![Confused :?](./images/smilies/icon_confused.gif)
This was back in the days when people wrote to each other. If you want to see needy, look at the letters I used to write to you
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
I'm sorry to hear about your friend, John - did he have to go to A&E to get them removed? How did it happen? Did he accidentally miss the vase?johnfoyle wrote:From a friend who got the Flowers In The Dirt box
Would make for an interesting conversation at A&ENeil. wrote:I'm sorry to hear about your friend, John - did he have to go to A&E to get them removed? How did it happen? Did he accidentally miss the vase?johnfoyle wrote:From a friend who got the Flowers In The Dirt box
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d91bqCZ-B6Ysweetest punch wrote:https://www.facebook.com/ElvisCostello
‘Back On My Feet (Demo)’ - Exclusive First Play
We’re pleased to announce the first play of the demo for ‘Back On My Feet’. The song – a co-write between Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello – tells the story of a man down on his luck, but ending on a hopeful note: “Give me your hand, til I’m back on my feet”.
Listen to the demo below: https://www.paulmccartney.com/downloads
johnfoyle wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2017 2:57 pm http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/mu ... -the-dirt/
How Elvis Costello Helped Paul McCartney Get His Mojo Back
Costello recalls collaborating with the former Beatle in 1987—songs that are newly released on a reissue of McCartney's Flowers in the Dirt.
BY JEFF SLATE
MAR 22, 2017
Elvis Costello is a very good foil for me," Paul McCartney told Q magazine's Paul Du Noyer in 1989 of the fellow Liverpudlian he'd teamed up with to write some songs with for his then-latest album, adding that Costello was opinionated, narrow-minded and full of himself. "But I like that in a guy!"
When the news had broken the previous year that the former Beatle and the enfant terrible of New Wave were collaborating, it was mooted that the two were recording an entire album together. After a rough 1980s—which saw a pot bust in Japan, the break-up of Wings, the assassination of John Lennon, a failed venture into filmmaking, a floundering recording career, public and private squabbling with George Harrison and Ringo Starr, and Michael Jackson buying the rights to his beloved Beatles songbook out from under him—McCartney was hell bent on reclaiming his crown as the preeminent elder statesman of rock. And after an increasingly fractious relationship with his band and label, Costello was charting a new course as a solo artist. For fans of either artist, the pairing seemed a match made in heaven.
But the rumored album never happened, and the songs McCartney and Costello penned together ended up trickling out: four on McCartney's Flowers in the Dirt and two on its follow-up Off the Ground, two apiece on Costello's Spike and Mighty Like a Rose, and another on his final album with the Attractions, All This Useless Beauty, taking much of the steam out of the dream pairing.
But this week's reissue of McCartney's 1989 return-to-form Flowers in the Dirt, in pricey but spectacular deluxe and expanded form, includes a bonus disc of acoustic demos of nine songs by the pair, another disc of fully realized studio recordings amounting to the album that never was, and bonus downloads of an additional track, plus three rough and ready cassette recordings made in 1987—which will also be released for Record Store Day as a three-song cassette—in essence rewrites history.
"As to whether a record should come out, it has," Costello tells me, in his first ever in-depth interview about his songwriting partnership with McCartney. "This is it."
Costello explains why it took so long for these recordings to surface.
There was never a plan written with indelible ink. We went from writing the songs to recording sessions with Paul's newly assembled band. There was a rough and ready approach that was obviously not the way Paul ended up hearing that record.
I know I didn't want us to be staring at a blank sheet of paper, so I came prepared. We were quickly at ease: two guitars, a notepad, my hardbound, blank lyric book, a cassette recorder on the coffee table between us. I barely had time to take in [Elvis Presley's bass player] Bill Black's original upright bass propped in the corner of the room.
Not to mention their first recording sessions…
There wasn't really a "first session," in the sense that Paul just said, "Let's record this downstairs" after we'd finished one or other of the songs. Handy to have a 24-track studio on the ground floor. Before I'd had chance to think about it, we'd cut a couple of things. I think that's why they sound the way they do. You can hear a lot of laughter in the voices and a decent bit of one-upmanship: "You're going to sing like that? OK, I'm going to sing like this."
