How funny to see this video a couple of days after that clip of Elvis Costello in full elder statesman mode playing folk ballads alongside Mumford & Sons.
The pigeon-toed dancing and fuck-the-world sneer seem to belong to another artist than the man we’ve come to know in the 35 years since. Forget Springsteen and Dylan, perhaps Elvis Costello has had the most extraordinary career.
I’ve written a couple of times this week about how the internet has changed the way we experience music — big newsflash there, I know.
Today’s clip is another wonderful example.
As a promotion for Bono’s ONE campaign, Elvis Costello teamed up with Mumford & Sons to perform a mash-up of Bruce Springsteen and Woody Guthrie. This may well have happened in a pre-YouTube era, but would I have seen it?
My Random Weekends have turned up a lot of bonus tracks from Elvis Costello’s many reissues, so it’s nice to see an actual album cut pop up today.
This Year’s Model, Costello’s second album, is a fast and furious collection of brainy punk pop, world’s away from the material he would go on to release in the decades to come.
Here’s another in the long line of random tracks culled from Elvis Costello’s many reissues.
I’ll be honest, I would probably never hear these songs if it weren’t for Random Weekends. It’s not that they aren’t worthy… I just don’t have much patience for bonus tracks in general. That’s like watching deleted scenes rather than a favorite movie.
From one of the reissues of Elvis Costello’s Goodbye Cruel World comes this live rendition of a standout track from a much better album, Get Happy!
In an uncharacteristically brief mention in the album’s liner notes, Costello explains that today’s track — along with a few others — was recorded during his first-ever solo tour.
Meet Me In Montauk 