The Songs of Bacharach & Costello: collection based on Painted From Memory, March 3, 2023

Pretty self-explanatory
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sweetest punch
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The Songs of Bacharach & Costello: collection based on Painted From Memory, March 3, 2023

Post by sweetest punch »

EC also announced this new compilation ( https://www.billboard.com/articles/colu ... -interview ), therefore this separate thread.

Punch the 'Clockface': Elvis Costello On Making Albums In a Streaming World

The legend's new album sounds both current and timeless — and he’s looking back at his catalog, too.

(...)

Are you going to do that with all of your albums?

If we can. Right now, it’s in everybody’s interest to let me do it the way I’m seeing it.

I can’t be certain when I’ll set foot on the stage again; or, frankly, whether the audience that largely comes to see me — who are inevitably more of my generation — will ever want to come to a theater again. So in the interim, I want to take the music I recorded some time ago and present it in a way that’s as exciting as it was when we first released it.

We’ve done a new version of one of the albums from my catalog, and that’s going to come out next April. And we’re making a compilation based on [Costello’s 1998 album with Burt Bacharach] Painted from Memory, in the hope that we’ll complete the picture with some other songs we’ve written that people still haven’t heard.
Last edited by sweetest punch on Wed Jan 11, 2023 2:56 pm, edited 8 times in total.
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Hawksmoor
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Re: New compilation, based on Painted From Memory

Post by Hawksmoor »

I'm excited to hear this, but also intrigued to wonder what format it will take, given that he's describing it as a 'compilation'. The existing PFM with a bonus disc of the new songs? A selection of the tracks on the existing PFM interwoven with the new songs to form some kind of narrative sequence?
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Re: New compilation, based on Painted From Memory

Post by Man out of Time »

Also this thread: New Elvis/Burt Bacharach songs!!

As noted by ANCT in 2014, 10 new Bacharach/MacManus songs were registered on ASCAP :

DON'T LOOK NOW (Work ID: 886324240) - included on Look Now, 2018
EVERYONE'S PLAYING HOUSE (Work ID: 886324275) - included on the Purse EP, 2019
HE'S GIVEN ME THINGS (Work ID: 886324374) - included on Look Now, 2018
I LOOKED AWAY (Work ID: 886324406)
I'VE ALWAYS HAD MEN (Work ID: 886324414)
LOOK UP AGAIN (Work ID: 886324539)
PHOTOGRAPHS CAN LIE (Work ID: 886324695) - included on Look Now, 2018
SHAMELESS (Work ID: 886324806)
TAKEN FROM LIFE (Work ID: 886324880)
YOU CAN HAVE HER (Work ID: 886325003)

Four have been released so far (as indicated above), which still leaves another six for any "compilation" - if these are indeed part of the PFM musical narrative.

MOOT
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Re: New compilation, based on Painted From Memory

Post by Hawksmoor »

Man out of Time wrote:Also this thread: New Elvis/Burt Bacharach songs!!

As noted by ANCT in 2014, 10 new Bacharach/MacManus songs were registered on ASCAP :

DON'T LOOK NOW (Work ID: 886324240) - included on Look Now, 2018
EVERYONE'S PLAYING HOUSE (Work ID: 886324275) - included on the Purse EP, 2019
HE'S GIVEN ME THINGS (Work ID: 886324374) - included on Look Now, 2018
I LOOKED AWAY (Work ID: 886324406)
I'VE ALWAYS HAD MEN (Work ID: 886324414)
LOOK UP AGAIN (Work ID: 886324539)
PHOTOGRAPHS CAN LIE (Work ID: 886324695) - included on Look Now, 2018
SHAMELESS (Work ID: 886324806)
TAKEN FROM LIFE (Work ID: 886324880)
YOU CAN HAVE HER (Work ID: 886325003)

Four have been released so far (as indicated above), which still leaves another six for any "compilation" - if these are indeed part of the PFM musical narrative.

