Elvis Costello - 1979-04-01 New York (3rd Show)

<<   1979-04-01 New York (3rd show)

Elvis Costello And The Attractions
Great Gildersleeves
New York, NY
1 April 1979 (Third Show)


01. Accidents Will Happen
02. Opportunity
03. Two Little Hitlers
04. Oliver's Army
05. Talking In The Dark
06. (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea
07. I Stand Accused
08. Green Shirt
09. Roadette Song
10. Radio, Radio
11. High Fidelity - slow version
12. Big Boys
13. Lipstick Vogue
14. Watching The Detectives
15. Pump It Up
16. You Belong To Me


Elvis Costello - vocals, guitar
Steve Nieve - keyboards
Bruce Thomas - bass
Pete Thomas - drums


Recorder: Unknown
Lineage: Unknown

Comments by area51GM:


40 years on ........................................

Though strictly speaking, this concert actually took place at 3 am on 2nd April (happy birthday Janet!) so my efforts have been rewarded with beating the clock for once. It's pretty difficult to find any sign of fatigue or weariness in either Elvis' demeanour and voice or the Attractions' playing in this final gig where they have played a total of in excess of 45 songs in three different venues across the city - and a huge acknowledgement to the road crew who shifted heaven and earth almost literally to enable this to have taken place. Even at this point Elvis rings the changes with two fresh songs being added to the repertoire, Talking In The Dark making only it's second ever known live appearance and after this show disappearing until 5 years later in the first ever Elvis Costello solo tour in spring 1984. There's no hint of rustiness in the performance and Steve's twinkling keyboards only allude to the tour de force that this would become on the Costello/Nieve shows of 1999 and 2003. Also making its first appearance since March 1978 in Dublin and, indeed its penultimate performance ever, is Ian Drury's Roadette Song - a piece I've always felt ambivalent about as though Elvis is demeaning himself by singing these rather sleazy lyrics when he can express disdain for modern sexual mores so much more profoundly and articulately. My favourite version of this song is the one coming up from Bethlehem but only for the segue into the perfect version of High Fidelity (Berlin rendition). Elvis doesn't talk so much between songs here and fails to attempt to undermine the local radio stations in his introduction to Radio, Radio but merely calls the sing his "hit single that we never had". There's a glitch towards the end of this song and also what may well be a tape flip at the beginning of Big Boys so that the first few seconds are missing. Both Lipstick Vogue and Detectives are foreshortened with very limited instrumental sections and there's a sense of hitting the final furlong with Pump It Up and You Belong To Me. I received this on cassette as a trade in the early 80s and it seems like a decent enough recording, but needed to be slowed down as it progressed to keep it all in key.

Lineage: TDK SA C90 cassette > Sony TC WE475 cassette player > NAD 660 CD Recorder > CD-R > EAC > Nero 8 for volume and pitch adjustment > TLH > FLAC