Here’s an old Elvis Costello B-side, which I know from the album Taking Liberties. It was later released a few other times on various reissues of the Armed Forces album, which was recorded around the same time.
As usual with these Elvis Costello bonus tracks, I will leave the commentary to the man himself, who opined as follows in the Armed Forces liner notes:
Last week I bought Beck’s new album, Morning Phase, a sequel of sorts to 2002’s sublime break-up record Sea Change.
Morning Phase has the same somber tone and cry-in-your-beer lyrical style as Sea Change but goes in some different melodic and production directions, with some of its songs reminding me of everything from Simon & Garfunkel to Pink Floyd.
Earlier today I was waiting to pick up one of my daughters from soccer practice, while her sister sat next to me in the car.
Elliott Smith’s ‘The Biggest Lie’ came up on my stereo (I have my music library playing on random, making every trip I take basically Random Weekends on steroids).
That’s always been one of my favorite Smith tunes, but it hit me harder than usual this time.
‘Tell Me’ was the first song co-written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
At the time they were making an ok living recording covers of R&B songs, but their management knew the real money was in publishing. So the boys reluctantly kicked off what would become one of the most prolific and celebrated songwriting partnerships in music history.
I was shocked to see that I hadn’t already featured Jack Johnson’s ‘Upside Down’ as a Song of the Day.
Surely I’ve done a theme week on music from kids’ movies over the past five and a half years, right? How could this one have missed the cut?
I’m not a big fan of Jack Johnson. His laid-back Hawaiian beach bum vibe doesn’t really do it for me, and I find his music redundant. But this song is a blast.
Meet Me In Montauk 