"In time we can turn these obsessions into careers"MLAR20yrs

Pretty self-explanatory
Poor Deportee
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Re: "In time we can turn these obsessions into careers"MLAR2

Post by Poor Deportee »

Can we agree that 'Invasion Hit Parade' is a great lyric in search of a melody? I really think he should have tried some sort of spoken word approach instead of cramming a 'melody' on top of all that verbiage. Just a thought.
When man has destroyed what he thinks he owns
I hope no living thing cries over his bones
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Jack of All Parades
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Re: "In time we can turn these obsessions into careers"MLAR2

Post by Jack of All Parades »

I am not certain I want to label it a great lyric. It definitely is lacking any music that appeals to me. I think he would have been better served by having the lyric printed in the liner notes as a public service announcement like so many artists do these days- you know support Greenpeace, or Mothers Against Landmines, etc. It has never worked as a song for me.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
taramasalata
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Re: "In time we can turn these obsessions into careers"MLAR2

Post by taramasalata »

It’s an unpleasant experience being confronted with other’s dismissal of personal treasures, like for instance RECORDS, all the more when the artist, THE MAN HIMSELF, is the one with the harshest verdict on his own works. And with Elvis and me, this happened even twice, first with the most brutal of his self-criticicsm, with GCW, which just happened to be the third of his albums I grew up with, still being in some kind of honeymoon with his music...and then again with MLAR! I will never forget the way he commented to some copies of MLAR handed to him to sign when I met him for the only time so far (we had a great talk with him for about 15 minutes, while waiting with him & the Attractions in the train station in Freiburg, Southern Germany, to catch their train to Hamburg, in the summer of `91): „everyone around here seems to have that bloody record“ ("everyone“ I guess meant only the people in Germany or Continental Europe who owned one record of him at all...) .
So, once more, as already some of you have pointed out wonderfully, to a great part it’s our lives and what we live through at the times what defines our emotional bond with most things, including of course music. To me, MLAR will always be linked to the best first student’s years at university and right now it comes to my mind, also being a part of the experience in that time, that it might be the EC record I shared with the greatest number of people. This now also seems quite strange to me being a record that doesn’t seem to be easy to listen to...
So today, I still like the record a lot, actually while hearing it again for the first time in many years even more that I had thought before. Of course I can hear that his singing in „All grown up“ could have been smoother and that „Playboy to a man“ and „Broken“ haven’t become better with age but neither do they damage the record as a whole nor even deserve the attention they receive in a negative sense on this board. As one of you has already precisely pointed out with his reference to GH, why no one ever questions this truly splendid record for cointaining rightfully forgotten songs like "5 gears in reverse“, "Human touch“ or "Beaten to the punch“?
And all this fussing about the BEARD seems very pointless to me, not the intriguing aspects of self-damaging, but discussing it in aesthetical or whatever other terms seems way beyond or better below the idea of POP and the whole concept of the ELVIS COSTELLO image/label/concept, I don’t get this reactionary attitude.
With „Invasion Hit Parade“ I think Poor Deportee is quite right, but it’s mostly the odd arrangement in the somehow clumsy chorus that partly ruins the song. Elvis might have had the same thoughts given his reworking on the "I tunes Originals“ version.There he is putting the melody in the verses much to the fore in contrast to the chorus and that helps the song a lot.
But the row of songs from Summer to Candy is awesome, Georgie being one of his greatest POP songs ever, I still nowadys start jumping up and down to it.
But I do have to agree with what some of you have stated about his live shows in that time. Seeing him at the Montreux Jazz Festival, it didn’t help the audience staying awake playing a whole bunch of then unknown to most ears mostly blues songs (much later to be released on KV) at a show starting at the end of a fantastic hot day in the summer of `91 around midnight...and the band lacked much of the dynamics the Attractions, the Imposters or the Sugarcanes have shown. What a contrast to the terrific performance he gave with his reunited Attractions three years later at the vibrant Olympia in Paris, he really did blow the roof of the house than, I've never seen him better!
alexv
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Re: "In time we can turn these obsessions into careers"MLAR2

Post by alexv »

Taramasalata, I'm in the camp that kind of likes MLAR. So i'm not here to bash MLAR (although there's nothing wrong with that), but to praise GH. So, I'm going to take up your challenge and comment on why I do not question GH for cointaining rightfully forgotten songs like "5 gears in reverse" or "Beaten to the punch“? I omitted Human Touch because I love that song. Here'sGH:

