Elvis Fridays #5: Covers & Inspiration

My last week at work before the summer break... though I do have to back in for one day in a week's time for interviews. We normally get 3 or 4 applications when we advertise a job because we're not well known in the sector for paying people what they're worth... but this week we had 28 applicants. Sign of the times.

Bit of a traumatic day yesterday as our new kitten Cosmo decided to launch himself out of the bathroom window into the back garden, landing on the patio. A quick trip to the vets and a hundred and fifty quid check-up and x-ray later... he seems OK. One of his nine lives is definitely gone though.

I should be feeling happy today, but it's going to take more than just temporary release to cure this fug. I can already feel the end of August fast approaching...

Get Happy!! (with two exclamation marks - which grammarians everywhere will tell you is unnecessary) is what Elvis Costello told us to do on his fourth album, a collection of pithy bursts of soul, rock, ska pop punk and more, including some choice covers.

The big "hit", I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down was first recorded by Sam & Dave in 1967. If you're only familiar with Elvis's version, the original may sound like it's being played at the wrong speed. But give it a minute or two and it soon turns into a monster soul weepie.



Of course, Elvis made it his own. The video features some great dance moves from the Attractions, plus Elvis eating a plate of chips with a slice of lemon on the harbour side - not a seagull in sight.

I Stand Accused was originally recorded in 1965 by Tony Colton & The Big Boss Band...



I'd never heard that version before today, but I have to say I love it. Great trumpets. I'm not sure if Elvis had heard it when he recorded the song though... likely he was more familiar with the version by The Merseybeats, which is a lot closer to what he did with the song.



I did also check out the version by Isaac Hayes... although that turned out to be a different song entirely... but still worthy of your attention, if you've got a spare 11 1/2 minutes...



You still can't beat Elvis though...



However, my favourite cover on Get Happy!! is Getting Mighty Crowded, which was written by Van McCoy and originally recorded by Betty Everett...



That's pretty fine. Real Supremes vibe to the backing track there.

But is it better than Elvis...?



2 minutes and 9 seconds. That's the way to do it!

I bet Kevin Rowland was a fan of that too.

OK, what about that other Elvis?

The one pictured on the cover of Shoplifters Of The World Unite by The Smiths (and in the video).

Well, they didn't just steal his image, did they?

They also stole his tunes...



You can't blame Johnny too much.

The original is irresistible...

Elvis Fridays #4: Let's Have A Party

Welcome to the end of the week. Time for a bit more Elvii.

Will Elvis Perkins make an appearance at some stage? asked Charity Chic.

Undoubtedly.



If you have room for "A Date With Elvis" by The Cramps give "What's Inside a Girl?" a listen, said Lynchie.



And there's the poet Elvis McGonagall & his band The Resurrectors, described as "an unholy marriage of radical stand-up poetry and Caledonian punkabilly rock ‘n roll"...

OK.

Here's his reaction to the government's handling of the coronavirus crisis...




Which brings us to the other two guys.

Last week, Brian commended my choice from Punch The Clock by revealing that it was the first Costello album he bought as a new release, after spending some time previous relishing the delights of his back catalogue.

Well, here's a track from the first Costello album I bought on release. It could have been Spike, but I know my copy of that has a little chip in the black plastic on the side of the CD case which represents that it was a promo copy or a reject. Probably I scrounged that out of the chuck outs box at work. But I remember buying the following album in a shop, and the lead single is still one of my favourite Costello tracks.

I know Mighty Like A Rose is the album where many fans became a little disillusioned with Elvis, but I love it still. It's an odd record (the "weirdy beardy" one) that pushes the boundaries musically and lyrically in places, but I played it to death at the time.

Here's that single, an anti-Beach Boys record in the very best sense... and it seems appropriate now that we're in July and the traditional British summer has finally arrived. All those beautiful sunny days at the start of lockdown seem but a distant memory now...

Was it a millionaire who said "imagine no possessions"?

A poor little schoolboy who said "we don't need no lessons"?

The rabid rebel dogs ransack the shampoo shop

The pop princess is downtown shooting up

And if that goddess is fit for burning

The sun will struggle up, the world will still keep turning

 


So finally then, to the King. And a story I've probably told before, but when has that ever stopped me?

In the first year of 6th Form, I appeared in the school panto. A comedic version of Robin Hood. My mate Simon, who always played the lead, was Robin. I was Little John. (I'm probably an inch taller than him, but always the sidekick...) He got the girl (Maid Marian), both on stage and off. I... got to "sing" the song that closed the first half. Well, not really sing, but mime and dance along to the track below, belting out of a backstage ghetto plaster. I did sing... you just couldn't hear me for the real deal. Which is probably for the best. Whenever I hear this track, I'm on that stage, gyrating my knees and hips, waiting for the curtain to fall one more time...

Elvis Fridays #3: Dreaded Nirvana

I didn't set out for Elvis Fridays to be a request feature, but neither am I going to turn them away, since it saves me having to do much thinking, which is problematic at the best of times, but lately...

Anyway, John Medd has an appropriate suggestion to kick us off this week...

I'd like to think you can find room in your heart for Dread Zeppelin - fronted, as I'm no doubt you're aware, by Tort Elvis. 



