Elvis Costello Fan Forum

He went through his Nashville country period in the 80s, dabbled with classical music in the 90s with the Brodsky Quartet, embraced the New Orleans sound after Hurricane Katrina, and most recently delved with the Roots into funky R&B. Maybe the most condescending description of Costello's caree...

Ohhhhh... I had forgotten this even happened!

“In the period I’ve been writing this, I’ve failed to complete an opera I was commissioned to write, I’ve written another ballet, worked on five musicals in various stages of development, written a lot of songs, performed with two different bands and solo, revived the Spectacular Spinning Songbook ...

I think the 2nd one was the Austin Powers musical, yes?

Vulture made a Spotify containing 300 of the 400 songs name-checked by Costello in the book (no Beatles on Spotify accounts for 22 of the songs that make up the missing hundred):

http://www.vulture.com/2015/10/every-so ... tter_nymag

I'd certainly think that "New Lace Sleeves" and "Beyond Belief" would feature heavily on a lot of lists people might compile of Costello's 10 best. It's actually remarkable to think of how many "Top 10" combinations I'd be okay with-- you could probably swap out all 10 ...

It's still kind of stunning to me that it's 2015 and there is no sign of a Painted From Memory vinyl release. I never would have guessed that Extreme Honey would be out in a 2LP set before his album with Burt, which seems like it was destined to be played on a turntable with a 12" sleeve....

Most of the Flip City demos were recorded at the Hope and Anchor. Is he clearly talking about solo demos in the book? "I Can't Turn It Off" could be from that batch. Yeah, he specifies "he offered me the chance to come in and make some solo recordings while he twiddled the dials. I w...

As for tapes from those days... the barrel has been well and truly scraped for archive material. If good quality recordings exist - and I doubt that - they would have seen the light of day long ago when there was still money to be made from selling physical music. I doubt THIS! I think there are st...

My sense is that A) he doesn't have that cynical a take on the experience, any more than he would consider working with Geoff Emerick "some old washed-up Beatles engineer" or Bacharach "some Easy Listening has-been." (I tend to be of the opposite opinion, that being allowed to wr...

Absolutely FASCINATING to have a 2-disc Costello collection in which TYM gets zero tracks! Not a complaint, just an observation, given that that is typically one of the most-loved of all EC albums, and had a pretty solid showing on Girls +£÷ Girls =$& Girls . I'm delighted that My Dark Life made...

YEP. An interesting sequence-- there are some nice thematic juxtapositions in there, and in some ways this is as good a career overview as one could squeeze onto two discs. It's nice that April 5th has finally found its way onto an official release (it is talked about in the book as part of a still-...

Unfaithful Music & Soundtrack Album is a compilation underscoring Elvis Costello's new memoir 'Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink,' compiled and sequenced by Costello himself to offer the deepest emotional connection of the themes and stories of his book. This 38-track, 2-CD set contains a ...

Disc: 1 1. Accidents Will Happen 2. Poison Moon 3. Watching The Detectives 4. Oliver's Army 5. Riot Act 6. New Lace Sleeves 7. Man Out Of Time 8. I Want You 9. When I Was Cruel No.2 10. Stranger In The House 11. Beyond Belief 12. Home Truth 13. Indoor Fireworks 14. Shipbuilding 15. Cinco Minutos Con...

I think if this book does well, it'll trigger a follow-up book pretty quickly, much like how the surprise success of SP&SC prompted EC to almost immediately write and record a double album.

It does NOT feel like 2 books in one. I think EC is just naturally the type who would write a book and have it end up way longer than he'd anticipated. I'll bet if he'd had a few more months to write it he would have doubled it in length again! I bet his 2nd book will be more focused on his thoughts...

In a world where Costello no longer actively makes records (unless invited by someone else, a la The Roots or The New Basement Tapes) and the archives are no longer being mined for treasures (since Hip-O blew it with the glut of 1977-79 live recordings and the overpriced box set), I would consider t...

Perhaps... The only reason I say that there *might* be some material of interest on this is that it's TWO discs AND in the book itself there are a number of striking instances where he goes out of his way to reference tracks that have never been widely heard before. He writes, for instance, about th...

I'm almost always get my hopes up way too high about stuff like this, but I have to say that -- having JUST finished an advance copy of the book tonight-- he does mention a number of unreleased songs and recordings in UM&DI, to the point where it would be very appropriate to put a few out on a r...

I'm a little over halfway through an advance copy of EC's book, and it's interesting to see how he tells a few of the same stories Bruce tells, with slight differences in the details (nothing contradictory, just a different perspective). So far, there hasn't been anything especially insulting to Bru...

I think if they have a ton of unreleased recordings, they WILL somehow see the light of day-- perhaps not a full-fledged thing like the first NBT release, but it's hard to imagine them just gathering dust in a vault forever if T Bone likes 'em. I hope it's sooner rather than later. Certainly, if the...

I really do enjoy the project and album overall, but there is also a part of me that likes the thought that by the time they release the full batch of recordings, we will essentially have a full album's worth of Costello/Dylan songs. (I believe that it was mentioned in one of the articles or maybe e...

I wish there was still a publication like ICE magazine which would give some insight about the nature of new releases and reissues. I'd be curious to know the ins and outs of the various vinyl editions that have come out, and what EC's level of involvement is. Does he take an active role in any of t...

BUMP for the late Billy Sherrill. I used to hold out hope that they would issue an edition of Almost Blue with this doc as an extra on a dvd, but I now realize that the only way fans will ever see it is online copies taken from an old taped broadcast. I really do think my appreciation for the album ...

Also, on the Amazon US site:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/150891992 ... ref=plSrch