Elvis Costello: Taking Liberties

Elvis Costello: Taking Liberties

1980

Columbia Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1.  Clean Money  2. Girls Talk  3. Talking in the Dark  4. Radio Sweetheart  5. Black and White World (Demo version)  6. Big Tears  7. Just a Memory  8. Night Rally  9. Stranger in the House  10. Clowntime Is Over (Version 2)  11. Getting Mighty Crowded  12. Hoover Factory  13. Tiny Steps  14. (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea  15. Dr Luther's Assistant  16. Sunday's Best  17. Crawling to the U.S.A.  18. Wednesday Week  19. My Funny Valentine  20. Ghost Train




Any Elvis Costello fan will you tell you that he was on such a roll from 1977-1980 that even his B-sides and outtakes are essential...And damn, did he do a lot of them...Consider this output...In three years, he released 4 classic albums and an hour-long album with 20 freakin' outtakes on it! And they're all good...As good as any of the stuff from the albums, even...And this isn't even all of them...I can name many other outtakes from this era that aren't represented here!

 If you bought all the EC reissues, then you have all these, but I still strongly recommend listening to them in this format....Free of rougher demos  and mostly free of repetitive alternate takes (although a couple of alternate takes do pop up and are easily the worst things here. The "Version 2" of "Clowntime is Over" is agonizingly slow if you're familiar with the original). This is like a greatest hits album of those bonus discs...This is where you can just pick up a single record and hear "Girls Talk" and "Crawling to the USA." There are a couple overly-familiar tracks like "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea," "Night Rally" and "Sunday's Best" which are here because they were left off the US versions of their respective albums.

Highlights are too numerous to mention. "Hoover Factory" with its bizarre arrangement that somehow works perfectly,  that amazing opening guitar figure and organ that kick off "Big Tears,"  every single second of "Tiny Steps." "Stranger in the House" is also interesting since it has Elvis going full-on country years before "Almost Blue" or "King of America." I find "Getting Mighty Crowded" intriguing since it seems too legitimately soul for even "Get Happy!" I've also always been a big fan of the lovely, straight pop of "Dr Luther's Assistant."

I can only imagine what a treasure trove this must have seemed like back when it was released. Elvis and the Attractions were just an unstoppable new wave juggernaut at this point. The best songwriter of the late 70's-early 80's? Hell yes. And here's further proof...And the best part is you can always find this album cheap as balls in any respectable record store.

Here's "Tiny Steps" by Elvis Costello and those rascally Attractions...Enjoy...