Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Pretty self-explanatory
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And No Coffee Table
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Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by And No Coffee Table »

emotional_fascism076
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by emotional_fascism076 »

Wow. Quite a year of goodies for us EC fans.
Who on earth is tapping at the window?
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verbal gymnastics
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by verbal gymnastics »

On my first listening it sounded very much like Hippy Hippy Shake with a bit of No particular place to go.

I love it - very 1960s.
Who’s this kid with his mumbo jumbo?
Hawksmoor
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by Hawksmoor »

Bloody brilliant. What a wonderful end to a year in which Elvis has stepped up to the plate and provided so much exciting new music. I'll be playing that non-stop today. OK, it is 'Hippy Hippy Shake' with new lyrics, but who cares? Truthfully, if this had been presented as an out-take from Blood and Chocolate I would have believed it. Lovely.

And furthermore...this sounds for all the world like a full-band recording, and Elvis has previously said that he ended up with vocal percussion on the Helsinki tracks because he can't play the drums. Dare we hope this might be an Imposters recording?
bronxapostle
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by bronxapostle »

Farewell indeed.... sounds IMPOSTERS to me
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by Hawksmoor »

From the news/Wiki page...

A new song by Elvis Costello and The Imposters was posted to YouTube on December 31, 2020.

Get in. Best end to this shit year that I could have hoped for. Feels like a distant cousin of 'Go Away', which I always liked, but felt it was a bit of a throwaway. This is like 'Go Away' filtered through a manic 1986 performance of 'Leave My Kitten Alone'.
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And No Coffee Table
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by And No Coffee Table »

EC's tweets about this song have been cryptic, but "Gentleman, I salute you #petethomas #stevenieve #daveyfaragher #sebastiankrys #theimposters" seems like confirmation that it is an Imposters recording produced (or co-produced) by Sebastian Krys.

Another tweet refers to "The Shape Of Things To Come 2021."
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by JerseyPride78 »

And No Coffee Table wrote:EC's tweets about this song have been cryptic, but "Gentleman, I salute you #petethomas #stevenieve #daveyfaragher #sebastiankrys #theimposters" seems like confirmation that it is an Imposters recording produced (or co-produced) by Sebastian Krys.

Another tweet refers to "The Shape Of Things To Come 2021."
To get a new LP in this vein in 2021 (potentially to be produced by Nick Lowe), be still my heart!!!
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by docinwestchester »

JerseyPride78 wrote:To get a new LP in this vein in 2021 (potentially to be produced by Nick Lowe), be still my heart!!!
Would be sweet
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by Arnie »

I like it a lot. Reminds me a lot "Beaten to the Punch" and also "Go Away".

Could he also be referring to Trump? I think so.
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by sweetest punch »

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/musi ... 0-1108989/

Elvis Costello Bids Goodbye to a Bad Year With New Song ‘Farewell, OK 2020’
Irish rocker closes out pandemic year with surprise kiss-off

Elvis Costello sends one final kiss-off to this pandemic year with his surprise new song “Farewell, OK 2020,” which the singer dropped on YouTube hours before 2021’s arrival.

Costello showcases his rapid-fire wit on the energetic track as the Irish rocker puts the finishing touches on what amounted to a lost year. “The Shape Of Things To Come 2021,” he tweeted of the song. “Farewell, OK / You’ll be on way / You’ll be on your own now / Much to my dismay,” Costello sings. “I can’t go on / After what you’ve done.”

(...)
Last edited by sweetest punch on Fri Jan 01, 2021 5:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by sweetest punch »

https://www.udiscovermusic.com/news/elv ... l-ok-2020/

Hear Elvis Costello’s New Year-End Single ‘Farewell, OK 2020’
Costello closes out the year by bidding, ‘Farwell, OK/You’ll be on your way.’

Elvis Costello is closing out 2020 with a new song bidding farewell to a tumultuous year. The new song is titled “Farewell, OK 2020,” and it’s an upbeat, hard-rocking song in the vein of his late-’70s new wave material.

He opens the track with the line, “Farewell, OK/You’ll be on your way,” and its lyrics reflect the frustration and challenges that will probably seem familiar to most this year, like “I can’t go on after what you’ve done” and “I can’t get the stain off my hands ever since.”

(...)
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by Hawksmoor »

The lyrics page on the main site says 'approximate lyrics — corrections welcome' but I don't know to whom to respond?

In the last verse, I don't think it's 'a salving of Elvis' - I'm pretty sure it's 'a sample of Elvis'...
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by Man out of Time »

Hawksmoor wrote:The lyrics page on the main site says 'approximate lyrics — corrections welcome' but I don't know to whom to respond?

In the last verse, I don't think it's 'a salving of Elvis' - I'm pretty sure it's 'a sample of Elvis'...
Thanks Hawksmoor. The Wiki is a collaborative effort. I am grateful to Nunki for the first draft of the lyrics to "Farewell, OK 2020". If anyone has suggestions for amendments, it is fine to post them here.

