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Monday 8 August 2016

Turning The Town Red


For my birthday Mrs CC very kindly and very thoughtfully got me a portable turntable.
So the muso room now presently houses not one, not two but three turntables!
A man can't have enough turntables.

The main purpose of the recent foray to the Oxfam music shop which I referred to last week was to stock up on vinyl.
Meagre pickings I'm afraid but I came away with three 12 inch singles.
First up is I Wanna Be Adored by Elvis and his Attractions.
A very good song and one that features on Goodbye Cruel World.
However the main reason for purchasing this one was to get my hands on Turning the Town Red a track I did not previously have.
UK readers with long memories and a love of trivia will remember this as the theme tune to Scully a TV series written by Alan Bleasdale where Elvis played  the brother of the title character

Elvis Costello and the Attractions - I Wanna be Loved

Elvis Costello and the Attractions - Turning The Town Red

8 comments:

  1. Elvis just wanted to be loved, Ian wanted to be adored. Two great tunes from Costello's own least favourite period.

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  2. Yeah, Elvis always says Goodbye Cruel World is his worst album...I'm not sure I'd agree considering some of his more recent efforts, but this is from the era when I happily devoured anything he put out. I have Turning The Town Red on the GCW special edition CD, I think.

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  3. Three turntables? Grandmaster Charity Flash Chic!

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  4. This is the one bright spot during the Goodbye Cruel World era... particularly the B-side. I, of course, love the appearance of Green singing backup on the A-side too, but the album was the my first disappointment. EC went with the Langer/Winstanley formula one album too many, but I don't think it's all about production. Some argue that the stripped down versions of these songs heard as demos and on a solo acoustic tour around this time illustrate he still had the chops. I'm not buying it. This is an artist at a low point both personally and professionally. Thankfully, EC rebounded in a big way with King of America.

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    1. Spot on Brian. GCW is just so overproduce that I find it difficult to get through. I was never a fan of Almost Blue and it's deep country diving, but it has grown on me over the years more than Goodbye Cruel World.

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  5. Indeed King of America and Blood and Chocolate are his best imho

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  6. My favourites are Punch The Clock and Mighty Like A Rose, though your choices would be up there too.

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