Bulldog

Good lad Hope you like it - definitely some great songs on this one.

As for Flowers In the Dirt, I haven't listened to it in its entirety for years. I remember getting a very mixed bag kinda vibe from it when I did, as in I'd keep listening and coming back to songs like My Brave Face, You Want Her Too and Distractions rather than the whole album. As I say, it's been years since I last gave it a proper go, so it could yet show its face in the second chance saloon.

Bulldog

Another fabulous bootleg from the Painted From Memory tour of '98. As such, seeing as it was touring the album-length collaboration between both songwriters, the setlist is comprised of originals from that album and a few oldies from Costello and the Burt Bacharach/Hal David back catalogues. Basically, if you think Costello can't sing, check out this bootleg.

Here's a quick teaser - probably my favourite rendition of a song made particularly famous by Arthur Lee's Love...




^ Pic's the link. Enjoy!

Might be one or two more of these coming over the next week or so too.

Bulldog

While I'm in the process of thinking of another sweet bootleg for anyone interested to wrap their laughing gear around, I'm gonna add to the whole odds and sods bit of this thread which I haven't added to in quite a long time.

Before I get to that, let's just get a little bit of context going. Basically, in a fairly large discography with quite a few albums that get my stamp of biased recommendation, there are four albums I'll always have down as the wall-to-wall, 10/10 classics that I think more people really should know about. These are 1980's Get Happy, 1981's Trust, 1982's Imperial Bedroom and 1989's Spike. If, say, I fed my pet mogwais after midnight and could only save one of those from their path of post-metamorphosis, gremlin-oriented destruction, it'd be either of the latter two (back when I was thinking about top album lists, it was pretty hard to pick between them). I won't go into detail as I can't really be bothered to but, cutting a slightly longer story short, Spike is a hell of an album. Difficult, sure, and fairly hard to truly love, what with its being the kind of album it is. Just flick to the front of this thread if you like and you'll find the review hotlinked there.

What's important here, though, is that the below bunch of videos make for a very interesting watch if you've either already got the album, are a bit on the curious side about it or just want a distant kinda glimpse of how a professional solo songwriter writes songs. Below is a promotional set of interviews about Spike and some pretty cool, solo acoustic performances of about half of the album. Definitely worth a watch if you have even the slightest interest in the guy and have about 50 minutes to spare. If not (I won't sugarcoat it), you may as well go and watch some paint dry or something.

Either way, here it is - Everything About Spike. One or two more bootlegs are on the way as well before I leave this thread alone for a few more months...


YouTube - Elvis Costello - Everything About Spike Part 2 of 6
YouTube - Elvis Costello - Everything About Spike Part 3 of 6
YouTube - Elvis Costello - Everything About Spike Part 4 of 6
YouTube - Elvis Costello - Everything About Spike Part 5 of 6
YouTube - Elvis Costello - Everything About Spike Part 6 of 6

tgpo

How about a Taking Liberties review?

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Bulldog

I haven't got the album itself, but I've got all the tracks that are on it in some shape or form, so you're on

I'll have the review up within the week.

tgpo

Taking Liberties is definitly quality. It's the classic New Wave sound that I love.

PS, I've used your guide as my purchasing guide for Costello. I'm up to 14 albums (13 vinyl, 1 CD) and loving it. Thanks!

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Bulldog

Yeah, a couple of the songs off it are among my favourite Costello songs, namely Crawling To the USA and Getting Mighty Crowded. Most of the rest of the tracklisting's pretty great too by the look of it - looking forward to getting an hour or two to myself and getting this one done.

Great to know the thread's doing you good as well -as I've said before, when I do thread's like this it's not for my benefit. If you have any particular favourites, feel free to stick a guest review in this thread if you like (goes for anyone else too).

mazymay

Since it was never released on CD (only God knows why...), I once spent $100 to have the VHS of EC/Bacharach Sessions At West 54th transferred to CD. One day last year I was burning yet another copy for a friend, and 3 songs (in the middle somewhere) wouldn't burn...and subsequently wouldn't play on my stereo either.

I've been searching for another complete copy ever since with no luck, and couldn't help but notice that 3 Bacharach/David songs (My Little Red Book, Anyone Who Had A Heart [the BEST recorded version EVER!], Breaking Up Is Hard To Do) and the finale (a reprise of Painted From Memory) are missing from your EC/Bacharach Sessions At West 54th VHS audio upload.

Just thought I'd put a pitch in for the complete gig.

LOVE The Bulldog!

Bulldog

Yeah, I did a bit more research on it after I first got hold of the bootleg (there's a really good site that has a catalogue of Costello's entire bootleg library library - the name of it escapes me at the minute), and there are a few names missing from the copy I ended up getting. It's basically the reason I decided to hunt down the other Bacharach/Costello bootleg I linked a few posts above this one. No sign of breaking up is hard to do on that though. If I can find the missing tracks (I've got a mate who might know where I can), I'll re-upload the bootleg.

Also, in coming back to this thread, I just remembered that I posted this...

^ So much for that happening eh. It's coming, I promise. I've just got a few things needing taking care of first...

tgpo

FYI Bulldog, this is all your fault. My wife holds you responsible Twitpic - Share photos on Twitter

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