Elvis Costello's The Right Spectacle
By Fred Muller
August 2006
The Right Spectacle: The Very Best Of Elvis Costello – The Videos
Warner Video
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| The Right Spectacle is a collection of Elvis Costello videos. |
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| Costello's commentary is also available as subtitles. The video is Oliver's Army. |
In recent years Elvis Costello thought he could be all things to all people, recording with the Brodsky Quartet, Burt Bacharach and symphony orchestras while making ponderous, obtuse albums like North.
This video, which thankfully doesn’t include any of the above, reminded me of why I took to him in the first place: his late 70s and early 80s songs were instantly engaging and, although his career commenced round about the time that punk broke, it soon became apparent that he had more to offer. What caught my ear was the terrific Attractions as backing group plus his talent with words as he peppered songs with lines like “put on the brakes to get out of her clutches” (New Amsterdam) and “you may not be an old-fashioned girl but you’re gonna get dated” (Girls Talk).
The main menu features 27 chronologically arranged videos from (I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea and Pump It Up – filmed on the same evening, after much whiskey, against a white backdrop with Elvis discovering that his ankles are double-jointed – to his last Warners single. My view is that as the videos became more expensive and arty – Accidents Will Happen excepted – song quality fell away.
It would have been an improved package had there been more than just Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood from the King of America album – but perhaps no others were filmed. Also, something from his work with Bill Frisell would have been welcome – again, perhaps there’s no visual record available.
There’s a commentary from Elvis too. As one has come to expect from his ramblings in his sometimes bewildering CD re-issue programme, this adds value. One can hear his comments on another soundtrack but, as this places the music in the background, I found it preferable to leave the soundtrack unchanged and bring up the commentary as subtitles. I’m fairly new to this video/DVD thing so perhaps this is a standard feature.
The secondary menu takes one through an hour of TV appearances spanning 1977 to 1983 and commences with a fragment of Alison followed by No Dancing and Lip Service from Granada TV’s So It Goes which, the booklet informs us, was hosted by Tony Wilson who would later found Factory Records and who was portrayed by Steve Coogan in the film 24 Hour Party People. On his first album, My Aim Is True, on which these songs were released, Elvis was backed by Huey Lewis’ band; here the Attractions do the honours.
A spirited Radio Radio is seen in a performance taped for the Revolver show – complete with pogo-ing youngsters down front and a large portrait of the late comedian Peter Cook at the back of the stage. And so on, with film from the Dutch Pink Pop Festival in 1979 where they shared the bill with the Police, Dire Straits and headliner Peter Tosh, via his diatribe against the Falklands War, Shipbuilding, from The Tube and ending with the live debut of Peace In Our Time from Swedish TV.
I suspect that, as more recent TV footage is found and copyright clearance obtained, further compilations will appear. For now, though, these artefacts show that early Elvis was maybe the best. And isn’t that also the case with the other Elvis?
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