of the Angry Young Punk helped Costello make a big splash, it obscured a lot of his most compelling qualities. "Stranger In The House" was left off MAIT bc it was "too country." It was more fashionable to sneer than to be enthusiastic.

In those first few years, when Costello would drop the pose and reveal his true enthusiasms, it feels like it was done with a semi-aggressive stance: "yeah, I like Bacharach & David-- what's it to ya?"

Is there a song on this album that feels particularly "2018"?

"Waiting For The End Of The World" has felt timely before-- many times in the past 4 decades-- and yet it feels downright anthemic in the era of trump.

And that's Day 2 of 45!

Tomorrow, Day 3: This Year's Model

Here's an extraordinary early attempt at that record's opening track, from the MAIT sessions, the microphone levels set too "hot" to handle the fury of Steve Goulding's drumming:

Oh, one more thing! While I'm at it, I might as well post some useful links at the end of each of the 45 days, when possible.

Costello's 2001 liner notes:
elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php…

My Aim Is True [deluxe edition] on Spotify:
open.spotify.com/album/3d3I3Ppu…

Day 3: This Year's Model

His first LP w/The Attractions, so bursting w/confidence & skill that it makes his remarkable debut seem timid by comparison

I tend to think of this as the one EC album everyone agrees is perfect.

It's not even in my Top 5 & yet I agree: it is PERFECT.

Starting w/just his voice moments before the band comes crashing in "No Action" is a howling open wound of a song. "I don't wanna see you cuz I don't miss you that much" is as transparent a lie as I have ever heard in a song lyric & the whole thing is pure pain, in the best sense

The same song in concert-- unhinged & with The Attractions contributing backing vocals (something that would happen less often over time)

5/5/1978 - New Jersey
Full show at:

Released on March 17, 1978

Nick Lowe producing, although my sense is that the dynamic in-studio had already begun to evolve. This was no longer a guy calling in sick from his day job. He had his own band now & very specific ideas about what the record should sound like.

It was also 11 days instead of 3.

(I can't find the specific quote, but I recall hearing Nick Lowe talk about sometimes being baffled by unusual background vocals where EC would layer himself shouting out something that would end up sounding great once it was all put together)

One clear and admitted point of reference for the sound of This Year's Model was The Rolling Stones' Aftermath.

Costello later wrote: "'This Year's Girl' was pretty much an 'answer song' to the Rolling Stones' 'Stupid Girl' -- though my words were much less contemptuous."

While I can definitely hear the influence (especially in the bridge), the two songs in many ways couldn't be more different. Costello saves his contempt for the fashion scene & the way it uses up "this year's girl." There's just a lot more going on than in the Stones' song.

The opening line of "The Beat" is a direct quote of Cliff Richards' "Summer Holiday" although the similarities end there. While his public persona and the tone of the album leaned more toward coiled intensity, there is no question that Costello was having fun, at least musically

It's worth taking a moment to really LISTEN to how great The Attractions sound on this LP. This is a band that just got assembled, via auditions

They would be together for a decade, split up, reunite, fall apart again & now 2/3rds of them make up his current band, The Imposters

In addition to quoting Cliff Richards, Costello also references The Kinks' "See My Friends" with his "see your friends" backing vocals.

Lord knows how many musical references I'm *not* catching. The man was talking back to his entire record collection.

"Pump It Up" is part of a lineage of songs, I'll go through them now...

Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business"...

Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues"...

Moving past "Pump It Up" to The Escape Club's "Wild Wild West"...

And U2's "Get On Your Boots" (we will return to U2 paying homage to EC a couple more times in this thread...)

EC writes about this in his memoir (quoted here from Wikipedia):

Two songs were cut from the original U.S. release!

One was "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea" which was a hit single in the UK!

The other song cut from the original U.S. release is the album's closer, the anti-fascist "Night Rally."

The night before @realDonaldTrump was elected, Costello opened his concert with this song, making it my uncontested pick for the most "2018"-relevant song on the album...

Those 2 songs were replaced by "Radio, Radio" which was already notorious in the U.S. because of his on-air switch to playing it live on SNL.

(It had only been a few years since "Radio Soul," the earlier version which was a cheerful love letter to Radio!)

One of the most striking things about This Year's Model is that perhaps its best song -- and the song I think best encapsulates the "Revenge & Guilt" spirit of the LP as a whole -- wasn't even a single!

"Lipstick Vogue" captures The Attractions' frenzied brilliance perfectly:

EC, in 1989, wrote: "Here are the bones of it; the rhythms of the Metropolitan Line (on which it was written) colliding with a song by The Byrds called "I See You". I didn't mention this bit to Pete Thomas at the time, so what you hear is all his own work. I stand by every word."

One thing that is fun to note is that in a year's time, Costello went from having a song that his musicians referred to as "the one that sounds like a Byrds song" (Red Shoes) to a recording a Byrds-influenced song that sounds nothing like The Byrds.

On an unashamedly self-indulgent note (there's room for that in a 45-day twitter thread, right?) if you are ever in NYC on a Friday & come see The Stepfathers @ucbtny Hell's Kitchen, the song played just before we begin will be "Lipstick Vogue," always.

newyork.ucbtheatre.com/show/717

[There was one week when they changed the pre-show song to something else, and I swear it was the worst show we ever did. This song is magical, and it is exciting to hear it fill the theater before our show begins. Ok, no more talk about my improv group. Apologies!]

Costello on a Boston radio show in 1978 (Nick Lowe next to him) answering a question about some unpleasantness at an earlier gig. Almost any early interviews strike me as him trying to negotiate a certain shyness with an aggressive posture that was fashionable at that moment...

Here's @ElvisCostello trying to get the audience to stand up, and targeting one audience member in particular.

"He doesn't think I mean it."
"He doesn't think that I MEAN IT."

Finally, to close out This Year's Model (Day 3 of 45), here are some useful links...

Costello's liner notes from 2002:
elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php…

And the deluxe edition of the album on Spotify:
open.spotify.com/album/4KSxPj7L…

Plus some super 8mm film of a 1978 concert...

Plus, a few more concerts from 1978...

Day 4: Armed Forces

Three albums in and Costello returns with a third distinct sound, influenced by what they were listening to on the tour bus: ABBA, Bowie, Kraftwerk, Iggy Pop, etc.

It also opens with a telling confession: "Oh, I just don't know where to begin..."

