Tag Archives: Trust

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Song of the Day #246: ‘Shot With His Own Gun’ – Elvis Costello

trustWith today’s selection, I’m breaking from my usual rule of featuring only album cuts. This is an interesting clip of ‘Shot With His Own Gun’… it appears to have been filmed as a simple music video more than a live performance. I’m not sure where it originally aired.

I’m OK using the non-album cut in this case because the song as it appears on Trust is similarly bare-bones. It’s just Costello on vocals and the fabulous Steve Nieve on piano. I do regret that this version leaves out the nice piano solo in the middle of the album version, but mostly it’s spot on.

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Song of the Day #98: ‘New Lace Sleeves’ – Elvis Costello

It’s pretty amazing that, if you set aside the theme-week duet with Lucinda Williams, I’ve written about 96 songs without featuring a solo Elvis Costello tune. Elvis is the king of my music collection. I have pretty much everything he’s ever recorded, from the early post-punk Attractions albums through his experimental Beatles-esque stuff, on to the chamber music and Burt Bacharach detours and back to his recent return to his rock-and-roll roots.

He’s the most prolific and fascinating songwriter I know and an artist whose love of music — all kinds of music — is infectious. In many ways, loving Costello means not just being a fan but a student. A student of language and a student of sound.

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