MOOT
Interesting. I'll be honest, stage musicals are a long way down my musical radar, so I have no idea how many songs one would normally include in such a production?
sweetest punch
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Re: New compilation, based on Painted From Memory

Post by sweetest punch »

Elvis and / or Burt have told in earlier interviews that about 7 or 8 songs from the PFM album were considered for the musical.
We have then these 10 new co-written songs.
Elvis said also that Stripping Paper and Why Won’t Heaven Help Me were written for the musical.
So we have maybe 20 songs in total.
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
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Re: New compilation, based on Painted From Memory

Post by sweetest punch »

https://www.google.be/amp/s/www.washing ... utType=amp

(...)

Q: Also, she's Elvis Costello's wife. Do you think you guys might work with him again?
A: Yeah, we talked about it. I’m very proud of the album we did [“Painted From Memory”]. That was a real collaboration.
Q: I don't know how easy the album was for you both, but it felt like you got the best of each other.
A: We did. I am totally proud of the work that we did. I’m totally proud of the work that I did. I like the orchestrations that I wrote. And it’s brilliant. It was a record that just came out at the wrong time. As the record came out, the record company went under.

(...)
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
sweetest punch
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Re: New compilation, based on Painted From Memory

Post by sweetest punch »

Seems like the recordings went well:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUd6uTFlrjt ... =copy_link

Burt Bacharach: Have some exciting things to share soon. Thanks to everyone for being apart of yesterday. All star cast including, Will Lee, Jim Cox, Elvis Costello, Peter Eskrine, Vince Mendoza and orchestra


Will Lee: bassist
Jim Cox: keyboard player
Peter Erskine: drummer
Vince Mendoza: music arranger, conductor, composer
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Re: New compilation, based on Painted From Memory

Post by And No Coffee Table »

From EC's appearance on Conan O'Brien's podcast:

"Two days ago I was at Capitol Studios a mile from here with a 30-piece orchestra and a rhythm section cutting two songs I wrote with Burt Bacharach with Burt in the studio. Now, you know, work out the arithmetic. I mean, he won't mind me saying he's 93 this year. And by the end of the day I was completely exhausted from the intensity of singing those songs, trying to do my best singing live in the booth with the 30-piece orchestra being conducted by Vince Mendoza with a really incredible rhythm section, and watching Burt stand up at the board and then go, "Bar 61, we've got to get that down beat. Elvis, you're not singing the melody right at bar 12," you know. And by the end of the day we had these two beautiful songs we're going to issue next year as part of a package celebrating the — it'll be 21 years since Painted From Memory came out next year. And I thought everything I ever wanted to be as a songwriter is embodied in being the lyricist for two Burt Bacharach songs realized at this level, like at the highest possible level with musicians who are totally committed to the job in hand, and at the end of the day when he came in to thank them, stood up and gave him a standing ovation. And I mean that's about as emotional an experience as I've had in a studio."

(But next year will be 24 years since Painted From Memory came out.)
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Re: New compilation, based on Painted From Memory

Post by bronxapostle »

Yes...I immediately caught that miscount too ANCT.
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Re: New compilation, based on Painted From Memory

Post by Hawksmoor »

And No Coffee Table wrote:From EC's appearance on Conan O'Brien's podcast:

"And by the end of the day we had these two beautiful songs we're going to issue next year as part of a package celebrating the — it'll be 21 years since Painted From Memory came out next year."
Don't want to be churlish here (although that seems to be my mood today) but...I'll buy this as soon as it comes out, of course, because...because, because, because. That's what we do.

But if this is going to be an 'expanded' or 'deluxe' reissue or whatever, it's presumably going to be two discs, with an attractively coloured cardboard box and all that carry-on. Can't see that slipping in for much less than £20-£25.