Released January 5, 1979

This is an album spilling over with words and images, the overstimulation of touring America blending with a growing overconfidence & an out-of-control new lifestyle that often necessitated writing songs in code to cover his tracks. It also sounds GREAT

The opening track's original lyric was: "Accidents will happen / I only hit and run / I used to be your victim, now you’re not the only one"

The final lyric blurs things a bit: "Accidents will happen / We only hit and run / He used to be your victim, now you’re not the only one"

It was confessional songwriting until he mixed up the pronouns so you could no longer tell who was doing what to whom.

Also: this music video was made by @ajjankel & @mortorock2, who co-created Max Headroom!

While My Aim Is True was recorded in 3 days & This Year's Model went all the way to 11, Armed Forces was the result of a full 6 weeks in the studio.

Steve Nieve also clearly had a whole bunch of new synthesizer sounds to play with.

There is a lot of highly charged language on the album, sometimes delivered w/cheerfully contrasting music; the hit single "Oliver's Army" borrows musically from "Dancing Queen" but the subject matter ("visions of mercenaries & imperial armies around the world") is grim as hell

The album was aggressively anti-war while also clearly spoiling for a fight, and Costello makes so many Holocaust and Hitler references that it borders on being a concept album.

[Side note: I know almost nothing technical about music, but BT's galloping bass line here is fun]

Costello was in a provocative zone at this point, using language to shock in a post-Lenny Bruce, pre-South Park world. He pulls it off on the record, but there is a certain glibness he would avoid on every album after this one. (He was about to learn a big lesson the hard way.)

It's easy to read too much into this album in hindsight, to see glimpses that Costello's trajectory was steering him towards trouble...

"I am starting to function / In the usual way / Everything is so provocative/ Very very, temporary"

This album was an instant success; listen to any track on it & you'll get why. Sharp, smart, catchy, sly, with a pop energy that can't be beat.

Almost on cue, things took a bad turn.

From Costello's 2002 Armed Forces liner notes:

I don't have much to add to what's already been written about The Columbus Incident

Basically, EC & The A's ended up staying at the same Columbus Ohio Holiday Inn as Stephen Stills & his band

In the hotel bar, Costello tried to provoke an argument, and things turned ugly, fast

Costello, drunk & looking to make the most outrageously offensive remarks he could think of, ended up saying monstrous things about both Ray Charles & James Brown. He was looking to start a fight, and it worked: it didn't take long for it to escalate to a full-on bar brawl

Soon, word leaked to the media, and a disastrous press conference ensued.

The most complete write-up of these events can be found in this 1997 article from Uncut magazine, which features something close to a play-by-play of the entire unpleasant ordeal:
elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php…

Costello wrote in some detail about The Columbus Incident in his 2003 reissue of his 1980 album, Get Happy!!

It contained this postscript, detailing the way that the shame of the incident never fully goes away...

A few years later, promoting 1982's IbMePdErRoIoAmL, Costello spoke about a moment when Michael Jackson was recording in the next studio, and his regrets at how his drunken behavior in 1979 had come to define him in the eyes of many...

What seems clear in hindsight is that the Elvis Costello of '79 was heading for trouble, one way or another. If it hadn't been this, it likely would have been something else.

It was a humiliating way to learn a lesson, but it would have a huge effect on both his music & persona.

In 2013, when promoting Wise Up Ghost, his collaboration with The Roots, Costello revisited the topic that has followed him for more than 3 decades...

Now, nearly 40 full years since it happened, it is easier to view the incident as an aberration & to take Costello at his word in a way that a skeptical press & public couldn't back in 1979. It's also a cautionary tale, to be learned from-- especially in the age of social media.

And on that note, I'd like to cycle back to the LP, particularly its closing track.

The original UK edition ended with "Two Little Hitlers"-- not a political anthem, just a song about a bad relationship.

But the U.S. version-- now considered definitive-- ends with this:

Though Nick Lowe originally wrote "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love & Understanding?" as a tongue-in-cheek hippie anthem, Costello made it his own by channeling his fury into a totally sincere version.

It's a defiant cry for basic human decency, and it points the way forward

I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention Barney Bubbles' masterful sleeve design. BB was the in-house art director for Stiff Records and basically did all Costello-related graphics from MAIT to IbMePdErRoIoAmL. Everything he ever did was awesome.

I highly recommend picking up the book Reasons To Be Cheerful for a great look at Barney Bubbles' body of work.

And hey: I almost forgot this weird personal experience I had with the first copy of Armed Forces I ever bought.

It was 1993, I had *just* become a fan. I only owned The Juliet Letters, his recent album with The Brodsky Quartet.

I had borrowed my friend Jeff's entire Costello collection and copied it all onto cassette tapes, but all mixed up and out of order.

I was hooked, but had no idea what the chronology of his discography was.

And I was ready to start buying them on CD.

Rykodisc (Demon in the UK) was starting to reissue all of Costello's early albums on CD, with new liner notes and bonus tracks, beginning with a box set, "2 1/2 Years", which contained the first 3 albums plus the Live At El Mocambo concert on CD.

I snapped it up immediately.

My Aim Is True & This Year's Model sounded familiar and great, but when I played Armed Forces, it sounded unlike anything I had heard from Costello, on any of my cassettes.

Turns out Ryko had somehow mistakenly pressed a CD of gregorian chants onto a disc with this label!

It says something about Costello that I got a few minutes into the disc before I knew for sure that Armed Forces wasn't an album of gregorian chants.

I couldn't immediately rule it out as a possibility. He could still surprise us and release one, next year or the year after.

And that's the end of Day 4 of 45 Days Of Elvis Costello.

I'll close it out with this bit from the end of "Party Girl" where the music is quoting the end of Abbey Road:

And what the heck, a little snippet of Costello & The Attractions, live on TV in 1979...

Oh, and I almost forgot!

Costello's 2002 liner notes: elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php…

And the full album on Spotify:
open.spotify.com/album/3ZAHIjLd…

And, for good measure, the excellent Live At Hollywood High album on Spotify: open.spotify.com/album/6FMx94Hv…

Day 5: Get Happy!!

Ok, believe it or not, this is the first @ElvisCostello album that is definitely in my Costello Top 5.

It's 20 songs, with The Attractions once again totally changing their sound, this time to emulate more of a Stax/Motown R&B vibe.

Released February 15, 1980

I feel like Get Happy marks the beginning of Costello dropping the angry pose & revealing that he loves music

That might sound stupid bc the first 3 LPs are obvsly jam-packed w/musical allusions but the public persona disguised a lot of his enthusiasm

This 1980 @ElvisCostello TV commercial is tongue-in-cheek but also mostly tells the truth about Get Happy!!

I love the music videos that were filmed for Get Happy!! I love how ramshackle they are, how they seem to have been shot all at once, how not all of them were for songs that were singles! They capture the spirit of the LP really well.

