I Am Not Worthy....

[hollyh]

Well, after a couple of sessions trying to sift through everything on this site, I have concluded that I must not be much of an Elvis Costello fan. I mean, I own 14 or 15 of his albums (and that's not counting double for ones I have both in vinyl and CD -- I even have a few of those quaint audiocassettes!) and have seen him live twice, but JEEZ! That is nothing compared to you folks. I am tempted to crawl into a corner, tuck my head between my knees, and start to deconstruct Punch the Clock and Spike all over again.

On the other hand, I am happy to let you all be the experts. Allow me to pick your superior Elvis-crammed brains. I have a $75 credit on amazon.com that I need to spend, and so I ask you: Since I purchased no Elvis Costello albums AT ALL between Mighty Like a Rose and When I Was Cruel (it's a long story), what do you recommend as the 5 must-have albums from that decade?

In 100 words or less, please (folks here do tend to go on, I've noticed... )

[LessThanZero]

Weezer by Weezer
Pinkerton by Weezer
Cooleyhighharmony by Boyz II Men
All of Ben Folds' stuff

[noiseradio]

Since I purchased no Elvis Costello albums AT ALL between Mighty Like a Rose and When I Was Cruel (it's a long story), what do you recommend as the 5 must-have albums from that decade?

If you mean what Elvis albums to buy, then there are two essential purchases you have to make immediately:

Brutal Youth and All The Useless Beauty. With whatever money you have left over, look for Costello & Nieve (an out of print but still available 5-disc box set of live performances). Some will tell you to grab Painted From Memory or Juliet Letters, but you need money to eat, too. So get Brutal Youth and ATUB and you'll be very happy.

[Mr. Average]

The presumption from your post is that you are looking for works by EC to fill out your collection and rapidly consume the Amazon credit. Based on that:

1. If you like Elvis the Crooner (does "North" appeal to you?) then I heartily recommend that you allocate 9$ to the Marian McPartland/EC Radio Session. Elvis demonstrates that he is in league with some of the great jazz vocalists. He ain't no Johnny Hartman, but he can carry and interpret these originals and standards as good as anyone.

2. I am so excited about the upcoming "My Flame Burns Blue" that I would be tempted to hold out for that.

3. If you have experienced any of the Rhino Reissues, some are must have's. I like them all, but I think that the PTC reissue forced me to reevaluate that record and placed it into a more favorable light. I, personally, love the Get Happy Rhino Reissue, probably because what Elvis was doing at that time was almost deemed outrageous. I recall the press clippings anticipating and following the GH release, and it remains a landmark recording to this day. Others on the board are more qualified to rate the overall quality and depth offered by the various reissues.

4. Maybe consider the "Club Date-Live at Memphis" DVD or "The Right Spectacle" DVD. Turn on the commentary on "The Right Spectacle" and enjoy.

5. I like "Il Sogno", but sample it first before buying it unless you enjoy modern variations on classical themes.

[LessThanZero]

OK MA and Noiseradio, just because I didn't presume or assume or even infer, doesn't mean you have to imply that I answered that question incorrectly!

[hollyh]

Less Than Zero, I will take your suggestions under consideration (except I already have most of the Ben Folds stuff , brilliant songwriting there), but I was looking for EC titles.

I do have a lot of the Rhino reissues, which are superb -- the liner notes alone made me glad I waited this long to replace my vintage vinyl with CDs, but some of the bonus tracks are a revelation. Especially the King of America bonus tracks, some of those live covers of blues numbers at the end of the second disc are gems. And maybe my favorite track of all the "new" stuff is "Hoover Factory" on Get Happy! (Which, yes, Mr A, was an album I too was crazy about when it first came out, I couldn't understand what all the critical disdain was about except that maybe the critics were dying to see this new hot guy make a mistake. That album does exactly what the title says, it makes me happy, and it always will...)

I love North with a passion.

More suggestions?

[LessThanZero]

holly,

I became an Elvis fan in 2001.

I really like the Trust bonus disc. Gloomy Sunday is amazing.

[noiseradio]

The Trust bonus disc is my favorite bonus disc, LTZ.

[King Hoarse]

I couldn't live happily without the Juliet Letters, Painted From Memory and Brutal Youth (unfortunately the least interesting bonus disc IMHO; get the absurdly cheap - $0.19! -original here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/offer- ... oding=UTF8). ...Oh, and All this Useless Beauty is really great too.

[hollyh]

Many thanks to everyone -- I have just bought everything (it turned out I had a $100 credit, not just $75). Well, everything you suggested besides Painted From Memory, which I realized I already had. I keep forgetting it is earlier than When I Was Cruel, it's such a timeless disc.

Everything was on sale, $12.97 for most of those 2-disc re-issues, it's like they're giving away the store. The version of Juliet Letters in fact came bundled for $18.94 with Mighty Like a Rose and Spike, which I hadn't yet replaced in CD, so I consider those freebies. (Frankly I might not otherwise have replaced Spike.)

I still have a little credit left over which I am hanging onto for the Flame Turns Blue release.

Gonna have me a Elvis marathon in a few days!!!