Elvis when you least expect it

[spooky girlfriend]

Heard Pump It Up in Marshall's last night with Doc.

Jess heard Radio Radio at Bed, Bath & Beyond and she also heard Green Shirt while at Potbelly's in Chicago with friends last week.

[StrictTime]

Found a This Year's Model cassette in a toy shop (which also sold vinyl. CD, and cassette, strangely) today. The US version, but I got it because, well, it's Elvis.

[johnfoyle]

http://www.hotlippy.com/



U2 frontman Bono and frequent annoying flyer Penelope Cruz have spent the past week together on the French Riviera, sparking “concernsâ€

[And No Coffee Table]

Dialogue on last night's episode of "The Dead Zone":

"Remember that concert in '94 we went to?"

"Oh, Elvis Costello at Great Woods. That was a fantastic show. In fact, that whole weekend was pretty fantastic."

(And he really did play Great Woods in '94.)

[thepopeofpop]

I just found a copy of the "Brilliant Mistake/True Love Ways" 7" single on a clearance rack at my local record store for $2.99! Reduced from $8.99

I didn't know it had even made its way to Australia! Naturally I nabbed it.

[Who Shot Sam?]

Two recent Elvis encounters - the theme music to PBS' History Detectives is, of course, "Watching the Detectives". Also, "Pump It Up" is played regularly at Giants Stadium for Red Bulls games, just before kick off. It's a shame the team hasn't been taking EC's advice lately.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Pump It Up was used in some teen sitcom/drama my boy was watching the other day. It sounded great, which is funny as it's generally in the 'unlistenable due to over-exposure' category for me. Just goes to show what serendipity can do for a song.

[StrictTime]

Playing Jeopardy online with the boys, 2 Elvis questions. One about What's So Funny...and one asking you to name the artist who went with the debut album.

[Mr. Average]

"Prankster 'Weird Al" at Fraze pulls an Elvis - Costello, that is"-Ron Rollins/Culture Clash segment July 08 2007

I remember the moment, Friday before last, when it occurred to me that "Weird Al" Yankovic is a genius. I already knew he was smart. The guy's clever wordplay and witty persona have been hard to miss for the last couple of decades, and he long ago proved himself a dead-on parodist. But there's a big difference between cleverness and absolute, scintillating brilliance, and my realization of his membership in the latter category came fairly late in his June 29 Fraze Pavilion show.

Yankovic emerged on stage after one of his innumerable costume changes, this time wearing the black coat, broad-brimmed hat and exploding-broom beard that signalled he was about to do one of his best-loved numbers, the Coolio rap parody "Amish Paradise." He got a couple of verses in, and then suddenly quit.

"Stop! Stop! I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, there's just no reason to do this song here," he declared, waving his hands and cutting off the tune. Then he and the band launched into Elvis Costello's "Radio, Radio" — and played it straight, without any embellishment or comic mutilation. It was, in fact, the only song all night that wasn't meant for comedic effect.
So, then, what was it meant for? A lot of people asked me later; plenty of folks clearly didn't get what Yankovic was doing.

To understand, you have to rewind the history dial back to 1977, when a then-young Elvis Costello made strange waves with his first appearance on the then-young "Saturday Night Live" by pulling a wacky stunt with his set list. When he came on to play his second song of the show, he and the Attractions started "Less Than Zero," but about two verses in, he stopped, waved his arms and said — yes, by now you've guessed it — "Stop! Stop! I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, there's just no reason to do this song here!" They then launched into "Radio, Radio."

You can find the whole episode on YouTube, and it's worth checking out as a bit of pop trivia and weirdness that really didn't mean much more than the fact that EC was trying to use live television to establish himself as edgy and unpredictable. And it worked — I remember thinking, "What the heck?" and talking about it with friends for days afterward. It was the '70s equivalent of the TV going black at the end of the last "Sopranos."

Still, it's obscure today — but by golly, that sure didn't stop "Weird Al" from plucking it out the misty memory vaults of ancient entertainment history and making it the turning point of his show.

Here, the guy has spent the evening riffing on losers like Kevin Federline and mocking stuffed shirts like Michael Stipe, going every time for the broad, easy laugh. I already had little doubt that he's one of the best synthesizers of American pop culture, or that he's way smarter than most of the people he makes fun of. But the Elvis Costello trick proved a few things more: He's not afraid to shoot way over the heads of his audience; he doesn't fancy himself stuck with a young-teenmale fan base; he still fancies himself, more than anything, a child of the '70s; and he's happy for you to either get it — or not. Either way, he's cool.

Where are those petitions to get him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? You know what? He's probably too good for that place.


Copyright, 2007, Cox Ohio Publishing. All rights reserved.

[TX_Fan]

I'm a little embrrassed to admit, but tonight the family and I were watching "America's Got Talent". When they dismissed "Butterscotch the beatboxer" and showing her highlights, they played "She".
I sang along to annoy my wife & 16-yr-old son. They give me grief for being such an avid EC fan.