"Love For Tender" (not a single):

And the DANCING!

Costello's revved-up version of "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down" was a perfect example of the new Costello. The intensity was still there, but he was no longer hiding his enthusiasms, he was celebrating them.

I actually heard EC's version of this song first, so I was stunned to discover how different the Sam & Dave original is

I can't emphasize this part enough: one of the best things about being a Costello fan is that he is constantly shining a light on the music that inspires him

Can you name the song he is referencing in the opening line of this song? It's obvious, but I didn't catch it for years!

"Possession" (another non-single!):

Some of Costello's nods are hiding in plain sight and it takes years before the penny drops.

More great dancing, and another lifted opening line! Do you know what it is?

(This song was used to great effect in a Sopranos episode where the FBI is trying to plant a bug in Tony's house. It also obvsly inspired the title to Nick Hornby's novel.)

The Supremes' "Some Things You Never Get Used To"!

(I'm kicking myself now that I forgot to mention yesterday how "Accidents Will Happen" quotes "You Keep Me Hangin' On"!)

It's amazing to me how many tracks on this record could've/should've been hit singles. "King Horse" should be one of Costello's most famous songs, not a deep cut!

Costello says that the guitar part in "King Horse" alludes to The Four Tops' "Reach Out (I'll Be There)" but I never would have caught the reference if he hadn't pointed it out.

Some songs veered so close to the songs that inspired them that Costello has compared it to sampling, as in this song, "Temptation":

Before I tweet out the answer, I'll double the mystery!

Here what Costello wrote about the song in the liner notes for GIRLS+₤÷GIRLS=$&GIRLS in 1989.

He has since REVEALED who the VERY FAMOUS ROCK STAR is/was...

Booker T. & The MG's: "Time Is Tight"

In concert, Steve Nieve would frequently segue into directly quoting this song during "Temptation" and you almost can't tell the difference!

I highly recommend tracking down this 2006 CD compilation of Booker T & The MGs, 15 tracks selected by @ElvisCostello + liner notes by him, too!

Or, for those of you without access to a CD player or disc drive, follow these links...

Liner notes by Costello: elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php…

The compilation on Spotify:
open.spotify.com/album/7dqek04x…

Oh, and who was the VERY FAMOUS ROCK STAR Costello originally wrote "Temptation" about?

"Who's this kid with his mumbo jumbo...?"

Backing up just a bit, to "High Fidelity"-- this whole LP started out closer to the vibe of Armed Forces, before EC thought better of repeating himself & reimagined the record entirely.

The original arrangement of this song was fashioned after Bowie's Station To Station:

Decades later, Costello would perform "High Fidelity" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon backed by @theroots, using the original, discarded arrangement (which The Roots' producer @StevenMandel remembered but Costello himself had forgotten...)

vimeo.com/58062946

Not to skip too far ahead, but this would lead to "High Fidelity"'s original riff becoming the base for Wise Up Ghost's "Cinco Minutos Con Vos" (which was itself a sort-of sequel to another Costello song we haven't arrived at yet!)

And we still haven't gotten through all of the music videos from Get Happy!!

"New Amsterdam" is a solo track! The Attractions attempted a fine version of it, but it couldn't match the feel of EC's demo.

I finally saw him perform this, at his most recent concert, in Amsterdam!

He threw in a quote-- as I have heard him do on MANY live concert recordings but never before at a show I was attending-- from The Beatles' "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away."

Costello recorded a cover of "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" in the early 90s, which came out first as a b-side & then on the now-out-of-print bonus disc for Kojak Variety. (While EC's main catalog is mostly available via streaming, lots of stuff is not currently "in print")

"Men Called Uncle" is another song from Get Happy!! that wasn't a single but oh man this song is wayyyyyyy too good to be a deep album cut:

Including not one but TWO cover songs on the LP was also indicative of EC pivoting from his angry persona to that of the guy who loved his record collection & knew how to channel that love into new music

"I Stand Accused" also felt somewhat related to his recent difficulties:

The Merseybeats' "I Stand Accused"

I don't have any interesting insights or trivia about "Clowntime Is Over" except to say that it is one of many performances on this record where The Attractions sound even more perfect than usual.

The one song that EC admits was directly inspired by his recent controversy is "Riot Act," which sounds like it was written as a farewell/potential escape hatch should this be the end of his career.

It would not be the last time he announced his retirement as a recording artist.

And the long, dark night of the soul that is the Riot Act solo demo:

It should be noted that the original release of Get Happy!! was 20 songs, its first CD reissue added 10 bonus tracks, and the Rhino reissue added 20 more, bringing the total to 50 TRACKS! 50!!!

Thankfully, this was not the beginning of the end, merely the end of the beginning.

There are some who lost interest at this point, just when things were starting to really get interesting...

To close out the day, I'll flash-forward a bit, to a 1982 performance of "King Horse" which begins with a The O'Jays' "Backstabbers"!

(Full clip at )

Costello would return to this song a couple of years ago, for the soundtrack to @vinylHBO starring my pal @GriffLightning of Amazon's The Tick, who dresses up once a month to play sidekick Watto in The George Lucas Talk Show at UCBNY. Small world, huh?

OK, that's Day 5 of 45 Days Of #ElvisCostello!

I'll close it out with EC's excellent 2003 liner notes:
elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php…

And the full album (but *not* the 50-track reissue) on Spotify:
open.spotify.com/album/38sLlYZ4…

One more thing: check out this lip syncing on Top Of The Pops for "Black & White World"! Costello doing everything possible to signal that he is not singing into that microphone.

An excerpt from EC's memoir talking about how dumb he thought this show was:
theguardian.com/music/2015/oct…

And here is that TOTP clip he writes about, where they have Costello flying around like Mary Martin:

The "Flying @ElvisCostello" GIF you didn't know you needed until now:

Day 6: Taking Liberties/Ten Bloody Marys & Ten How's Your Fathers

4 albums in & Costello already had enough b-sides & region-exclusive non-album singles to make up an entire LP.

TL was for the USA, 10BM&10HYF for the UK. Both collections are top tier Costello material!

Released November 1980

"Taking Liberties" was released in the US & Canada & contained a few essential album tracks that had been inexplicably left off of the US editions of This Year's Model & Armed Forces: "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea", "Night Rally" & "Sunday's Best."

Released (on cassette only) November 1980

"Ten Bloody Marys & Ten How's Your Fathers" was the UK equivalent but replaced those UK album tracks with tracks that were on the US LPs: "Watching The Detectives" "Radio Radio" & "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding."