A seamless merge of Heartbreak Hotel with Led Zeppelin's Heartbreaker. Great stuff - just what this feature (and my doctor ordered) for turning my Friday frown upside down. Where have they been all my life?

And if that weren't enough, here's Rigid Digit again - clearly not content with Guest Posting yesterday, he wants to make it two days in a row...

May I point you in the direction of this chap?

He's sort of doing what you would think Elvis in the 90s/00s would've done - taking popular songs of the moment and Elvis-ifying them.

Whole Lotta Rosie - Pretty Vacant - Come As You Are - Sweet Home Alabama - Take Me Home Country Roads (to name but 5).

Now this guy I do remember, and I even have a copy of his 1998 debut album Gravelands, from which comes this...



OK, what about that other Elvis?

My favourite Costello album is Punch The Clock. It's a little less bitter than the albums that preceded it... and a little less clever than the albums that would follow it. It's rarely cited by critics as one of his best, probably because the production by Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley pitched Elvis closer to the pop arena (of 1983, at least) than ever before or after.

Lyrically though, this is Costello at the height of his pun-pop powers as far as I'm concerned...

I was committed to life and then commuted to the outskirts

With all the love in the world

Living for thirty minutes at a time with a break in the middle for adverts

But it's a wonderful world within these cinema walls

Where a shower of affection becomes Niagara Falls

And you wish she could step down from the screen to your seat in the stalls

But if stars are only painted on the ceiling above

Then who can you turn to and who do you love

I want to get out while I still can

I want to be like Harry Houdini

Now I'm the invisible man

My head is spinning round faster and faster

Here I stand on the edge of disaster

I'm shattered like a piece of crystal porcelain or alabaster

Crowds surround loudspeakers hanging from the lampposts

Listening to the murder mystery

Meanwhile someone's hiding in the classroom

Forging books of history

Never mind there's a good film showing tonight

Where they hang everyone everybody who can read and write

Oh that could never happen here... but then again it might.

Those last couple of lines seem more appropriate now than they were back then.



As for the other guy... well, I've posted a couple of tracks from his later years over the last couple of weeks, so it seems an appropriate time to go back to the beginning. Here's his debut single, from early 1954, when rock 'n' roll was just getting going. His voice changed a lot over the years, but the purity was there from the beginning. The song was originally recorded 8 years earlier by Arthur "Big Boy" Crudrup, although certain of the lyrics were originally written and recorded by Blind Lemon Jefferson back in 1926. Elvis always was a big music fan.

Elvis Fridays #2: Salad, Chips & Cookies

I had to start this week's Elvis Friday with the Sesame Street version of the Elvis Costello song I posted last week. Thanks very much to Rigid Digit for bringing this to my attention. It was too good to stay languishing in a comment box though...




The purpose of Elvis Fridays is to cheer me (and maybe you too) up after another long hard week of lockdown working. And that certainly did the trick.

Which other Elvis might I call upon to put a smile on my face this morning?

How about this one...?



And what about the King himself? What has he got that can compete with Kirsty and the Cookie Monster?

How about this rare live recording of Elvis singing Tony Joe White's classic Polk Salad Annie in his Vegas years. People make fun of the Vegas years, but I watch a performance like this, and damn it, what I wouldn't give to have been in that audience. From a 2020 perspective, 1970 looks like the place to be...

Elvis Fridays #1: Because...

...I don't need a reason. I just need something to make me feel a little better after another long, horrible week "at work".

The worst thing is, you can't even go out looking for another job right now, can you? I mean, who wants to go through the agony of applying for jobs when the world is already upside down? Doing a job interview in Teams? Starting work somewhere new but only actually meeting your colleagues via a computer screen?

And so, we cling to the awful old, upside down jobs we've got... because at least we've got a job right now, and so many don't... or soon won't. Be grateful for what you've got! Ughh.

So yes, I need Elvis Fridays right now. Because it means I can listen to this...

There must be lights burning brighter somewhere

Got to be birds flying higher in a sky more blue

If I can dream of a better land

Where all my brothers walk hand in hand

Tell me why, oh why, oh why can't my dream come true

There must be peace and understanding sometime

Strong winds of promise that will blow away the doubt and fear

If I can dream of a warmer sun

Where hope keeps shining on everyone

Tell me why, oh why, oh why won't that sun appear

We're lost in a cloud

With too much rain

We're trapped in a world

That's troubled with pain

But as long as a man

Has the strength to dream

He can redeem his soul and fly

Deep in my heart there's a trembling question

Still I am sure that the answer gonna come somehow

Out there in the dark, there's a beckoning candle

And while I can think, while I can talk

While I can stand, while I can walk

While I can dream, please let my dream

Come true, right now

...and I can listen to this...

I said, "I'm so happy I could die"

She said, "Drop dead" then left with another guy

That's what you get if you go chasing after vengeance

Ever since you got me punctured this has been my sentence

Oh, I used to be disgusted

And now I try to be amused

Since their wings have got rusted

You know the angels wanna wear my red shoes

But when they told me 'bout their side of the bargain

That's when I knew that I could not refuse

And I won't get any older

Now the angels wanna wear my red shoes

More next week. Unless things brighten up around here.