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It was very sad to read of the recent passing of that incredibly talented, gentle man, Geoff Emerick. He patiently watched us burn off the "nervous energy" that had fuelled all our previous records until we found our way to this album. He'd seen better bands than us come into the studio with crazed notions and fuzzy fragments of song and put them into sonic order. We had set up at the crossroads of Oxford Street and Regent Street, in AIR Studios. If we thought we were being like The Beatles by hiring a harpsichord, then an actual Beatle was down the hallway making ''Tug Of War'' with George Martin, just past a mixing suite that hosted both The Jam and Alice Cooper, although, sadly, not at the same time. We gave ourselves an extravagant amount of weeks to make our best mistakes. Geoff Emerick's recording experience and mixing made absolute sense of the band's unpredictable but brilliant playing — Pete Thomas's insane drumming on "Beyond Belief," to Nieve's demented piano on "Man Out Of Time" and "The Loved Ones" and Bruce Thomas's mighty bass coda for "Shabby Doll." Geoff sat through my endless vocal-group overdubs that were the first thing to get lost when we took the songs on the road as not one of the band could do much more than shout ''"Hey"'' on the chorus, so it took until last summer's Imperial Bedroom & Other Chambers Tour for Davey Faragher, Kitten Kuroi and Briana Lee to make some sense of my, sometimes, nonsensical notions. The record is occasionally called "baroque" — another of those overused French words, like "genre," that make "critical thinking" seem like thinking — but this could really only be applied to Steve Nieve's insanely funny and extravagant orchestration for "...And In Every Home" or that damn harpsichord on "You Little Fool." I don't think it has anything to do with "Almost Blue," a song later heartbreakingly performed by Chet Baker, who had inspired me to write it, two years before he brought his beautiful trumpet playing to our rendition of "Shipbuilding." | It was very sad to read of the recent passing of that incredibly talented, gentle man, Geoff Emerick. He patiently watched us burn off the "nervous energy" that had fuelled all our previous records until we found our way to this album. He'd seen better bands than us come into the studio with crazed notions and fuzzy fragments of song and put them into sonic order. We had set up at the crossroads of Oxford Street and Regent Street, in AIR Studios. If we thought we were being like The Beatles by hiring a harpsichord, then an actual Beatle was down the hallway making ''Tug Of War'' with George Martin, just past a mixing suite that hosted both The Jam and Alice Cooper, although, sadly, not at the same time. We gave ourselves an extravagant amount of weeks to make our best mistakes. Geoff Emerick's recording experience and mixing made absolute sense of the band's unpredictable but brilliant playing — Pete Thomas's insane drumming on "Beyond Belief," to Nieve's demented piano on "Man Out Of Time" and "The Loved Ones" and Bruce Thomas's mighty bass coda for "Shabby Doll." Geoff sat through my endless vocal-group overdubs that were the first thing to get lost when we took the songs on the road as not one of the band could do much more than shout ''"Hey"'' on the chorus, so it took until last summer's Imperial Bedroom & Other Chambers Tour for Davey Faragher, Kitten Kuroi and Briana Lee to make some sense of my, sometimes, nonsensical notions. The record is occasionally called "baroque" — another of those overused French words, like "genre," that make "critical thinking" seem like thinking — but this could really only be applied to Steve Nieve's insanely funny and extravagant orchestration for "...And In Every Home" or that damn harpsichord on "You Little Fool." I don't think it has anything to do with "Almost Blue," a song later heartbreakingly performed by Chet Baker, who had inspired me to write it, two years before he brought his beautiful trumpet playing to our rendition of "Shipbuilding." | ||