Now, I believe all these tracks had all been released in both territories, if not on the album then as singles & b-sides. So my guess is that for Costello diehards, they already had these, just not on an LP...

The remaining tracks on both LP collections were 15 previously released non-album tracks (b-sides & singles) plus two previously unreleased tracks.

This was Costello's second 20-song LP of 1980.

Both collections open w/an outtake from the Armed Forces sessions, "Clean Money," that sounds more like This Year's Model.

It's an early draft of Get Happy!!'s "Love For Tender" & I really *wish* it had been licensed to be the theme music for #Ozark on @netflix.

#HappyLaborDay

"Tiny Steps" is a prime example of how @ElvisCostello often releases some of his best recordings as non-album tracks. This is as strong a track as anything on his first 4 LPs:

I always liked this track, but the @333books volume about Armed Forces by @humanfranklin made me appreciate it even more, especially pointing out to listen for how drummer Pete Thomas' playing is particularly inventive throughout:

From Costello's 1989 liner notes for GIRLS+₤÷GIRLS=$&GIRLS:

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Where The Woodbine Twineth" (SPOILER ALERT!)

Costello's winning streak as a pop songwriter was so strong by this point that he inadvertently gave away "Girls Talk" to Dave Edmunds, who had a massive hit with it.

EC's version:

Here's the Dave Edmunds hit version. (I've also heard a stellar live recording of @AimeeMann performing it at a Costello tribute concert.)

Costello wrote this song thinking of Dusty Springfield...

Two years later, Dusty Springfield recorded it!

Fun fact: future Imposters bass player Davey Faragher played on this track!

(As far as I can tell, it has only been played ONCE at an Imposters show, in 2012- and I can't tell if it was a full band performance or just EC & Steve!)

In some ways, the eclectic nature of these compilations strikes a new template that a great many future Costello albums (including his next one) will follow. While the first 4 LPs basically had 4 distinct styles, this one sometimes shifts completely from one track to the next...

Whether it was intentional or not, these records served as a sort of proof of concept that he could put a melancholy Rodgers & Hart cover on the same LP with a surf music pastiche or garage band number; he didn't have to conform to any one style, not even a little bit.

This solo demo recording is (I *think*) a fan favorite-- "Hoover Factory" -- I am basing on this on nothing more than that any time this song comes up in conversation with other Costello fans, everybody loves it, even though it is certainly at the obscure end of his catalog.

Costello called "Wednesday Week" "a two-part trifle in which insincere lovers put each other on something rotten" & said the 2nd half was a nod to @PaulMcCartney's WINGS.

That switch at the 1:15 mark transforms this from a Benny Hill rave-up to something far more tremendous:

"Getting Mighty Crowded" by Van McCoy almost made it onto Get Happy!! and would've fit right in on that record:

And here's Betty Everett's original:

Both collections close with the excellent EC solo track, "Ghost Train," a re-working of a song he had written with Allan Mayes back when he was in Rusty:

I have run past midnight for Day 6 due to Labor Day indiscipline, but if you think that's an outrage, just check out how angry "Bob Broad" was in his review of Taking Liberties for the Connecticut College Voice in September 1980!

(I wonder which round of expanded Costello reissues caused Bob Broad's head to explode?)

No liner notes to link to, but it is fun to point out that he sleeve note by Columbia Records VP Gregg Geller is mostly lifted from the sleeve note for the 1958 LP "Gene Vincent Record Date"!

The album is on Spotify, thankfully, so all these great songs remain "in print" in our current streaming music distopia.

(As we get deeper into his catalog, post-1987, a huge chunk of Costello's non-album material becomes harder to find...)

open.spotify.com/album/5h4pJfrT…

Day 7: Trust

Another LP that usually lands in my personal Costello Top 5, Trust borrows from the hodge podge/anything goes template of Taking Liberties, but w/all new songs.

If each of his first 4 LPs defied expectations, now he would switch things up from one track to the next

Released January 23, 1981

This was a mere two months after Taking Liberties & less than a year since Get Happy!!

Costello decribed Trust as"easily the most drug-influenced album of my career" & said that "it was completed close to a self-induced nervous collapse."

Alternate titles under consideration included "Cats & Dogs" and "More Songs About Fucking & Fighting."

Opening track "Clubland" was not a hit single, though it deserved to be, especially with this stylish & sinister music video directed by Barney Bubbles:

He has occasionally quoted snippets of George Benson's "On Broadway" when performing "Clubland" in concert, and it does feel like kind of a seedy answer song; here is The Drifters' version:

There are times when I am in absolutely no mood to listen to "Lovers Walk" and then there are times when simply no other song will do:

It is hard to beat Get Happy!! for deep album cuts that should've been hits or at least better known within Costello's body of work, but "You'll Never Be A Man" is among Trust's heavy hitters:

Costello has written that "You'll Never Be A Man" "borrowed some musical ideas from The Pretenders' "Brass In Pocket" and several other @ChrissieHynde songs."

I mean, in what world is "Pretty Words" a semi-obscure song in any songwriter's body of recorded work? For most artists, this would be among their top 10 most beloved songs. This is the danger of writing more than 700 of them, I suppose...

Also, this is a great Attractions album. I mean, that might sound stupid to say-- they almost always sound great-- but I feel like this record captures some of their best performances, including "Strict Time":

One thing that I find peculiar about Trust is that I like roughly half of its tracks significantly more than I like the other half & yet I can't name a single track I would want to cut from the album. Each one adds to the overall effect.

("Luxembourg" is among the lesser half)

And yet, "Luxembourg" adds a texture to Trust that adds to the overall effect of the LP. I'm not sure, given the choice, that I would want to replace it, even w/a superior song from the same sessions.

Here is an earlier demo version, "Seven O'Clock", written for Dr. Feelgood:

"Watch Your Step" is another non-hit single! But it's perfect! I mean, what more did people want?

Maybe it would've been a bigger hit if it had been released with this as its music video:

It is fascinating to hear how wrong the early versions of "Watch Your Step" were. Fun, but wrong!

Another early version that is super fun but also wrong:

The final, perfect version of "Watch Your Step" actually sounds a lot like Get Happy!!'s "Secondary Modern" to my ears:

But no song on TRUST is more perfect than its crown jewel, "New Lace Sleeves." Apparently this was a song he started writing when he was a teenager.

Another excellent music video directed by the great Barney Bubbles:

"From A Whisper To A Scream" is a fun little song that gets a big jolt from the presence of guest vocalist @GlennTilbrook from Squeeze (whose 1981 album, East Side Story, was co-produced by EC w/Trust co-producer @RogerBechirian!)

