the beloved entertainer

connorratliff:

Elvis Costello & The Attractions: “The Only Flame In Town (alternate video)”

No, this isn’t the original, officially released video for “The Only Flame In Town” featuring Daryl Hall.

This is the alternate version that was filmed but never released except as a DVD “easter egg.” It features:

• 20 seconds of inexplicable silence at the beginning of the video. It was a different era. Nowadays, nothing on earth would ever, ever have 20 seconds of silence at the beginning of it. Blame twitter!
• Elvis without his glasses. For some reason, this makes the gap between his two front teeth seem much more prominent.
• Elvis sporting what appears to be something close to a “rattail.” 

Clearly he was trying something. Also, I think this was around the time of his first divorce, so maybe this video is a cry for help.

CONFESSION: despite the fact that this is probably the most “80s” song Costello ever recorded, I went from disliking it to considering it a “guilty pleasure” to full-on liking it in spite of everything. 

A warning to the Youth Of Today: be very careful about liking anything “ironically.” You will eventually tire of the ironic part and those will just be things you actually like.

connorratliff:

Elvis Costello: “The Making Of Almost Blue”

I uploaded this to YouTube. It’s an hour-long episode of the South Bank Show from 1981, when a documentary crew followed Costello & The Attractions as they went to Nashville to make an album of country songs written by other people.

I didn’t like this album much at first, but I grew to appreciate it. It was certainly the oddball record out of all of his early ones, although it now makes a lot more sense given the more varied kinds of projects he’s done over the past thirty years.

Anyway: this is a really enjoyable look at Costello at a point where he is struggling to figure out what his next move is.

guitarmanjb:

Basically the most wordplay I’ve heard in a song since Cole Porter.