Elvis Costello Fan Forum

martinfoyle wrote:"... We also found this great song called ‘Baby Pictures’ –it’s a completely unknown song in the vein of Madness"

That description doesn't fit with the version he played solo around 1981 - perhaps they've found a band version?

Bring it on

Hoover Factory - so simple and elegant
Upon a Veil of Midnight Blue - almost poetry

kazaa - the file sharing network (son of napster?)

You Turned To Me is now out there in Kazaa land!

Are there polar bears in the cobbled streets of Liverpool?

bambooneedle wrote:ReadyToHearThe Worst, so he played Pills And Soap solo on TotP... on guitar, or piano? (did search, no mention of piano but thought I'd ask)

I'm pretty sure that he stood alone and mimed, no instruments to be seen (but my memory is no longer what I remember it to have been, so I could be wrong).

I recently read the story about how they rushed to record it (almost sure it had to do with Thatcher and The Falklands) and release it as a single immediately (just a few days, from conception to release) ..." If I remember it right, Pills & Soap was released during a general election. The...

Cope,
Difford supported EC&I on the UK leg of the WIWC tour, and Tilbrook has toured solo in the UK recently.

I believe both appeared at Glastonbury, though not together

Spooky,
Tempted is indeed a gem, all the more so because of the cameo vocal by EC

Cope, You're opening up a subject worthy of a thread of it's own - EC's musical quotes/ borrowings/ steals from other records. Two obvious keyboard steals are Temptation (Time is Tight) and Poor Fractured Atlas (Moonlight Sonata (?) or Past, Present & Future). I know there are numerous other exa...

Many a time and oft have I been enticed to exchange my pocket money for a long player on the strength of one great song, only to find that that one song is all that I ever play. For example: Forever Changes by Love Alone again or is a marvellous slice of the Summer of Love, but the album is a differ...

Watching a documentary about the Great Fire of London I heard 'Come away death' in the background - very affecting!

The lyrics are a little more direct than on other EC albums, and some of the melodies are fabulous, and Burt's arrangements are very classy!

Overall, it's closer to a Bacharach album than an Elvis.

Another source of images is Ebay - kind vendors (sometimes) include quality jpegs of the posters, CDs etc they want to sell.

45 : Valerie - The Monkees; then a few years later
33.33333 : Fog on the Tyne - Lindisfarne (my 1st album!).

In a similar vein, I once saw a CD titled "Elvis' Dad Sings Elvis" which turned out to be MacManus Sr singing "Blue Suede Shoes" etc. It was going cheap (surprise surprise) and I was tempted - but I decided that that might be construed as taking this obsession too far!

The unwary can easily get ripped off when hugely diparate prices are on offer - take the new Harry Potter for example.

You can pick it up in any supermarket here in the UK for less than £10, yet today's papers have ads offering a 'special' mail order price of £13.99 + p&p!

I've just realised that this is the film that inspired 'Town called Big Nothing' and 'Return to Big Nothing', credited to 'The MacManus Gang' and included on the Ryko reissue of Blood & Chocolate.

Strangely, they weren't on the Rhino resissue - wonder when they will reappear?

But, how can you stand an albums worth of that awful singing? I can only ever listen to a couple of songs then I have to switch it off - which is a shame 'cos otherwise the music is tremendous!

From zero to three, and so quickly! EC puts on a great show whatever the format. The Imposters are a great band, and of course SN is a wizard. The EC+SN shows are more 'intimate', even in a large venue. I especially like the 'unplugged' (i.e. no mic) version of Coudn't Call it Unexpected - if he doe...

This is a close call - they're both excellent songs. However, I've voted for Watching the Detectives because that was the song that got into EC in the first place!

Otis Westinghouse wrote: ... And he's a big Costello fan.

Amongst their many, often oddball, live covers there's a fine version of 'I'll wear it proudly'.

Wonder if Elvis would appreciate it if someone murdered Party Party?

... and George Washington? Surely he's a terrorist! ...

I suspect he means The Kinks, they were extremely prolific back then.