Elvis Costello: Classic or Dud

And Elvis Costello, for that matter. I know it sounds funny, but I certainly hope I am more talented than EC, though I'm not sure that you could really be persuaded of that based solely on Melody Maker articles I wrote years ago. The point is, it's not very hard to write songs like Elvis Costello, the reason so few people do is that so few people want to. Torture a pun; look out of your window and watch some sexy girls walk past, contemplate how you're never going to screw them, get bitter then quickly write a bit more; doff your cap to dead guys who wrote better songs than you. I estimate it'd take you 40 minutes, an hour if you stop for two bottles of whisky.

That thing I wrote about EC - which Allan Jones ordered I rewrite and still never quite forgave me for - attributed that quote to Dave Lee Roth. I used it to make a further point: most music journalists like Elvis Costello because most music journalists think like Elvis Costello. I'm not sure that's true anymore, by the way. Increasingly, they all want to be bloody Lee & Herring, which is worse. No, worse still. Adam & Joe.

PS I once met Joe Strummer - during the summer of 1995, which I think he spent perpetually on E, and not long after that review was published. I was amazed when he recognized my name and told me he'd read the EC thing: "I tell you," he said, "I've been waiting 20 fucking years for someone to say that about that cunt..." I was never a punk or anything, but I felt quite proud.

I much prefer "Costello: he's so brilliant he's bad": the lookylikey idea is just clever-clever RoMo body-fascism (he said, crossly tugging his goatee and polishing his glasses), and will only fly if we get to apply it to everyone else as well.

Please tell me that isn't the "After Dark" in Laygate, South Shields???

That's abt 1/2 mile from where I sit now, typing thiz cobblerz, instead ov working. Christ....

x0x0

the virus circulates by dodgy mixtapes, calling on EVIL ITSELF:

DUF DUF DUF DUF 'witha cocaine,ectasy,marjuana,lsd - BRING THA NOIZE WHISTLE POSSE'

didnt elvis costello punch some full of it feminist and/or pop singer in the face one time?

he got in an argument with members of the stephen stills band which quickly escalated into a shouting match. apparently, he and bruce thomas were utterly shitfaced and wanted to say 'the worst thing they could possibly say', so ec said that ray charles was a 'blind, ignorant n*****' and proceeded to trash james brown and the whole of america in a similar manner. then bonnie bramlett decked him, and it erupted into a bar fight. ec is horribly contrite about it, says it was a huge mistake etc (see In The Fascist Bathroom, G Marcus)

-- David (huntsma...), May 25th, 2001.

David wins!

http://launch.yahoo.com/read/album.asp?contentID=7205

I still adore This Years Model (and My Aim Is True for the most part) and various songs from later periods (mainly for the melody - I dig a good part of Brutal Youth actually)...

I guess he qualifies as a dud Classic, meaning somebody who you can't truly hate on but doesn't offer much joy. A classic Dud is someone you love to hate, a band that's recorded career is basically worthless but you wouldn't want to live in a world without them (Kiss is a big one for me).

wow there are no less than THREE c/d threads for elvis.

anyway, November 8th, San Francisco, Great American Music Hall: Elvis Costello and Clover perform "my aim is true". sold out though and just found out about it so phooey.

EC: My new record is too expensive. Please don't buy it.

ha! i wouldn't mind hearing the show...but who pays for these kinds of things? the 1%?

This implies somebody would *want* to wash EC's guitar. I'm content to let it rot away.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, May 22, 2001

I find Costello to be mostly workmanlike and boring, although his has hit on a very small handful of classics in his career. I honestly can't stand his voice either. So aside from that very small handful of classics... Dud!

If on the other hand you should still want to hear and view the component parts of the above mentioned elaborate hoax, then those items will be available separately at a more affordable price in the New Year, assuming that you have not already obtained them by more unconventional means.

^^ Costello revealing the "inspiration" behind the 'Trust' album, there.

in case you were wondering it's $268

...for one CD, one DVD, and a 10" vinyl EP. His 5-disc live box with Steve Nieve costs less than half that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxardpBReQc

BTW, sort of like Prince, it's not really fair to count EC's prolific nature against him. He had a run of six or so classics in a row before he came anywhere close to dud. After that, sure, it's been hit or miss, but a couple in there have been classics, too.

well, Prince can sing though.

Man, that's a really scathing parody of Elvis that Nick Lowe's doing in that vid.

I mean, that is Nick, right?

xpost That's for sure! But EC's non-singing is no worse than one RZ's.

I mean, I love Prince, more than EC at his best, but even Prince's totally unimpeachable winning streak was almost exactly as long as EC's before things started going off the rails.

Is Nick Lowe the fuzzy red one or the puppet?

The grey haired guy hamming it up behind Elvis glasses (but seriously, I didn't realize Elvis had decided to give up on dye.

All the viral Sesame Street viral vids baffle me, because like, they NEVER ACTUALLY COUNT in this clip! The ratio of parent-baiting in-jokery to educational content is pretty overwhelming. Stop shouting "red 2" and do some basic addition already!

you gotta cool out a bit croup

please don't mistake my use of the exclamation point and all caps for anything more than bafflement.

How is he supposed to count if a monster ate his red 2?

maybe a verse about basic subtraction, unless "3 - 1 = 2" is a bit advanced for educational television these days

But there's no 2! It'd have to be a song about variables, but then they'd have to introduce letters into the mix.

maybe the point of the bit wasn't to be educational, how about that