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<span style="font-size:120%">'''The Costello Show Featuring The Attractions And Confederates <br> King Of America'''</span>{{n}} F-Beat / Columbia, 1986 | |||
<span style="font-size:120%">'''Elvis Costello & The Attractions <br> Blood & Chocolate'''</span>{{n}} Demon / Columbia, 1986 | |||
'''Two very different albums — one produced by T{{nb}}Bone Burnett, the other by old compadre Nick Lowe | |||
{{Bibliography text}} | |||
Producer T{{nb}}Bone Burnett and I originally plotted this to be a half-acoustic and half-electric album. The first Hollywood sessions with players from Elvis Presley's TCB band, jazz bassist Ray Brown and Earl Palmer — the drummer on both "Tutti Frutti" and "The Theme From The Flintstones" — gave us more than we bargained for, including "Indoor Fireworks," "Poisoned Rose" and "I'll Wear It Proudly." Suspicion and ill-feeling replaced any literal or figurative electricity on the Attractions recording dates, apart from their superb contribution to "Suit Of Lights." A matter of months later I booked Olympic Studios to finish the amplified half of the job in Barnes, and called Nick Lowe to produce, referee and play the acoustic rhythm guitar that holds together a record on which I frankly only make a noise with a Fender Telecaster. We set up with stage monitors, so everything was a roaring, muddy blur whether we were hammering through <!-- "Tokyo Storming Warning" --> "Tokyo Storm Warning" or creeping through "I Want You." If something was too loud in the mix, we simply turned off that channel and balanced to the bleed — appropriate, given the final title of the album. As to the chocolate, I think we ate it all. | |||
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<span style="font-size:120%">'''Paul McCartney <br> Flowers In The Dirt Deluxe Edition'''</span>{{n}} Capitol / UME/ MPL, 2017 | |||
'''An extra disc with this reissue features the lost demos recorded by the Beatle and Costello | |||
{{Bibliography text}} | |||
Between 1987 and 1991, I wrote 15 songs with Paul McCartney, nine of which were released over five of our solo albums. We had started out to co-produce our co-written songs for Paul's album ''Flowers In The Dirt'' but disagreed about the scope of the recording. I wanted Paul to have everything stripped to the boards, while I was secretly plotting my own album, ''Spike'', on the scale of a Cecil B DeMille epic. Last year, a lavish reissue saw the official release of our two-man demos, recorded in the joyful moments after each composition was completed, in a room above Paul's Hog Hill Studios. We got to harmonise and compete over the best lines in "You Want Her Too," "So Like Candy" and the unreleased "Tommy's Coming Home Again." For me the highlight was the demo of "The Lovers That Never Were," one of the greatest vocal performances of Paul's solo career. | |||
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<span style="font-size:120%">'''Elvis Costello <br> North '''</span>{{n}} Deutsche Grammophon, 2003 | |||
'''A stark album of jazzy ballads that contemplated a new relationship — chosen by Costello as his "classic" | |||
{{Bibliography text}} | |||
I know this one divided listeners, who were led to believe that it was something to do with an empty martini glass or a dissolute man in an undone bow-tie, while, at the time, I believed that I had written a cracking folio of lieder, only not in German. Actually, I wrote these songs in the dead of night and cut some of them three times over, screwing up and throwing away the drafts, as befits an intense and mortifying farewell note that turns into a love letter. I began by recording all the songs in one long, flawed demo take, including numbers I would never sing again and some which were almost improvised, at jazz virtuoso Errol Garner's old Steinway, a beast I could barely wrestle into submission. It's a thin line between being truthful and burdening your friends with a private