1."Love for Tender" – Not great EC but damn good.
2."Opportunity" – Classic
3."The Imposter" –Classic (for me)
4."Secondary Modern" – Never have been a big fan; ok song
5."King Horse" –Classic
6."Possession" – Classic
7."Men Called Uncle" – Classic (for me)
8."Clowntime Is Over" –not a favorite; not bad
9."New Amsterdam" – Classic
10."High Fidelity" – Classic
1."I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down" One of his best covers and a truly great dance song
2."Black & White World" – not a favorite, but when the Roots backed him on it recently the song jelled for me. Loved it
3."5ive Gears in Reverse" –not a favorite
4."B Movie" – Classic (for me)
5."Motel Matches" –Classic
6."Human Touch" –Classic (for me)
7."Beaten to the Punch" – 1:49 agreed. I don't like this song. Thankfully it's over pretty quick
8."Temptation" – classic
9."I Stand Accused" another great cover. He tells us he was drunk at the time of recording. EC and Rope both make art when drunk
10."Riot Act" –classic

When I look at MLAR by comparison, I see one classic EC song, Unexpected, and some songs I like (summer;candy;georgie;fall; doomsday) that make it, overall, a good, listenable to this day, EC record. And certainly when compared to what we've gotten from EC since the mid-90s, it gets better every day, for me.

But there is no way in hell I could ever compare the good songs of MLAR (except Unexpected) to the classics in GH. GH has its misses, just like MLAR. But the gems of GH, for me and probably for lots of others since I don't think my love of GH makes me an outlier in EC land, outweigh by a large margin the gem(s) of MLAR. GH splendid; MLAR not (for me).
taramasalata
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Re: "In time we can turn these obsessions into careers"MLAR2

Post by taramasalata »

Great work you did, alexv, thanks a lot, in my mind it made me sing through every song you listed of GH and I would even add Secondary Modern and Clowntime is over to the classic's list.
Still, personally I do relate more to MLAR, easy understandable for my emotions linked to it while hearing it in '91 and therefore, I can hear more "classics" even in MLAR, though definitely not as many as in GH, I agree!
By no means was it my aim to dispute the glory of GH, I just mentionned the 3 forgettable songs of GH for giving some kind of contrast to the somehow a bit overheated bashing of some songs of MLAR, that do not even deserve this attention, I think.
cwr
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Re: "In time we can turn these obsessions into careers"MLAR2

Post by cwr »

I'll jump in to defend "Beaten To The Punch"! I love that scrappy little song. Who's with me?

It's weird, even though MLAR is my personal favorite EC album, Get Happy!! is a truly magical album like no other in EC's body of work. The way he sounds with The Attractions on GH!! is something that he has never really done before or since, it's amazing.

But they really are different KINDS of albums, I think. I don't know what most of the songs on GH!! are about, really, I just love the feel of them all. Whereas MLAR is a collection of songs, each creating a different "world" and it tends to evoke more sort of narrative images in my mind. When I hear most of GH's songs, I don't really picture "characters" in all of them, it's mostly just amazing-sounding songs played by a band that is at the peak of its powers.
FAVEHOUR
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Re: "In time we can turn these obsessions into careers"MLAR2

Post by FAVEHOUR »

I'm with you, Connor! To me, the only duff track on GH!! is 5 Gears.

I like your description of the record. The songs are so short, they don't come off as statements, more as impressions. It's the greatest album ever.

Dave
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krm
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Re: "In time we can turn these obsessions into careers"MLAR2

Post by krm »

The songs on GH are still capable of delivering surprising renderings. All of a sudden I get a new favourite when hearing Black and Whit world when it was performed by the Roots. I think that is the big difference from MLAR. The songs on MLAR will always sound like a song from MLAR. But the GH ones can fit in everywhere.
cwr
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Re: "In time we can turn these obsessions into careers"MLAR2

Post by cwr »

The songs on GH are still capable of delivering surprising renderings. All of a sudden I get a new favourite when hearing Black and Whit world when it was performed by the Roots. I think that is the big difference from MLAR. The songs on MLAR will always sound like a song from MLAR. But the GH ones can fit in everywhere.
I don't know about that. I was comparing the records above, but in terms of the songs, I think the MLAR ones are capable of being surprising. EC's "unplugged" version of "The Other Side Of The Summer" is pretty radically different from the Beach Boys homage on the record. His iTunes solo acoustic rendition of "Invasion Hit Parade" has a different feel to it. And of course, many have praised his various unamplified performances of "Couldn't Call It Unexpected" as being revelatory, admired even by many who hate the album arrangement.

Many are put off by the Mitchell Froom production of MLAR (not me.) But I think the songcraft on MLAR is tremendous.

Get Happy!! is a masterpiece, but even some of its BEST songs-- songs that I would not have a bad word spoken against-- are kind of doodles. "Possession" is one of my all-time favorite tracks, but I'd still put it in the category of one of those early EC songs that is sort of written in code, with lots of clever turns of phrase, but it feels like something a songwriting genius whips together for fun, whereas the bulk of MLAR feels much more like he's really written a great batch of SONGS. (I know that some would say that's precisely the problem, that the songs are labored and over-written. To each his own!)
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