So I do hope that for my £25, I can look forward to more than two new songs on this package!
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Re: New compilation / package, based on Painted From Memory, 2022

Post by Dr. Luther »

So -- a Painted from Memory expanded edition would have to include the Royal Festival Hall show from '98, wouldn't it? It's a great recording, and a wonderful performance.

http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... -29_London
Last edited by Dr. Luther on Mon Nov 01, 2021 1:37 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: New compilation / package, based on Painted From Memory, 2022

Post by sweetest punch »

Dr. Luther wrote:So -- a Painted from Memory expanded edition would have to include the Royal Festival Hall show from '98, wouldn't it?
It's a great recording, and a wonderful performance.


http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... -29_London
Hoping for a big reissue, containing:
- the new version of PFM
- demos / outtakes
- live-album with Burt Bacharach and Orchestra (1998)
- live-album with Steve Nieve (1999)
- DVD / Blu-ray with the Elvis songs from “One Amazing Night ( http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... zing_Night ), the complete “Sessions at West 54th” ( http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... th_(video) ) and the documentary “Because It’s A Lonely World”
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Re: New compilation / package, based on Painted From Memory, 2022

Post by Dr. Luther »

OK. Now we're talking.
That would be fantastic.

(I've never understood why Sessions at West 54th Street just kinda fell off the face of the earth. Liscensing?)
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Re: New compilation / package, based on Painted From Memory, 2022

Post by sulky lad »

Dr. Luther wrote:So -- a Painted from Memory expanded edition would have to include the Royal Festival Hall show from '98, wouldn't it? It's a great recording, and a wonderful performance.

http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... -29_London
Especially the complete audience recording! :wink: :wink:
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Re: New compilation / package, based on Painted From Memory, 2022

Post by verbal gymnastics »

And it was the first time me and sulky met. Despite that I have good memories!
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Re: New compilation / package, based on Painted From Memory, 2022

Post by Dr. Luther »

sulky lad wrote:
Dr. Luther wrote:So -- a Painted from Memory expanded edition would have to include the Royal Festival Hall show from '98, wouldn't it? It's a great recording, and a wonderful performance.

http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... -29_London
Especially the complete audience recording! :wink: :wink:
I hadn't even noticed that.
How's the sound?
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Re: New compilation / package, based on Painted From Memory, 2022

Post by sulky lad »

I think it’s one of my first digital recordings. There was a bootleg of this released soon after it it wasn’t my source . I haven’t listened to it for ages.
My best memory is walking in front of an usher not knowing a piece of my kit was dangling out of my jacket !! VG and I finally met up there and have haunted EC concerts ever since !!
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Re: New compilation / package, based on Painted From Memory, 2022

Post by Hawksmoor »

sulky lad wrote:I think it’s one of my first digital recordings. There was a bootleg of this released soon after it it wasn’t my source . I haven’t listened to it for ages.
I guess what I have is the bootleg (not yours), but I have to say, the sound quality is superb. And given that I'm (a) a technophobe, and (b) not really a key player 'in the loop' of the EC bootleg community, this was, in the late 1990s, a very easy thing to track down and get hold of. No idea whether that still applies.
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Re: New compilation / package, based on Painted From Memory, 2022

Post by cwr »

PFM is the oldest EC album to not yet have a deluxe reissue, since the Rhino editions only went up to ATUB.

I really hope we will get a chance to hear some demos, to get a glimpse of these songs in their earliest stages of development as EC & Burt were writing them and before they were fully filled out by Burt's orchestrations.

[My dream version of this edition would be something that would ultimately showcase the full Bacharach/Costello songbook, even if it simply meant including their tracks from Look Now and then new recordings of anything else they have yet to record & release.]

I also hope whatever this turns out to be does well enough to justify them continuing to put out deluxe editions of the back half of his catalog: WIWC, North, TDM, etc. I feel like there must be so many demos and outtakes from this time period that have just been waiting to be heard for decades!
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Re: New compilation / package, based on Painted From Memory, 2022

Post by sheeptotheslaughter »

I was in the circle for the RFH show and I seem to remember the sound was awful where I was. I am not one of those who normally notices this things.

