Only Flame poll

clairequilty · Post by **clairequilty** » Tue Aug 24, 2004 10:53 pm

If it weren't for the GCW version, would we ever have had the chance to see Elvis with a mullet?

Cue the video.

And by mullet, I don't mean Daryll, though I dug his too.

Sour Milk Cow · Post by **Sour Milk Cow** » Tue Aug 24, 2004 11:11 pm

noiseradio wrote:Disc 2, track 1.

That's not really a demo, is it? It's a band version from the studio sessions. I don't believe EC has ever released the original demo, only the later demo with the lyrics he re-wrote for Aaron Neville.

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Tue Aug 24, 2004 11:55 pm

Whatever you want to call it. It's better.

wehitandrun · Post by **wehitandrun** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 12:01 am

Nope. It actually isnt even close.

Sour Milk Cow · Post by **Sour Milk Cow** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 12:29 am

I had previously wondered aloud as to whether the "original" demo was any more poppy, or whether it was more ballad-like, since he has never released that first demo version.

Referring to the new liners notes of the new reissues, Costello specifies that it was written in the ballad style. (He has been known to re-write history on occasion, but that sort of argument leads us down the garden path. Let's take him at his word.)

Here is what he says:

"The second song on the album, TOFIT, was originally written in the style heard on the live version in the final section of CD2. It was composed with Aaron Neville in mind. Our laboured attempt to record a band rendition with just such arcane arrangement (which opens CD2) goes a long way to justifying the modern R&B treatment to which it was finally subjected."

So it seems that EC would vote to keep the live ballad version, or perhaps even the ATUB demo. But he would seemingly vote to keep the Album version instead of the alternate take which opens the bonus disc. But clearly the ballad version is EC's preference, as we have known all along.

Another GCW-related issue-- I have always been mystified that EC seems to like the album recording of "Love Field" for some reason. I, myself, have always had difficulty warming to this track, and find the production as off-putting as that of "Home Truth" and "Worthless Thing." I wonder why EC likes it so much.

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 10:02 am

I think your analysis of his comments is good. But I disagree with him this time.

wehitandrun · Post by **wehitandrun** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 3:11 pm

Aw, Home Truth, I love it. The drum intro is unreplaceable.

stormwarning · Post by **stormwarning** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 5:22 pm

noiseradio wrote:I think your analysis of his comments is good. But I disagree with him this time.

Yeah, Elvis can be a prick when he really wants to be.

wehitandrun · Post by **wehitandrun** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 5:56 pm

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 7:44 am

wehitandrun · Post by **wehitandrun** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 11:26 am

Noise, please. We're talking about the ballad band version to the album version. That is one point apart. There are too many other variables when taking into consideration a live solo version or a solo demo recorded a decade later.

The solo versions are not the same as the ballad band version, so stop counting them as if it is "The Sax' versus the Rest".

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 1:27 pm

But the other three versions are MUCH closer together than the sax version. And how far apart the versions may have been recorded makes no difference at all. It's a matter of what sounds better to people. And anyway my point is the same: 20 people prefer some other version to the sax version. 8 people prefer the sax version. Sorry that bugs you.

Actually I'm not.

wehitandrun · Post by **wehitandrun** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 3:24 pm

It doesn't bug me. I, myself, prefer the other solo versions to the Ballad version- doesn't mean anything.

They aren't much closer by any means. Both are stripped down, big deal. The difference between electric garbage and acoustic greatness may seem small to your ears- but sorry, you're wrong.

As it stand, YOUR version got 9 votes, MY version got 8 votes. Sod off.

wehitandrun · Post by **wehitandrun** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 3:30 pm

When they were recorded also does effect things.

It effects which album the version appears on (which has to do with when everybody heard a certain version), and his voice was VERY different in 1989(worse actually), or 1996 (100000x better) than it was in 1984 (not a bad vocal, but different).

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 3:59 pm

Please refrain from adding things like "sod off" when expressing a difference of opinion. Thanks.

