Sounds, April 20, 1985

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Sounds

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A bit on Costello


Barry Lazell

Anthony Pearce of Filton, Bristol, starts us off this week with the following letter:

"I don't think I've seen an item on Elvis Costello in Info Riot. Maybe this letter will provide a chance of getting his photo on your page! I'd like to know if you can give me details and, if possible, track listings of three imported Costello albums which seem to be impossible to find in Britain. The first is Live At The El Mocambo, which I think is American but may be Canadian, as that's where the El Mocambo club is; this may be a bootleg — maybe you can tell me. The other albums are Taking Liberties (American) and the mini-LP Almost New, which apparently comes from Australia — or is this just a shortened version of Almost Blue? And also, can you tell me if it's true that Costello's second album This Year's Model had different tracks in the USA from those in Britain?"


It's not up to me whose pic gets used on this page, but the Sounds subs are pretty soft-hearted, so they'll probably oblige when they read your heartfelt plea. We certainly have had items on Costello here in the past, though I've a feeling it may have been way back in the old Wax Fax days, when a lot of current readers were probably still into the Beano. However, on to the queries in hand:

The Live At The El Mocambo album started off as a limited-edition non-commercial promo circulated by Columbia Records of Canada — just a few hundred went to DJs, writers, radio stations and so on. It was done without Costello's permission and quickly halted when he objected, but there were already enough around to make it a prime item for bootlegging, which sure enough happened on a wide scale. Boots were available here about five years ago fairly easily, though, as these things always do, they have since vanished utterly. It's probably true to say that the album is a bootleg unless you were somehow to stumble upon one of the original 500-odd "legal but unauthorised" copies. (I doubt they can be told apart, if it comes to that.)

The album, as the title indicates, was a recording of a live set, and included the following songs: "Mystery Dance" / "Waiting For The End Of The World" / "Welcome To The Working Week" / "Less Than Zero" / "The Beat" / "Lip Service" / "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea" / "Little Triggers" / "Radio, Radio" / "Lipstick Vogue" / "Watching The Detectives" / "Miracle Man" / "You Belong To Me" / "Pump It Up."

Taking Liberties (US Columbia JC 36839) was a compilation of tracks from all over Costello's recording career which hadn't been used on previous American albums — exactly the same idea as the Ten Bloody Marys And Ten How's Your Fathers set which appeared here on F-Beat as a cassette (and later as an album on Imp), except that there are differences in the tracks used. These are the ones on the American album:

"Clean Money" / "Girls Talk" / "Talking In The Dark" / "Radio Sweetheart" / "Black And White World" / "Big Tears" / "Just A Memory" / "Night Rally" / "Stranger In The House" / "Clowntime Is Over" / "Getting Mighty Crowded" / "Hoover Factory" / "Tiny Steps" / "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea" / "Doctor Luther's Assistant" / "Sunday's Best" / "Crawling To The USA" / "Wednesday Week" / "My Funny Valentine" / "Ghost Train."

Almost New, a seven-track mini-album, is indeed Australian. It was released there in 1982 to tie in with an Australian tour, though is not a live recording but another compilation of odds and ends from previous singles and so on. Tracks are as follows:

"I'm Your Toy" / "Accidents Will Happen" / "Alison" / "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down" / "Green Shire" / "Pump It Up" / "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding." Probably the most interesting cuts on this are "Alison" and "Accidents Will Happen," which are not the original recordings from the My Aim Is True and Armed Forces albums respectively, but live versions recorded in Hollywood, originally to be found in the UK on the three-track live EP Live At Hollywood High, which was given away as a freebie with the first pressing of Armed Forces. The catalogue number of the Aussie release is F-Beat ELVIS 82 (subtle, huh?), and I would have thought it's still to be found on import if you look hard enough — unlike Taking Liberties, which actually had an import ban placed upon it in 1980 that probably still stands.

On your final question, there were a couple of track differences between the UK and American versions of the album This Year's Model — as indeed there were with all the first few Costello albums; that's one reason why the two compilations which came later varied in their track line-ups. In the particular case of This Year's Model, the US version lacked "Night Rally" and "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea," both of which were on the British pressing. Instead, it had "Radio, Radio," not included on a British LP until Ten Bloody Marys.... The sleeve photo, although obviously from the same session with Elvis posing behind a camera on a tripod, was also a different pose. The US Columbia number was JC 35331, though again I don't think it was ever widely imported.

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Sounds, April 20, 1985


Barry Lazell answers reader Anthony Pearce's questions on Live At The El Mocambo, Taking Liberties, Almost New and This Year's Model.

Images

1985-04-20 Sounds page 18.jpg
Page scan.

Cover.
1985-04-20 Sounds cover.jpg

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