Record Collector, December 1980: Difference between revisions
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At about this time, Elvis tracks appeared on two Stiff compilation LPs, ''Bunch of Stiffs'' and ''Hits Greatest Stiffs'', both of which have been deleted, like all Elvis's single on Stiff. At the start of this year Elvis's early singles were selling for about £10 each, as the Stiff label itself was very collectable. Since then, interest in Stiff seems to have dropped, so that Costello's singles are now selling for about £5, with the picture sleeve versions selling for around £6. | At about this time, Elvis tracks appeared on two Stiff compilation LPs, ''Bunch of Stiffs'' and ''Hits Greatest Stiffs'', both of which have been deleted, like all Elvis's single on Stiff. At the start of this year Elvis's early singles were selling for about £10 each, as the Stiff label itself was very collectable. Since then, interest in Stiff seems to have dropped, so that Costello's singles are now selling for about £5, with the picture sleeve versions selling for around £6. | ||
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One more single was pulled from ''My Aim Is True'', "Red Shoes", which moved Elvis nearer to chart success. It was "Watching the Detectives" that gave him his first hit, however, in November 1977. For this track, Elvis was backed by Graham Parker's band, The Rumour. On the B-side were two live tracks, both taken from ''My Aim Is True'' and featuring for the first time on record Elvis's new band, the Attractions, who are Bruce Thomas (formerly with the Sutherland Bros.) on bass, Steve Naive on keyboards and Pete Thomas on drums. These two live songs have never been released elsewhere, and the picture sleeve version of this single is one of Costello's most collectable discs. | One more single was pulled from ''My Aim Is True'', "Red Shoes", which moved Elvis nearer to chart success. It was "Watching the Detectives" that gave him his first hit, however, in November 1977. For this track, Elvis was backed by Graham Parker's band, The Rumour. On the B-side were two live tracks, both taken from ''My Aim Is True'' and featuring for the first time on record Elvis's new band, the Attractions, who are Bruce Thomas (formerly with the Sutherland Bros.) on bass, Steve Naive on keyboards and Pete Thomas on drums. These two live songs have never been released elsewhere, and the picture sleeve version of this single is one of Costello's most collectable discs. | ||
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The other Stiff release was rather scarcer: a 33 rpm disc jockey promotion record was issued of ''Stiff's Greatest Hits'', which consisted of extracts from many of the Stiff singles, including "Alison", "Red Shoes" and "Watching The Detectives", linked by introductions by the late Les Prior of the Albertos. This record is now selling for about £10. | The other Stiff release was rather scarcer: a 33 rpm disc jockey promotion record was issued of ''Stiff's Greatest Hits'', which consisted of extracts from many of the Stiff singles, including "Alison", "Red Shoes" and "Watching The Detectives", linked by introductions by the late Les Prior of the Albertos. This record is now selling for about £10. | ||
At the start of 1978 Jake Riviera took Elvis and Nick Lowe away from Stiff as part of his own company, Riviera Global Productions, and negotiated contracts for them with the newly-formed Radar label, run by two former United Artists directors, Martin Davis and Andrew Lauder. As part of this deal, Elvis was also signed to Columbia Records in the States. Elvis's first Radar release was a single, "I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea", which was a big hit in March 1978. It previewed his new album, ''This Year's Model'', released just a fortnight later, with the first 5000 copies including a free bonus single, "Stranger In The House"/"Neat Neat Neat". "Neat" was the Damned song, recorded live with the Attractions, and dedicated to Chris Miller, alias Rat Scabies of the Damned. "Stranger" dated back to the recording sessions for the first album, and was another clear indication of the country influence on Elvis's songwriting. The LP had a much richer musical sound than the first album, with far more emphasis being put on the melodies, some of which were positively Beatle-ish. "Pump It lip", the second single from the LP, was criticised by some people as being too heavily influenced by Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" — but they forgot that Dylan's song was itself influenced by Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business". Lyrically, the album | At the start of 1978 Jake Riviera took Elvis and Nick Lowe away from Stiff as part of his own company, Riviera Global Productions, and negotiated contracts for them with the newly-formed Radar label, run by two former United Artists directors, Martin Davis and Andrew Lauder. As part of this deal, Elvis was also signed to Columbia Records in the States. Elvis's first Radar release was a single, "I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea", which was a big hit in March 1978. It previewed his new album, ''This Year's Model'', released just a fortnight later, with the first 5000 copies including a free bonus single, "Stranger In The House"/"Neat Neat Neat". "Neat" was the Damned song, recorded live with the Attractions, and dedicated to Chris Miller, alias Rat Scabies of the Damned. "Stranger" dated back to the recording sessions for the first album, and was another clear indication of the country influence on Elvis's songwriting. The LP had a much richer musical sound than the first album, with far more emphasis being put on the melodies, some of which were positively Beatle-ish. "Pump It lip", the second single from the LP, was criticised by some people as being too heavily influenced by Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" — but they forgot that Dylan's song was itself influenced by Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business". Lyrically, the album didn't pull its punches, with attacks on trendy London and the Kings Road fashion scene on tracks like "Chelsea", "This Year's Girl" and "Lipstick Vogue". The album is still available, though the free single is quite scarce — several months ago it was selling for rather inflated prices but has now levelled out at about £4 for a Mint copy. | ||
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Sales of the LP were helped by a nationwide headlining tour in March and April 1978, during which he previewed his next single, "Radio Radio". As with almost all of his singles, the first few thousand copies were pressed in a picture sleeve which is now pretty hard to find, selling for £3.50, but the single itself shouldn't cost any more than the price of a new 45. Both "Pump It Up" and "Radio Radio" feature non-album B-sides: "Big Tears" is particularly interesting as it includes Mick Jones on lead guitar. | |||
After playing at the giant Anti-Nazi League rally in Brixton in September, Elvis rounded off 1978 with a week at London's Dominion Theatre, from which came one of his rarest records. "Wednesday Week" and "Talking in the Dark", two songs he included in his set that week, but which hadn't been released, were pressed up as a limited-edition single, and given away free to the audience. The market price of this 45 soon rocketed to about £15, but fell back to £7 after both tracks were included on the B-side of a later single. | |||
One other track from this period, which is probably the least well known of all his records, was Costello's version of the old Brinsley Schwarz number, "(What's So Funny About) Peace Love and Understanding", which had become a regular part of his stage act. This was included unannounced as the B-side of Nick Lowe's "American Squirm" single, which didn't repeat the success of Lowe's earlier singles for Radar, and is now becoming hard to find. | |||
In January 1979, Elvis released a new single, "Oliver's Army". as a trailer for his next album. Lyrically it seemed to be more clever than meaningful, although it retained the overall sound of his previous album. The B-side was a solo rendition, with no frills, of Rodgers and Hart's "My Funny Valentine", which was also issued by Columbia in America as a promo single backed with "Peace, Love and Understanding". | |||
The album followed in February, complete with another limited edition free single. ''Armed Forces'' featured a fold-out cover, inside which were the record, four pictures of the band members and — for the lucky early buyers — a live record from Hollywood High School, containing versions of "Alison", "Watching The Detectives" and a song from the new album, "Accidents Will Happen". The single didn't really contain the best cuts from Elvis's live set, | |||
Revision as of 05:09, 13 July 2014
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