Costello returns the favor on that album, making a sneaky vocal cameo on "Tempted."

Oh, and in case you were wondering what the deal was w/the kid at the mixing board in the clip 2 tweets above, that performance was from the UK television show, "Jim'll Fix It" where kids make wishes & that kid's wish was to be a roadie

The animated intro is super creepy, and...

...of course if you've never heard of Jimmy Saville b4, he was a beloved TV host who was considered eccentric, then after he died in 2011 it was revealed that he was a predatory sex offender. He was knighted in 1990

Sorry for the shockingly dark side note, but that's the context

"Different Finger" is simultaneously one of the most minor tracks on Trust AND one of its most significant.

As a song, it is good but slight; however, its inclusion is almost brazen, a simple country song that probably doesn't "belong" with these other songs. Which is the point.

Costello has only played this song 4 times in 37 years, even though there have been many contexts in which it would've been appropriate, so he clearly likes it less than, say, "Indoor Fireworks" or "Poisoned Rose."

But its placement on Trust was a major statement.

[It also ended up serving as a bit of foreshadowing for his next album, but we'll get to that soon enough...]

"White Knuckles" is a brutal song which Costello said was "privately modeled on a couple of XTC records" but he kept that a secret from The Attractions to avoid risking "a rebellion."

UGH, I can't find the clip but I believe the lyric "He needs her like the axe needs the turkey" is a Preston Sturges line from The Lady Eve...

Costello's aggressive early persona & so many songs about bad relationships led some people to think his songs were misogynistic, but I think he is consistently taking sides against cruel & selfish men, even in many cases (cryptically) taking aim at his own infidelities

"Shot With His Own Gun" is just Costello with @SteveNieve on piano. It is artsy and theatrical, another place where the album is doing whatever it wants to, and another song that previews a certain slice of Costello's future ambitions. He won't be categorized.

"Fish 'N' Chip Paper" was Costello going after Britain's tabloid news culture, including the likes of Rupert Murdoch:

The album closes on an EC solo track, "Big Sister's Clothes" which is the first time he would write a song inspired by UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, but certainly not the last...

One thing I will continue to lament throughout this thread is that a lot of Costello's recordings are either out of print or remain unreleased.

The main stuff-- all the albums-- are all streaming. But interesting stuff like this Trust outtake are harder to find now:

This is the version of that song I found on YouTube:

I was lucky to become a Costello fan during the era when his back catalog was being splendidly reissued on CD

First, Demon/Rykodisc re-released the albums w/bonus tracks, then Rhino Records put out the all of the 1977-1996 albums w/entire 2nd discs filled with bonus material.

The albums from 1997-present have never been reissued in this way, largely because during that time the CD era ended and we are now in the weird era of streaming, and it's unclear whether any kind of archival program would be worth the trouble...

But fans who devoured all the bonus discs from 1977's My Aim Is True to 1996's All This Useless Beauty basically know that every record from Painted From Memory to Wise Up Ghost likely has a "phantom" 2nd disc's worth of quality bonus material that remains unreleased...

Here's another example of fun bonus material from Trust: for a brief period, Costello entertained the possibility that The Attractions might contribute some songs for the album. Steve Nieve wrote this one, which Costello attempted, but it didn't make the cut.

ACK! I should have mentioned this yesterday or the day before: somehow in 1980, The Attractions made their own album WITHOUT Costello, produced by @RogerBechirian!

The full album is on YouTube:

Another fun out-of-print Trust outtake, "Slow Down" by Larry Williams:

...and Larry Williams' original:

Costello, solo and in a melancholy mood, covering Cole Porter's "Love For Sale."

This at-the-time unreleased recording pointed not only towards his next LP, but also, the one after that...

And the same goes for his cover of one of the most depressing songs ever, "Gloomy Sunday":

I'll close out Day 7 of 45 with a bit of Costello appearing on Tom Snyder's Tomorrow Coast-To-Coast, presenting a humbler & more authentic persona to the public. He seems nervous, but genuine. It's an improvement:

As always, some useful links...

Elvis Costello's 2003 liner notes:
elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php…

The full album on Spotify:
open.spotify.com/album/2B6i9ZY0…

Day 8: "Almost Blue"

Elvis Costello & The Attractions go to Nashville to record an album of country standards with veteran producer Billy Sherrill.

Like perhaps a lot of people, I didn't "get" this album at first. It made no sense to me.

Eventually, it made *perfect* sense.

Released October 23, 1981

Adopting an aggressive, angry persona had gotten him some attention but also nearly destroyed his career, pretending to be something he wasn't

Recording a covers album of country songs was arguably the most authentically "punk rock" move he ever made

Looking back, this album is less of a surprise, given all the left turns Costello's recording career has made since 1981.

I have also seen Almost Blue given credit for helping pave the way for "alt country."

On its initial release, the LP came with this warning sticker:

It's hard to know what fans at the time might've made of Costello's previous attempts at country songs-- was "Stranger In The House" just a one-off, a genre exercise? Was "Different Finger" him showing off, a reminder that he could write all kinds of songs? Was he serious?

The promotional campaign for Almost Blue seemed intent on making it clear that this was not some kind of put-on, that this was a deeply felt record of some songs that meant a lot to him.

In the UK, the record gave Costello a big hit single with his cover of George Jones' "A Good Year For The Roses."

With the exception of the twins from The Shining glumly mouthing background vocals & Steve Nieve on violin, this video is pretty straightforward & sincere:

Any suspicions that Costello wasn't 100% genuine in his love for this music must've evaporated pretty quickly, I'm guessing; his thrill at performing with George Jones on this TV special (while suffering from the mumps) is impossible to mistake for anything else:

The South Bank Show did an episode about the making of Almost Blue which actually helped unlock the album's appeal. I liked the record on first listen, but seeing Costello's process, including his struggles with producer Billy Sherrill, actually made me enjoy it more...

It's fascinating to watch Costello being revaluated at a point when he had been a public figure for less than 5 years.

Back in the era of physical media, this doc would've made an excellent bonus DVD for a reissue of the album:

Costello seems intent on making this album almost as a kind of musical ambassador, showcasing a style of music that his audience might not otherwise seek out...

Here, Costello gives a kind of capsule history of how Nashville became the center of country music, and we are introduced to legendary producer Billy Sherrill (on his speedboat):

Costello has a preliminary meeting with Sherrill and then gets right down to recording, with Johnny Cash's "Cry, Cry, Cry" (which would not make the album until it was reissued with bonus tracks):

Interesting glimpses of Nashville circa 1981:

Billy Sherrill expressing his muted feelings about the project, and then displaying even less enthusiasm in the studio. Costello seems to be having fun, at this point:

I had forgotten what an emotional roller coaster this doc is: Costello, eager to impress the legendary Sherrill; Sherrill, sometimes expressing enthusiasm but guarded towards Costello & openly skeptical in the studio...