Even he recognizes that the original acoustic demos the pair recorded sound somewhat like the Beatles.
That's just what happened when we started singing. I naturally harmonize below Paul for the most part and learned two-part singing from listening to the Beatles, but it wasn't a conscious decision. I can understand Paul's wish not to be seen repeating himself, but as he's said since, if he can't reference a certain kind of harmony or cadence, who can?
Dividing up the songs just sort of…happened.
Once the first four songs appeared on Flowers in the Dirt, and "Veronica" and "My Brave Face" had been U.S. singles, I asked Paul if he minded if I cut "So Like Candy." It's a song that would have suited either of us, but I got back in the studio first. But I love the version of "So Like Candy" that we did with just the two of us. I think it beats either of our studio cuts.
Yes, you really can forget being in a home movie with Paul McCartney.
You'd think that you'd remember being in a home movie with Paul McCartney, but I had no memory of that footage (of Costello and McCartney working in the studio that's included in the Flowers box set) being taken. You can see we were larking around a lot, trying out sounds.
Recalling what happened to the two stand-out tracks that neither McCartney nor Costello ever chose to record, but that are highlights of the new box set.
"Tommy's Coming Home" is really a two-part harmony song. We just never got round to cutting it that way. I'd completely forgotten about the slower version of "Twenty Fine Fingers" that is seen in the video with the band (and included on the disc of studio recordings). It was a knockout tune that Paul and I wrote quickly after a couple of the more intense ballads.
Costello has favorite songs he wrote with McCartney, just like any other fan.
The most emotional song for me was "That Day Is Done." Like "Veronica," it was about something very specific—my maternal grandmother's last years and passing—but while I'd already arrived at the notion of writing a bright, hopeful tune about the horrors of dementia, "That Day Is Done" just came tumbling out in a lot of dense images that were very vivid and real to me, but perhaps not so comprehensible to the listener. Paul did something very subtle but crucial in making that song pay off to a big, plain spoken chorus, after I'd piled up all of these lines in the verses, including the one that yielded the album's title.
My favorite performance is Paul's vocal on the demo of "The Lovers That Never Where." I don't think you'd have the same impression of the song from the studio recording that eventually came out on "Off the Ground." I don't know why I ended up playing piano on that, but I remember thinking, "Just don't mess this one up!"
Needless to say, the demo version of "You Want Her Too" is a gas, because even though we were shadowing each other's voices, it was sung more as a conversation than in the final recording. It has a good couple of punch lines.
While Costello won't offer an assessment of his work with McCartney, it's clear he knows the songs are pretty great.
That wouldn't be for me to say. I think there are a couple of great tunes and some terrific performances, especially among the demos.
johnfoyle wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2017 2:57 pm http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/mu ... -the-dirt/
How Elvis Costello Helped Paul McCartney Get His Mojo Back
Costello recalls collaborating with the former Beatle in 1987—songs that are newly released on a reissue of McCartney's Flowers in the Dirt.
BY JEFF SLATE
MAR 22, 2017
Elvis Costello is a very good foil for me," Paul McCartney told Q magazine's Paul Du Noyer in 1989 of the fellow Liverpudlian he'd teamed up with to write some songs with for his then-latest album, adding that Costello was opinionated, narrow-minded and full of himself. "But I like that in a guy!"
When the news had broken the previous year that the former Beatle and the enfant terrible of New Wave were collaborating, it was mooted that the two were recording an entire album together. After a rough 1980s—which saw a pot bust in Japan, the break-up of Wings, the assassination of John Lennon, a failed venture into filmmaking, a floundering recording career, public and private squabbling with George Harrison and Ringo Starr, and Michael Jackson buying the rights to his beloved Beatles songbook out from under him—McCartney was hell bent on reclaiming his crown as the preeminent elder statesman of rock. And after an increasingly fractious relationship with his band and label, Costello was charting a new course as a solo artist. For fans of either artist, the pairing seemed a match made in heaven.
But the rumored album never happened, and the songs McCartney and Costello penned together ended up trickling out: four on McCartney's Flowers in the Dirt and two on its follow-up Off the Ground, two apiece on Costello's Spike and Mighty Like a Rose, and another on his final album with the Attractions, All This Useless Beauty, taking much of the steam out of the dream pairing.