[sabreman]

Wild Bill just passed. Snip of Pump It Up near the end. BTW this is classic Baltimoron. Enjoy!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cVoSYXQ1EEM

[StrictTime]

On the radio on the way home from NJ. Everyday I Write The Book.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Twice today. Once in Eat, a cafe in town. Sat upstairs, largely empty, with my family, reading the sad tale of Andy Kershaw's marriage splitting up, him losing his Radio 3 World Music slot and hitting the sauce, when a familiar blues riff and voice come to me: The Delivery Man! It sounded magnificent. Made me think of people who were into his hits in the 80s and lost track of him hearing it now and thinking 'still sounds great'.

Then on University Challenge, which I watch with a heavy heart having failed to make our work team for University Challenge: The Professionals, but feeling in part I wasn't helped in the selection process by having little in the way of music questions and awful things for literature such as 'what was the name of 'the French Lieutenant's Woman'?', which I had no clue about depsite having seen the film again last year, and having said heart somewhat lightened by there being a question to which the answer was 'Ziggy Stardust', even though they simultaneously disgusted me by asking 'from which 1973 David Bowie album'. They had a round about string quartets, and the third question was '... who have collaborated with Bjork and Elvius Costello'. Thick twats didn't even hazard a guess, nor did they get the Kronos quartet question. Hope our work team fare better.

[StrictTime]

Some kid wore shirt that said 'Elvis' across the front today. Probably Presley, but some kid asked him: 'Elvis? Costello? Presley?' This kid also knew who Joni Mitchell and Charles Mingus were. Thumbs-up in my book.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Or Elvis Perkins?

[verbal gymnastics]

Or Elvis Singh

http://www.aardvarkcymru.co.uk/singh.htm

[mood swung]

Elvis Stojko!

[johnfoyle]

http://publications.mediapost.com/index ... _aid=67262


By Larry Dobrow, Tuesday, Sep 11, 2007

(extract)

HERE'S SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN to me very often: I've been tagged as a hateful racist. It happened on Sunday morning at a Starbucks on Columbus Avenue in Manhattan. Entering in search of a caffeinated beverage to propel me through 13 hours of shouting at the TV, I was approached by a young Asian man. Looking upset and just a little bit unhinged, he said, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't be offended by the image on your t-shirt." ( see above) When I asked him what he meant, he responded, "That image is offensive to people of Asian descent." Confused, I expressed my firm conviction that, to the best of my knowledge, Asian people don't have major issues with Elvis Costello, nor with Matt Groening caricatures thereof. "That's not Elvis Costello," he responded, very sure of himself. "That's a crude caricature of an Asian man. You obviously have hate in your heart." I allowed that yes, I do have hate in my heart, but that it's generally reserved for stupid people. And then, even before I finished my sentence, he bolted out of the store as if shot by a cannon

[DrSpooky]

How about a computer trade magazine? The September 10, 2007 issue of eWeek included a print version of a blog that used Pump It Up and Radio, Radio as the hook for a well deserved rant on the RIAA and Internet Radio.

http://blogs.eweek.com/rapoza/content/l ... dio_1.html

From "Pump It Up for Web Radio" by Jim Rapoza:

"In the classic song "Radio Radio," Elvis Costello sang the words, "They say you better listen to the voice of reason. But they don't give you any choice because they think that it's treason."

Of course that song is nearly thirty years old so I doubt that Elvis Costello and the Attractions were talking about Web radio. But much of the anger and contempt that Elvis was directing at commercial radio of the time holds true for the controversy raging today over Web radio. "

There is more at the URL above.

[alexv]

This past Friday, it's about 5 in the afternoon and I'm at the Sports Authority at the Citicorop Center in NYC having my daughter's tennis racket restrung, and Talking in the Dark comes on the store sound system.

[StrictTime]

On the news yesterday. They were talking about Diana at the Monterrey Jazz Festival. Also caught him on Austin Powers.

[TX_Fan]

I was listening/watching some European golf tournament on the golf channel while surfing the web on the computer. When one of the golfers hit a tee shot in the fairway, the British announcer said..."Nice shot, he's out there Safe as Houses"...I had to smile...I had not heard this phrase outside of "Indoor Fireworks"

[Who Shot Sam?]

I was at the supermarket this afternoon shopping for ingredients for Beef Bourgignon (my mother had bought a ton of mushrooms when she was here and I didn't know what else to do with them). I managed to find everything I needed with the exception of fresh thyme, when for some reason the end of "Party Girl" popped into my head.

[oily slick]

a lot of elvis during the world series last night. red shoes as they played out the end of the 4th inning and pump it up was mixed in later on.

[Who Shot Sam?]

a lot of elvis during the world series last night. red shoes as they played out the end of the 4th inning and pump it up was mixed in later on.

"Pump It Up" has become a bit of a staple in stadiums. The Red Bulls play it just before kick off at their home matches at Giants Stadium. I think I heard it at the last Rangers game I attended at MSG as well.