The strippied down nature of the other three is what MAKES them so similar. They sound vastly more alike than they sound like the sax version. It has to do with feel, tempo. The productions differ, but the acoustic live track sounds like a demo for the track one bonus disc of GCW. The ATUB version sounds like a later version of the same song. The GCW original release version sounds like an entirely different song. And I'd take ANY of the other three over the suxophone version.

stormwarning · Post by **stormwarning** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 4:33 pm

Back in '84, I bought a bootleg cassette tape, NY I think, of the US leg of the Elvis Solo tour. This tape had solo versions of many of the GCW songs before GCW had been released. I was excited, to say the least.

When I bought GCW I was horrified at what had happened to TOFIT, and to Worthless Thing. No matter how many times I played the album, I just couldn't get to like the songs that I had previously heard solo.

Maybe the 21-8 split (I haven't voted previously) is indicative of peoples recollections of 80's music. Having lived through the 80's and suffered from the first excesses of synth horns and pop over-production, I can never understand why Elvis let his songs be subjected to this treatment. If you weren't there, then maybe those songs are OK.

I'm delighted that the acoustic versions have been released, but they haven't yet erased the memories of the sax version or indeed the video.

For what it's worth, I saw EC with sax accompaniment (Gary Barnacle) on his GCW tour. This was also a disappointment, and I confess to enjoying the support band more (well it was The Pogues). The highlight of my night was my bass player mate's reaction to watching Pete Thomas. He was simply beaming after the concert.

So, having been there, seen that and bought the (pink) T-Shirt, I can add some heavyweight support to Noise's argument. The sax version is shite (as we say in England).

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 4:35 pm

Well said, and thanks.

stormwarning · Post by **stormwarning** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 4:57 pm

When I first heard the solo version, and the way the song ended with the repeated line 'She's not the ONLY flame..' it was as if he was trying to fool himself. She WAS the one, but he had to convince himself otherwise.

When I heard the album version, the entire context changed. It sounded like a lads Friday night out (OK not her, on to the next one). The appearance of then sex god Daryl Hall on the song and video, not to mention the token skirts, simply reinforced this notion of boys out on the town.

So with the album release, the song changed from a story of love lost to one of absolutely no meaning or consequence. This change bothers me far more than the presence of the sax.

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 5:53 pm

That's the first time I've heard (?) an american say 'sod off'....more british phrases please WHAR!

I have to say actually WHAR, you seem like a bit of a britophile...you knew about Sean of the Dead, Ali G, The Streets, AND you said 'Sod off'...nice one.

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 6:22 pm

I don't Adam n' Eve how much leeway this guy gets. What a bubble.

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 6:34 pm

Bubble? Do you mean he's Greek, as in 'bubble and squeak'...I don't speak cockney fluently!

stormwarning · Post by **stormwarning** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 6:39 pm

laughingcrow wrote:you seem like a bit of a britophile...you knew about Sean of the Dead, Ali G, The Streets.

It's official. 5000 years of British culture is now available on Soulseek.
Download it from the closited cosiness of your own room, while you still can.

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 7:42 pm

laughingcrow wrote:

Bubble? Do you mean he's Greek, as in 'bubble and squeak'...I don't speak cockney fluently!

"bubble" as in bubble bath-----> laugh. (Say it out loud).

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 7:42 pm

stormwarning wrote: It's official. 5000 years of British culture is now available on Soulseek.
Download it from the closited cosiness of your own room, while you still can.

I won't pay! You can't make me, guv!

wehitandrun · Post by **wehitandrun** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 9:45 pm

Ha...ha.

Actually, "sod off" for me has originated from years of loving the Buffyverse.

Ali G, Simon Pegg, The Office, The Streets, Elvis Costello- these things are just better than everything else.

Noise, you're getting on my nerves now. Stormwarning, I didn't appreciate your ridiculous soulseek comment either. FUCK off. How's that for American?

Elvis Costello Fan Forum

Only Flame poll

Which version of The Only Flame in Town should exist if it was the only Elvis song anyone would ever hear?