FASCINATING in-studio exchange between Sherrill & Costello.

Costello has commented that the doc makes Sherrill into the villain of the piece, and the editing of some of this does him no favors; the most enthusiastic he gets is when he says he hopes to "buy another boat!"

Sherrill's expressions in this montage are basically GIFs in a pre-GIF era.

I don't know how fair this montage is in terms of representing his disinterest in Costello singing George Jones, but my guess is that they wouldn't have cut it this way if it wasn't at least close.

Costello talks about his 2 favorite Sinatra albums, and his love for Hank Williams, and we see an unimpressed Billy Sherrill take in The Attractions' deconstruction of HW's "Why Don't You Love Me Like You Used To Do?"

Billy Sherrill "double bluffs" Costello & The Attractions by challenging them to double-track the entire take:

In this doc, Sherrill always seems to be in a better mood when he's on his boat than when he's in the studio

Two of the grimmest minutes of the whole film, as Costello & the band take in some local bar culture while he muses on guns, failure and Robert Altman's regionally unpopular film, Nashville:

More in-studio drama as Costello attempts an original song only to be met with Sherrill's passive-aggressive disapproval:

After hours, Costello and the band drown their sorrows and complain about Sherrill. Meanwhile, we cut back to Sherrill on his boat. Everybody has a different way of processing what's happening in the studio.

And then Sherrill is MIA:

Costello on Gram Parsons, one of the biggest influences on this album (with 2 of the 14 songs, just like George Jones):

Costello emoting like mad on Parsons' "I'm Your Toy" and excitedly discussing why he's satisfied with the take (his enthusiasm met with what seems like some mild resistence from Bruce and good-natured teasing from Pete.)

Sherrill: "We did so many tracks... I don't know what we've done, to tell you the truth."

Costello: "I got the 'sound' that I wanted."

Costello listening to the finished version of "Sweet Dreams":

After all the tensions of making the album, Costello finishes listening to "Sweet Dreams" looking satisfied, and closes on a pretty great story about the day the background singers completed "A Good Year For The Roses."

The film concludes with a one-off concert in Aberdeen, Scotland, with The Attractions and John McFee.

(Note that, as on the record, Costello reverted from "drunk" back to "loaded", per Billy Sherrill's correction)

Whoops! Costello isn't done talking! He has more thoughts, about sadness and self-destruction, edited in between songs:

And that's the end of the film! Directed by Peter Carr and the whole thing can be found in non-chopped-up form on YouTube:

And now, I'll alternate between some clips of Costello introducing the album tracks on a 1981 promotional LP with some clips of other artists' versions of the same songs...

"Why Don't You Love Me Like You Used To Do"

Costello opening the album like that is a kind of fake-out, as if to suggest that it's going to be an LP full of brutalized country classics.

Hank Williams' original:

The 2nd track, "Sweet Dreams", couldn't have been a bigger contrast to the way the record opens, with swelling strings and swooning background singers.

This is just two years since he was singing nervy, paranoid pop songs like "Two Little Hitlers" and "Goon Squad."

Patsy Cline's version:

"Success" is thematically not a million miles away from some of the songs on his previous records...

And future Costello collaborator Loretta Lynn's version:

Costello re-named Gram Parsons' song "I'm Your Toy" instead of keeping its less dignified original title.

Both Parsons tracks on this record are high points, Costello is well-suited to his songs as a singer...

The Flying Burrito Brothers' "Hot Burrito #1":

So much of Almost Blue is about Costello passing along what he (at some point) discovered to an audience he knows might otherwise be reluctant to hear it. "Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down" is exactly the kind of song I would've avoided as hokey C&W prior to hearing this version:

Merle Haggard's original version:

"Brown To Blue" is the first of the two George Jones tracks. It's no shock that the best songs on the album are songs of heartbreak, which has been Costello's most fruitful recurring theme over 4 decades.

Jones' original version:

Costello's love for George Jones will eventually lead to him recording a whole entire album's worth of demos that is among my favorite things EC has ever done. But we are many days away from that...

"Good Year For The Roses":

And Jones' original:

"Sittin' And Thinkin'":

Hearing Charlie Rich's original, it's easier to understand why Billy Sherrill was so resistant to Costello's re-working (even though I think both versions are good!)

Oops, I forgot that there are THREE George Jones songs, not two! This one was co-written by Lawton Williams, and Costello altered the title to reflect the UK spelling of "color."

"Colour Of The Blues":

And, once again, Jones' original version:

Costello covering Billy Sherrill's own "Too Far Gone." It's a good song, but after re-watching the 'making of' doc, I'm struck by how much Costello wanted Sherrill to appreciate what he was doing.

Tammy Wynette's version:

And Bobby "Blue" Bland's version:

"Honey Hush" by Lou Willie Turner. A change of pace after so many sad songs!

Big Joe Turner's version:

Maybe my favorite song on the album, largely due to @SteveNieve's gorgeous, fluid piano part. Costello & The Attractions nail it in one take. (This was the one we saw EC enthusing about in the doc, and he was right.)

The 2nd Gram Parsons track, "How Much I Lied":

Gram Parsons' original version:

I have gone wayyyyy past Day 8 for this one, and if I don't stop soon, Almost Blue will become a 2-day album and I will never catch up.

Here's the thing: the original LP is less than 35 minutes long.

The 2004 Rhino reissue bonus disc is more than TWICE that long. Seek it out.

If you like Almost Blue, the extras are worth seeking out, as they are NOT on streaming (though you MIGHT find them on YouTube.)

It's enough unique studio outtakes to make "Almost Blue Volume 2" plus basically a full live album.

What the hell, here are a few choice clips from the OOP bonus material.

A duet with Johnny Cash on "We Oughta Be Ashamed":

And another gem that didn't make the album, "Honky Tonk Girl":

Okay, that's Day 8 of 45 Days Of Elvis Costello. It was a long one, but worth it, I think. Almost Blue is a significant turning point in his disography.

Costello's 2004 liner notes:
elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php…

And the full album on Spotify:
open.spotify.com/album/6Y234kkX…

And a link to a playlist someone made of the original versions of the songs on Almost Blue:
open.spotify.com/user/danny_la_…

Day 9: IbMePdErRoIoAmL

Produced by the great @GeoffEmerick (of The Beatles) this was EC & The Attractions at their most ambitious.