sorrow, but then my model for confession had always been a wooden box in church. Even an unassailable record like Joni Mitchell's ''Blue'' admits the brightness of "California" and Bob Dylan's originally released draft of ''Blood On The Tracks'' had all that reverb on the voice to chase away the pain. So I listened to my elders and betters, buried raw songs like "In Another Room" until a daytrip to Clarksdale, Mississippi, five years later and chose to travel from the darkness to the light. The Imposters rhythm section proved to be the wrong hammer for the job and quickly departed, but not before we recorded a gem called "Impatience" with Marc Ribot on a Cuban ''tres'', a flourish of pizzicato strings and a horn section drawn from my pals in The Jazz Passengers. Steve Nieve was eventually joined by acoustic bassist Mike Formanek and drummer Peter Erskine, who played with the hushed and steady flow that the songs demanded. I wrote for a low group of woodwinds and brass around my baritone range and brought in a body of strings here and there, so the room was not entirely in black and white. In the very late '40s and early '50s, my mother used to smuggle jazz records into Liverpool via seafaring pals for fanatical customers who had read about the music of Lennie Tristano and Lee Konitz but couldn't afford to hear it due to import duty on American records. Lee added his alto saxophone to the end of "Someone Took The Words Away," so after the session I had him sign the sheet music to my Mam. Obliging, in his terse style, he wrote, "Lillian, Thanks. Lee." Returning to Errol's big machine at Nola Studios, I cut "I'm In The Mood Again," which I finished at 1am. Then I walked outside onto 57th Street, thinking this was a movie that will probably never get made again. | |||
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{{tags}}[[Trust]] {{-}} [[My Aim Is True]] {{-}} [[Imperial Bedroom]] {{-}} [[North]] {{-}} [[Look Now]] {{-}} [[The{{nb}}Attractions]] {{-}} [[The Imposters]] {{-}} [[The Roots]] {{-}} [[Paul McCartney]] {{-}} [[Pathway Studios]] {{-}} [[Islington]] {{-}} [[Clover]] {{-}} [[(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes ]] {{-}} [[The Byrds]] {{-}} [[Waiting For The End Of The World]] {{-}} [[The Velvet Underground]] {{-}} [[Mr. Moon]] {{-}} [[Clover: Homestead Redemption|Homestead Redemption]] {{-}} [[Alex Call]] {{-}} [[John McFee]] {{-}} [[Alison]] {{-}} [[Pete Thomas]] {{-}} [[Kinder Murder]] {{-}} [[Brutal Youth]] {{-}} [[The Gwendolyn Letters]] {{-}} [[Wendy James]] {{-}} [[This Year's Model]] {{-}} [[Radar Records]] {{-}} [[Pump It Up]] {{-}} [[Night Rally]] {{-}} [[Nick Lowe]] {{-}} [[Watching The Detectives]] {{-}} [[Steve Nieve]] {{-}} [[Lipstick Vogue]] {{-}} [[Pump It Up]] {{-}} [[Concert 1977-11-04 Newcastle upon Tyne|Newcastle]] {{-}} [[:Category:Stiff's Greatest Stiffs Live|Stiff Tour]] {{-}} [[Eden Studios]] {{-}} [[Acton]] {{-}} [[:Category:1st US Tour|1st US Tour]] {{-}} [[TV 1977-12-17 Saturday Night Live|Saturday Night Live]] {{-}} [[Sebastian Krys]] {{-}} [[This Year's Girl]] {{-}} [[Natalie Bergman]] {{-}} [[The Deuce]] {{-}} [[Curtis Mayfield]] {{-}} [[(Don't Worry) If There's A Hell Below, We're All Going To Go|If There's A Hell Below, We're All Going To Go]] {{-}} [[Bruce Thomas]] {{-}} [[The Rolling Stones]] {{-}} [[Vanity Fair, November 2000#The Rolling Stones|Aftermath]] {{-}} [[Armed Forces]] {{-}} [[Get Happy!!]] {{-}} [[The Specials]] {{-}} [[Sunderland]] {{-}} [[Clubland]] {{-}} [[Message In A Bottle]] {{-}} [[You'll Never Be A Man]] {{-}} [[The Pretenders|Brass In Pocket]] {{-}} [[The Spinners|The Detroit Spinners]] {{-}} [[White Knuckles]] {{-}} [[New Lace Sleeves]] {{-}} [[Erik Satie]] {{-}} [[Shot With His Own Gun]] {{-}} [[Squeeze]] {{-}} [[Squeeze: East Side Story|East Side Story]] {{-}} [[Imperial Bedroom]] {{-}} [[F-Beat]] {{-}} [[Columbia Records|Columbia]] {{-}} [[Geoff Emerick]] {{-}} [[The Beatles]] {{-}} [[George Martin]] {{-}} [[The Jam]] {{-}} [[Beyond Belief]] {{-}} [[Man Out Of Time]] {{-}} [[The Loved