This is something I've always wondered about.
I love the Costello & Nieve box, and I love The Long Honeymoon, but I've never understood why they chose to feature two performances of the song. If the performances were very different from each other, or if Costello had changed the lyrics in one of them I would understand, but as it is I've always found this rather confusing. After all, no other song is featured more than once on the set, so why The Long Honeymoon?
Has this ever come up?
Has an official explanation ever surfaced?
Thanks!
Why does Costello & Nieve feature The Long Honeymoon twice?
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Stuart Gardner
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- Joined: Sat Jul 02, 2011 4:47 pm
- Location: Savannah, Georgia, USA
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The Gentleman
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Re: Why does Costello & Nieve feature The Long Honeymoon twi
That's a good question, Stuart. There has never been an explanation, AFAIK.
Originally, it wasn't intended as a commercial release, rather as five separate promos to serve the markets in which each show was originally played. So, redundancy wouldn't have been such a big issue under those circumstances. However, the fact that there are no other duplicated songs suggests a effort was made to make each disc unique. Perhaps related to this is the conspicuous omission of "Complicated Shadows, " when every other song from ALL THIS USELESS BEAUTY is featured. My guess is that someone intended one of the "Lost Honeymoons" to be "Complicated Shadows" but dropped the ball, and when the decision was made to compile the discs as a retail release, they carried over the mistake.
Originally, it wasn't intended as a commercial release, rather as five separate promos to serve the markets in which each show was originally played. So, redundancy wouldn't have been such a big issue under those circumstances. However, the fact that there are no other duplicated songs suggests a effort was made to make each disc unique. Perhaps related to this is the conspicuous omission of "Complicated Shadows, " when every other song from ALL THIS USELESS BEAUTY is featured. My guess is that someone intended one of the "Lost Honeymoons" to be "Complicated Shadows" but dropped the ball, and when the decision was made to compile the discs as a retail release, they carried over the mistake.
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Stuart Gardner
- Posts: 23
- Joined: Sat Jul 02, 2011 4:47 pm
- Location: Savannah, Georgia, USA
Re: Why does Costello & Nieve feature The Long Honeymoon twi
Thanks a lot, TG; this sheds quite a bit of light on the subject.
"Originally, it wasn't intended as a commercial release, rather as five separate promos to serve the markets in which each show was originally played."
I hadn't known that. That's very interesting, and given that that's the case your reasoning makes perfect sense. I'll bet you're right.
Thanks again!
"Originally, it wasn't intended as a commercial release, rather as five separate promos to serve the markets in which each show was originally played."
I hadn't known that. That's very interesting, and given that that's the case your reasoning makes perfect sense. I'll bet you're right.
Thanks again!