Refreshed from his Nashville adventure, Costello newest batch of songs would have The New York Times comparing him to Cole Porter & George Gershwin

Released July 2, 1982

The easy/lazy comparison is to call this Costello's Sgt. Pepper & I actually don't think that's a bad point of reference. (At least, I can't think of a better one right now.)

Hiring Emerick, the thought of Pepper must have crossed his mind once or twice...

After EC had baffled many US listeners with Almost Blue, this New York Times profile made it seem as if Costello's new focus was The Great American Songbook (although only a couple of songs on IbMePdErRoIoAmL overtly leaned in that direction)

A promo LP, entitled "A Conversation With...... Elvis Costello" featured EC introducing each track, at length.

That seems like a good way to work through the album...

Costello's first spoken introduction is a full 10 minutes long, as he is not merely introducing the opening track but explaining the context of the entire album...

Costello talking about his & Emerick's shared ideas about how the record should sound...

More about Emerick's legendary career, and then he pivots to talking about the songs that were under consideration for IbMePdErRoIoAmL

Costello talks about the way the songs changed when he brought them into the studio, specifically "Beyond Belief":

And then, at last, he segues into the magnificent opening track, "Beyond Belief":

It's not hard to seek out the complete track elsewhere, but the chorus of "Beyond Belief" (which doesn't arrive until the very end of the song) is too good not to post.

Pete Thomas recorded his drum part in one take, while nursing a hangover.

The 2nd track, "Tears Before Bedtime" was originally tested out as a country song for Almost Blue, and basically rejected (on camera) by producer Billy Sherrill.

Here is that version:

Another early version of "Tears Before Bedtime," from the IbMePdErRoIoAmL sessions:

Costello introduces "Tears Before Bedtime":

"Tears Before Bedtime" was one of the first Costello tracks I ever heard. My friend Jeff, who would later loan me my first Costello CD, was putting this track on a mix tape and asked me to do the lettering on it because his handwriting is unreadable.

By the way, this song keeps evolving! The current arrangement, which premiered on tour with The Imposters two years ago, is my favorite:

Costello on "Shabby Doll": "it's one of those songs where the title needs to be repeated as many times as possible."

Costello talks about why the intro to "The Long Honeymoon" always makes him laugh, and how Sammy Cahn turned down the offer to write the lyrics for it:

"The Long Honeymoon" is one of those songs that every time I hear it, I think, "oh wow. this is a perfect song."

Costello talking about the development of "Man Out Of Time" as a song, and also about its inspiration...

More of Costello's 1982 thoughts leading into the stunning "Man Out Of Time":

It is fun to hear the early drafts of "Man Out Of Time" as it struggled to find its perfect, final shape:

There are so many directions the song could've gone in that would have led to it becoming a less majestic song than it ultimately turned out to be...

"Man Out Of Time" on Late Night With David @Letterman, 1982:

Costello talks about another one of IbMePdErRoIoAmL's perfect songs, "Almost Blue." (No relation to the previous album of the same title, except that it is a sad song.)

He also talks about wishing he could play the trumpet, and wishing that Chet Baker would sing this song:

"Almost Blue" is one of Costello's most-covered songs, and for good reason.

Costello would work with Chet Baker on the next album, but he wouldn't discover that Baker had added "Almost Blue" to his live repertoire until after his passing in 1988...

Costello talks about the musical evolution of "...And In Every Home":

Costello talking about all the "cheeky" musical references @SteveNieve snuck into his orchestral arrangement on "...And In Every Home":

Here is a rehearsal take of "...And In Every Home" from the session tape that Costello has said sounded a lot like Trust.

(This is clearly not the early "rocker" version he spoke of in the clip I posted above, but preparing for the orchestral album version.)

"It's better to live than to die young, y'know?" - Elvis Costello on "The Loved Ones."

For a great many years, this was one of the only album tracks he had never played live. (He eventually got around to playing it-- in 1996! He has since played it many times, apparently...)

"Human Hands" is "just a straightforward love song" according to Costello, who claims to have never written such a thing prior to this:

Can anyone identify the chord Costello plays on this song that "everybody said was completely wrong"?

"Kid About It" is a beautiful, sad song EC wrote on the morning after John Lennon's murder, although it isn't "about" that.

"Little Savage" is "sort of a love song, in spite of itself" says Costello:

Costello thinks most love songs are either desolate or "starry-eyed" and that "Little Savage" is for the people "stuck in the middle":

An earlier take on "Little Savage" sounds as if their might have been some alcohol involved at some point prior to its recording, or maybe it's was just exhaustion:

Costello talks about writing the music for "Boy With A Problem" and giving it to @chrisdifford to write the lyrics, then how The Attractions completed the backing track in Costello's absence:

...and how "Boy With A Problem" was a last-minute addition to the album that almost didn't make it!

"Pidgin English" is described by Costello as "a political song":

"Pidgin English" was also the first track to be fully completed during the process of making IbMePdErRoIoAmL:

Some fun details about how they figured out the "sound" of "Pidgin English" in the studio:

"A tongue-in-cheek sound effects record, with serious lyrics" - Costello, wrapping up his thoughts on "Pidgin English"

Some fascinating insight into Costello's approach to singing songs "in character," specifically the "creep" in "You Little Fool":

Costello has tended to criticize this song as a timid choice to be the single for such an adventurous album, but I've always thought "You Little Fool" was one of the most underrated pop songs in his catalog:

In the music video for "You Little Fool," Elvis & all three Attractions play supporting roles, some quite dramatically!

Who gives the best performance?

And the dramatic conclusion of the same video, with Elvis' big scene:

Elvis talks about the running order of the album:

Costello talks about "Town Cryer," "a proud song" to close out the album.

(He also talks about the insane alternate version which I will post in a minute.)

"I wanted it to sound like The Impressions, y'know? But obviously I can't sing as good as Curtis Mayfield." - Elvis Costello on "Town Cryer":

"The Attractions Go To Rio!" version of "Town Cryer," also known as the "Barry White Version." Recorded on a lark, released as a b-side. Imagine a version of IbMePdErRoIoAmL where this is the closing track:

Costello talks about coming up with the title, which at one point was going to be This Is A Revolution Of The Mind:

And how they finally landed on the title IbMePdErRoIoAmL (pronounced "Imperial Bedroom"):

My goodness, it is nearly 3:30am. This megathread was an insane idea that I am quickly falling behind on.

Thankfully not all of the days will be as content-heavy as the past two. The AB doc & the IB promo LP both involved a lot of dumb editing of clips on my phone.

A few more quick/fun things. Some of the b-sides will pop up on a compilation LP next week, so I'll stick to rarer finds here in the wee small hours of the morning...