Been dying to get PFM on vinyl I nearly paid nearly £80 to have it imported the other week but thought maybe that was too high a price to pay.
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Re: New compilation / package, based on Painted From Memory, 2022

Post by sulky lad »

sheeptotheslaughter wrote:I was in the circle for the RFH show and I seem to remember the sound was awful where I was. I am not one of those who normally notices this things.

Been dying to get PFM on vinyl I nearly paid nearly £80 to have it imported the other week but thought maybe that was too high a price to pay.

I bought the Mobile |Fidelity version and it's loads better than the CD sonically. I mentioned this to Elvis after the Edinburgh 2018 gig and he said he hadn't heard that - I would have given him mine if I'd had it with me! :lol: :wink:
In fact, I might just o and play it now :D :D
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Re: New compilation / package, based on Painted From Memory, 2022

Post by Ymaginatif »

yesterday I heard 'In The Darkest Place' on the Unfaithful Music soundtrack album. I don't know whether it was its position on that compilation, or the fact that it stood on its own separate from the Painted From Memory album, or whether it was remastered/remixed, but I thought it sounded much better, more organic and rich, than I remembered if from the album.

or was I just in the mood for it? :lol:
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Re: New compilation / package, based on Painted From Memory, 2022

Post by verbal gymnastics »

I would love to hear a studio version of Anyone who had a heart. Elvis sang this beautifully at the Royal Festival Hall and on the Sessions show.
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Re: New compilation / package, based on Painted From Memory, 2022

Post by Fishfinger king »

verbal gymnastics wrote:I would love to hear a studio version of Anyone who had a heart. Elvis sang this beautifully at the Royal Festival Hall and on the Sessions show.
Agreed +++++
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Re: New compilation / package, based on Painted From Memory, 2022

Post by sweetest punch »

https://www.repubblica.it/robinson/2022 ... 335723194/

(...)

A proposito di futuro: è vero che sta lavorando di nuovo con Burt Bacharach?
«Sì, stiamo lavorando a una monumentale versione di Painted from Memory (l’album realizzato insieme nel 1998, ndr) che uscirà alla fine del 2022 o l’anno dopo. Volevo avere qualcosa di veramente bello da metterci dentro, abbiamo ancora molte grandi canzoni non ancora registrate: così sono andato in studio la scorsa estate, con un’orchestra di trenta elementi diretta da Vince Mendoza, e Burt era lì, assolutamente vivace e partecipativo. È stata una delle cose più elettrizzanti che mi siano mai capitate. Mi trovavo nei Capitol Studios di Hollywood, dove ovviamente mia moglie ha inciso molti più dischi di me, e in cui ho assistito a situazioni straordinarie quando ha prodotto Barbra Streisand, per l’album Love Is the Answer, o quando ha fatto gli arrangiamenti di Kisses on the Bottom di Paul McCartney. In questa occasione ho solo cantato e ci sono ancora un po’ di cose da mixare, ma sono stato così felice di aver avuto modo di lavorare di nuovo insieme! Occhio a quando uscirà, credo sarà qualcosa che vale la pena ascoltare!»

——————————
Google translation:

Speaking of the future: is it true that you are working with Burt Bacharach again?
"Yes, we are working on a monumental version of Painted from Memory (the album we made together in 1998, ed) which will be released at the end of 2022 or a year later. I wanted to have something really nice to put into it, we still have a lot of great songs not yet recorded: so I went to the studio last summer, with a thirty-piece orchestra conducted by Vince Mendoza, and Burt was there, absolutely lively and participatory. It was one of the most thrilling things that ever happened to me. I was in the Capitol Studios in Hollywood, where obviously my wife has made many more records than me, and where I witnessed extraordinary situations when she produced Barbra Streisand, for the album Love Is the Answer, or when she made arrangements for Kisses on the Bottom by Paul McCartney. On this occasion I just sang and there are still a few things to mix, but I was so happy to have been able to work together again! Watch out when it comes out, I think it will be something worth listening to! "
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
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