MOOT
sweetest punch
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by sweetest punch »

Second version (spoken word): https://youtu.be/a-7LwEO0XBw
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by sweetest punch »

And No Coffee Table wrote:
Video removed by the uploader!!
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
Neil.
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by Neil. »

Grargh, I missed this one!

Just the scary spoken version remains. Boo hoo!

Aw well - HAPPY NEW YEAR, ALL!!
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by Fishfinger king »

This is very strange.
Why post a new song then take it down after 48 hours with no explanation? And also delete the tweets associated with it?
Hopefully it will reappear soon in some form or other - it was very enjoyable!!
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Hawksmoor
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by Hawksmoor »

Fishfinger king wrote:This is very strange.
Why post a new song then take it down after 48 hours with no explanation? And also delete the tweets associated with it?
Hopefully it will reappear soon in some form or other - it was very enjoyable!!
I think it's just in the spirit of playfulness and larking about with the ways in which new music is made available these days. I enjoy regarding 'Farewell OK' as the new 'single' and in my head, the spoken word/alternative version is its B-side!

And I wouldn't worry about its future appearance - I'd be 90% confident it will be on the new Imposters LP, whenever that emerges.
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by cwr »

It's not unlike the days when one might hear a song pop up on the radio before an album is released-- you might catch all of it or some of it, you might even be quick enough to hit record, but if not, you gotta wait till the record is released!

(This was my pre-release experience of Brutal Youth in 1994. A local radio station was playing songs for weeks before it came out, and I was catching a few on cassette but I was driving when I heard them play "Sully Girl" and I had to wait weeks before I could hear it a second time!)

I think in this case, he thought the sentiment was so appropriate for a "goodbye to 2020" that he couldn't resist. He did a similar thing for the Spanish language version of "Crawling To The USA"-- it was on Spotify for his "50 Songs In 50 Days" project and then it vanished, presumably until the full LP gets released later this year. I think he is enjoying dropping things like that for fun and then yanking them away until the proper release date...
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by Hawksmoor »

cwr wrote:It's not unlike the days when one might hear a song pop up on the radio before an album is released-- you might catch all of it or some of it, you might even be quick enough to hit record, but if not, you gotta wait till the record is released!
Absolutely, and it even reminds me of something EC said way back, about his early (but now unavailable) B-sides and rarities: 'if you weren't there, you missed it!'

Of course, that was in the dim and distant days before multi-CD/box-set reissues became a serious earner for major artists, and even in the days when every piece of music that anyone ever recorded would be available somewhere on the internet.

I also remember (others will remember the timing and the details more accurately than I) his pronouncement that making physical LPs/CDs was a fool's errand (financially), and that henceforth he would devote his time and energy to (a) touring, and (b) finding new and interesting ways to release music inline. That was a good few years ago, and I received that news with dismay: being a child of the 60s/70s, the main way I showed an interest in any artist was in collecting the records/CDs that they released.

Ironically, the lockdown/Covid situation, horrible though it obviously is, seems to have piqued EC's interest in different ways of recording and releasing new music - particularly as, for the foreseeable future, he can't play live concerts.

So we now have the double blessing of actual CDs/LPs of new music, but simultaneously, lots of larking about with daft things on the internet, rarities, alternative versions, 'limited edition' releases...I'm loving it. His passion for music - and crucially, his interest in his own music - is way beyond that of most artists of his age and career-point, and frankly, way beyond most artists who are 30 years his junior.

I honestly feel this is a golden age to be an Elvis Costello fan.
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by Ymaginatif »

Hawksmoor wrote:
I honestly feel this is a golden age to be an Elvis Costello fan.
To me, it feels a lot more like pewter. Or even asbestos ...

But glad you're enjoying it :D
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by Hawksmoor »

Well, everything's been taken down now - from YouTube, from the official EC page, everything. I hope colleagues managed to grab the alternative/spoken word version of 'Farewell OK' while it was (briefly) available. Based on nothing more than a hunch, I'm guessing that the full-band version will eventually appear on an Imposters LP. But it's entirely possible that the spoken word version has vanished into the ether and will remain a hard-to-find curio.

Not that I'll be playing the spoken word version all that often. But as a completist/collector, it is kind of nice to have it.
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by krm »

Hawksmoor wrote:Well, everything's been taken down now - from YouTube, from the official EC page, everything. I hope colleagues managed to grab the alternative/spoken word version of 'Farewell OK' while it was (briefly) available. Based on nothing more than a hunch, I'm guessing that the full-band version will eventually appear on an Imposters LP. But it's entirely possible that the spoken word version has vanished into the ether and will remain a hard-to-find curio.

Not that I'll be playing the spoken word version all that often. But as a completist/collector, it is kind of nice to have it.
I have a feeling that "colleagues" managed to grab both versions while they were out there :D
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Re: Farewell, OK 2020: new song!

Post by Neil. »

So gutted to have missed this - I love 'Go Away', 'Beaten to the Punch' - and as it's been described as an out-take from Blood & Chocolate, I am doubly, triply pissed off! Graaargh!

Happy New Year, by the way!
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