Elvis Costello's Taking Liberties (Columbia) represents both a consumer service and a collector's nightmare.
Seventeen of the 20 songs have been previously released, but in obscure places — B-sides of singles, import albums, movie soundtracks. Costello's fans, anxious to hear everything His Grimness sets to wax, have spent considerable time and money tracking these down already.
And now, here they are, conveniently compiled on one disk. Sometimes being a collector doesn't pay.
At any rate, Taking Liberties is worthwhile, if for no other reason than it shows all of Costello's (many) quirks. There's a country song, "Stranger in the House," originally written for George Jones. There's a disco song, "Getting Mighty Crowded," written by Van McCoy, who gave us "The Hustle." There's also Elvis' rendition of "My Funny Valentine."
This is not to say, however, that all 20 cuts are prime stuff. They're not. (If they were that good, they wouldn't have been B-sides in the first place.)
The two best songs, "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" and "Night Rally," were left off the American version of This Year's Model, Costello's second album (they were on the import),
No one in rock music is more prolific than Costello. He writes songs by the ton, and just about all have some redeeming social value. So it is, too, with this crop. Taking Liberties is worth having and hearing, even if it's not the best of Elvis.
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