Sing along with The Attractions' superb backing track for "Boy With A Problem":

The other performance from that 1982 Letterman episode: "Kid About It"

For headphones: my mix of "Beyond Belief" featuring its first draft, "The Land Of Give And Take," panned to one side with the LP version in the opposite ear.

(For the full track, go to: )

Also released in 1982, Elvis Costello's self-declared "worst song," the title track to the motion picture "Party Party."

(Truly, it isn't that bad. It's a catchy little number that EC has singled out for exclusion on nearly all of his deluxe expanded CD reissues.)

OK, that brings Day 9 of 45 Days Of Elvis Costello to a close, wayyyyyy too late/early...

As always, 2 useful links...

Costello's 2002 liner notes:
elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php…

The full LP on Spotify:
open.spotify.com/album/1pK8MLyj…

Oh, ALSO, to answer @ColumbiaRecords' question:

The answer is/was "yes."

Day 10: Punch The Clock

This album sometimes takes some heat, as it was Costello admittedly looking to score a hit.

Personally, I have always really loved Punch The Clock & see less of a distinction between the orchestral pop of IbMePdErRoIoAmL & the kind of record this is.

Released August 5, 1983

IbMePdErRoIoAmL had brought Costello a new level of critical acclaim, but no hit singles.

He brought in producers Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley to do their thing, and it worked.

Langer & Winstanley were the big UK hitmaking producers on a hot streak, but they also did make really good records. They were a smart choice.

Madness: "Our House"

Costello was acutely aware that a lack of chart success could lead to less freedom to do what he wanted, but as crass commercial pivots go, he was still picking people whose work he respected.

Dexys Midnight Runners: "Come On Eileen"

The thing that PTC is best known for is "Everyday I Write The Book," which was Costello's first Top 40 single in the US.

4 years ago, he was basically DONE in America, and now he had a single on the charts and it was a love song with a radio-friendly modern sound.

This song is probably the most 80s-sounding track on the record, but it clearly delivered exactly what Costello was looking for.

It is a shocking change of image to look at him here compared to just a few years prior.

ALSO: these Charles & Diana look-alikes were pretty swell.

The song began as a kind of Merseybeat spoof, Costello showing off how quickly he could write this kind of basic pop song. In recent years, this is often the arrangement he has favored when playing the song live:

He has also played it in medley with Nick Lowe's "When I Write The Book" a song which had already basically covered this territory with Rockpile in 1980:

On their way to figuring out how to turn it into a hit, they flirted with this reggae version:

The Attractions were augmented by The TKO Horns and Costello was supported vocally by backing singers Afrodiziak, and the recording process was more of a "building block" approach than the band was used to.

I think it's a fun sound:

It could be that my ears are broken, but apart from EIWTB, the rest of this album doesn't sound as characteristically "80s" as its reputation would suggest.

Here's an atypically upbeat song about marriage, with a lot of words:

"The Element Within Her" is another quick piece of pop fluff, but I have to say I am really glad that Costello made one album like this. He has made so many records that are explicitly avoiding being this, it's fun to hear him not fighting some of these pop impulses.

Two things, in "Charm School":

1) "a girl with a trick, and a man with a... calling"

2) "they say it's hell to finance, too, and I just want to romance you (do-do-do-do-do-do-do)"

This album is FUN.

I think "The Invisible Man" (a song which has its roots in Trust outtake "Twenty-five to Twelve" & the later outtake "Seconds Of Pleasure" which I failed to post in all the frenzy of tweets yesterday) is just about as fun a wordy pop song as Costello has ever written:

Honestly, this album is mostly remembered for the hit single and two "political" songs which I will get to in a minute, but it is absolutely loaded with deep cut album tracks which are catchy as hell and full of clever lyrics, like "Mouth Almighty":

"I had forgotten all about The Case Of The Three Pins" is one of my favorite opening lines to a song.

"King Of Thieves," yet another terrific obscure song on this record:

"Love Went Mad" was a song Costello didn't think much of, and he came close to swapping it for another song after PTC's original release, but the line "I wish you luck with a capital F" feels particularly mischievous for a 1983 pop album:

"Heathen Town" is the song that almost took its place, a fun song that quotes from Guys & Dolls:

"Sit Down, You're Rockin' The Boat"

("and the devil will drag you under")

Ok, now to the 2 "political" songs that gave this pop album a certain edge.

"Shipbuilding" is a song that Clive Langer wrote the music for & then Costello wrote lyrics, originally for Robert Wyatt. It is a devastatingly sad anti-war ballad inspired by The Falklands War:

Costello's version for PTC added a beautiful trumpet part played by Chet Baker:

The other political song was "Pills & Soap" -- first released as a single under a pseudonym, The Imposter.

It was a rush-released protest song that made no difference in thwarting Thatcherism, but it did get to #16 in the UK pop charts...

Costello:

The BBC freaked out that the song's political content might violate "fairness" rules during an election but Costello got away with it by saying the song was about "man's abuse of animals."

Costello has cited Grandmaster Flash's "The Message" as his inspiration for the style of the song:

Barney Bubbles' proposed album design for PTC was rejected in favor of the more conventional version they went with. (He committed suicide in November 1983.)

Bubbles was such a key part of the "look" of every Costello release prior to this. (Things would be very hit-or-miss for EC, design-wise, from this point on...)

Also in 1983: Costello accepts an invitation to appear on a Count Basie TV special, only to blow out his voice in concert the night before. Unwilling to back down from the chance to perform with this legendary band, he soldiers on and suffers the consequences...

Costello looks SO nervous dueting with Tony Bennett-- oozing casual confidence and swagger-- that it is almost hard to watch:

I would only post that clip knowing I could immediately flash-forward 11 years to Costello's guest appearance on Tony Bennett's MTV Unplugged.

Costello still seems (charmingly) a little nervous, but he nails it. (He's a better singer in 1994 than he was in 1983, inspiringly.)

Another fun thing from 1983, Costello's guesting with Madness on their song, "Tomorrow's Just Another Day."

Here's a live performance:

And the excellent studio recording, which I believe came out as a Madness b-side:

Costello in concert, adding The Beat's "Stand Down Margaret" after playing his own "Big Sister's Clothes":

The Beat (aka "The English Beat"):

If you like Punch The Clock-- or even maybe more so if you don't-- it is really worth seeking out the Rhino Records 2-disc reissue. Costello's solo demos are a totally different take on the same material, minus the Langer/Winstanley production sheen:

Some of the songs sound so completely different in these acoustic demos, it really is a ter

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Connor Ratliff