Ones]] {{-}} [[Shabby Doll]] {{-}} [[Imperial Bedroom & Other Chambers Tour]] {{-}} [[Davey Faragher]] {{-}} [[Kitten Kuroi]] {{-}} [[Briana Lee]] {{-}} [[...And In Every Home|And In Every Home]] {{-}} [[You Little Fool]] {{-}} [[Almost Blue (song)|Almost Blue]] {{-}} [[Chet Baker]] {{-}} [[Shipbuilding]] | {{tags}}[[Trust]] {{-}} [[My Aim Is True]] {{-}} [[Imperial Bedroom]] {{-}} [[North]] {{-}} [[Look Now]] {{-}} [[The{{nb}}Attractions]] {{-}} [[The Imposters]] {{-}} [[The Roots]] {{-}} [[Paul McCartney]] {{-}} [[Stiff Records]] {{-}} [[Pathway Studios]] {{-}} [[Islington]] {{-}} [[Clover]] {{-}} [[(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes ]] {{-}} [[The Byrds]] {{-}} [[Waiting For The End Of The World]] {{-}} [[The Velvet Underground]] {{-}} [[Mr. Moon]] {{-}} [[Clover: Homestead Redemption|Homestead Redemption]] {{-}} [[Alex Call]] {{-}} [[John McFee]] {{-}} [[Alison]] {{-}} [[Pete Thomas]] {{-}} [[Kinder Murder]] {{-}} [[Brutal Youth]] {{-}} [[The Gwendolyn Letters]] {{-}} [[Wendy James]] {{-}} [[This Year's Model]] {{-}} [[Radar Records]] {{-}} [[Pump It Up]] {{-}} [[Night Rally]] {{-}} [[Nick Lowe]] {{-}} [[Watching The Detectives]] {{-}} [[Steve Nieve]] {{-}} [[Lipstick Vogue]] {{-}} [[Pump It Up]] {{-}} [[Concert 1977-11-04 Newcastle upon Tyne|Newcastle]] {{-}} [[:Category:Stiff's Greatest Stiffs Live|Stiff Tour]] {{-}} [[Eden Studios]] {{-}} [[Acton]] {{-}} [[:Category:1st US Tour|1st US Tour]] {{-}} [[TV 1977-12-17 Saturday Night Live|Saturday Night Live]] {{-}} [[Sebastian Krys]] {{-}} [[This Year's Girl]] {{-}} [[Natalie Bergman]] {{-}} [[The Deuce]] {{-}} [[Curtis Mayfield]] {{-}} [[(Don't Worry) If There's A Hell Below, We're All Going To Go|If There's A Hell Below, We're All Going To Go]] {{-}} [[Bruce Thomas]] {{-}} [[The Rolling Stones]] {{-}} [[Vanity Fair, November 2000#The Rolling Stones|Aftermath]] {{-}} [[Armed Forces]] {{-}} [[Get Happy!!]] {{-}} [[The Specials]] {{-}} [[Sunderland]] {{-}} [[Clubland]] {{-}} [[Message In A Bottle]] {{-}} [[You'll Never Be A Man]] {{-}} [[The Pretenders|Brass In Pocket]] {{-}} [[The Spinners|The Detroit Spinners]] {{-}} [[White Knuckles]] {{-}} [[New Lace Sleeves]] {{-}} [[Erik Satie]] {{-}} [[Shot With His Own Gun]] {{-}} [[Squeeze]] {{-}} [[Squeeze: East Side Story|East Side Story]] {{-}} [[Imperial Bedroom]] {{-}} [[F-Beat]] {{-}} [[Columbia Records|Columbia]] {{-}} [[Geoff Emerick]] {{-}} [[The Beatles]] {{-}} [[George Martin]] {{-}} [[The Jam]] {{-}} [[Beyond Belief]] {{-}} [[Man Out Of Time]] {{-}} [[The Loved Ones]] {{-}} [[Shabby Doll]] {{-}} [[Imperial Bedroom & Other Chambers Tour]] {{-}} [[Davey Faragher]] {{-}} [[Kitten Kuroi]] {{-}} [[Briana Lee]] {{-}} [[...And In Every Home|And In Every Home]] {{-}} [[You Little Fool]] {{-}} [[Almost Blue (song)|Almost Blue]] {{-}} [[Chet Baker]] {{-}} [[Shipbuilding]] {{-}} [[The Costello Show]] {{-}} [[The Confederates]] {{-}} [[King Of America]] {{-}} [[Blood & Chocolate]] {{-}} [[Demon|Demon Records]] {{-}} [[T Bone Burnett]] {{-}} [[Elvis Presley]] {{-}} [[The TCB Band]] {{-}} [[Ray Brown]] {{-}} [[Earl Palmer]] {{-}} [[Indoor Fireworks]] {{-}} [[Poisoned Rose]] {{-}} [[I'll Wear It Proudly]] {{-}} [[Suit Of Lights]] {{-}} [[Tokyo Storm Warning]] {{-}} [[I Want You]] {{-}} [[Paul McCartney: Flowers In The Dirt|Flowers In The Dirt]] {{-}} [[Spike]] {{-}} [[You Want Her Too]] {{-}} [[So Like Candy]] {{-}} [[Tommy's Coming Home]] {{-}} [[The Lovers That Never Were]] {{-}} [[Deutsche Grammophon]] {{-}} [[Joni Mitchell]] {{-}} [[Blue]] {{-}} [[Bob Dylan]] {{-}} [[Vanity Fair, November 2000#Bob Dylan|Blood On The Tracks]] {{-}} [[In Another Room]] {{-}} [[The Clarksdale Sessions|Clarksdale]] {{-}} [[Impatience]] {{-}} [[The Jazz Passengers]] {{-}} [[Michael Formanek|Mike Formanek]] {{-}} [[Peter Erskine]] {{-}} [[Lennie Tristano]] {{-}} [[Lee Konitz]] {{-}} [[Someone Took The Words Away]] {{-}} [[I'm In The Mood Again]] | ||
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Revision as of 22:59, 9 February 2022
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