But this week's reissue of McCartney's 1989 return-to-form Flowers in the Dirt, in pricey but spectacular deluxe and expanded form, includes a bonus disc of acoustic demos of nine songs by the pair, another disc of fully realized studio recordings amounting to the album that never was, and bonus downloads of an additional track, plus three rough and ready cassette recordings made in 1987—which will also be released for Record Store Day as a three-song cassette—in essence rewrites history.
"As to whether a record should come out, it has," Costello tells me, in his first ever in-depth interview about his songwriting partnership with McCartney. "This is it."
Costello explains why it took so long for these recordings to surface.
There was never a plan written with indelible ink. We went from writing the songs to recording sessions with Paul's newly assembled band. There was a rough and ready approach that was obviously not the way Paul ended up hearing that record.
I know I didn't want us to be staring at a blank sheet of paper, so I came prepared. We were quickly at ease: two guitars, a notepad, my hardbound, blank lyric book, a cassette recorder on the coffee table between us. I barely had time to take in [Elvis Presley's bass player] Bill Black's original upright bass propped in the corner of the room.
Not to mention their first recording sessions…
There wasn't really a "first session," in the sense that Paul just said, "Let's record this downstairs" after we'd finished one or other of the songs. Handy to have a 24-track studio on the ground floor. Before I'd had chance to think about it, we'd cut a couple of things. I think that's why they sound the way they do. You can hear a lot of laughter in the voices and a decent bit of one-upmanship: "You're going to sing like that? OK, I'm going to sing like this."
Even he recognizes that the original acoustic demos the pair recorded sound somewhat like the Beatles.
That's just what happened when we started singing. I naturally harmonize below Paul for the most part and learned two-part singing from listening to the Beatles, but it wasn't a conscious decision. I can understand Paul's wish not to be seen repeating himself, but as he's said since, if he can't reference a certain kind of harmony or cadence, who can?
Dividing up the songs just sort of…happened.
Once the first four songs appeared on Flowers in the Dirt, and "Veronica" and "My Brave Face" had been U.S. singles, I asked Paul if he minded if I cut "So Like Candy." It's a song that would have suited either of us, but I got back in the studio first. But I love the version of "So Like Candy" that we did with just the two of us. I think it beats either of our studio cuts.
Yes, you really can forget being in a home movie with Paul McCartney.
You'd think that you'd remember being in a home movie with Paul McCartney, but I had no memory of that footage (of Costello and McCartney working in the studio that's included in the Flowers box set) being taken. You can see we were larking around a lot, trying out sounds.
Recalling what happened to the two stand-out tracks that neither McCartney nor Costello ever chose to record, but that are highlights of the new box set.
"Tommy's Coming Home" is really a two-part harmony song. We just never got round to cutting it that way. I'd completely forgotten about the slower version of "Twenty Fine Fingers" that is seen in the video with the band (and included on the disc of studio recordings). It was a knockout tune that Paul and I wrote quickly after a couple of the more intense ballads.
Costello has favorite songs he wrote with McCartney, just like any other fan.
The most emotional song for me was "That Day Is Done." Like "Veronica," it was about something very specific—my maternal grandmother's last years and passing—but while I'd already arrived at the notion of writing a bright, hopeful tune about the horrors of dementia, "That Day Is Done" just came tumbling out in a lot of dense images that were very vivid and real to me, but perhaps not so comprehensible to the listener. Paul did something very subtle but crucial in making that song pay off to a big, plain spoken chorus, after I'd piled up all of these lines in the verses, including the one that yielded the album's title.
My favorite performance is Paul's vocal on the demo of "The Lovers That Never Where." I don't think you'd have the same impression of the song from the studio recording that eventually came out on "Off the Ground." I don't know why I ended up playing piano on that, but I remember thinking, "Just don't mess this one up!"
Needless to say, the demo version of "You Want Her Too" is a gas, because even though we were shadowing each other's voices, it was sung more as a conversation than in the final recording. It has a good couple of punch lines.
While Costello won't offer an assessment of his work with McCartney, it's clear he knows the songs are pretty great.
That wouldn't be for me to say. I think there are a couple of great tunes and some terrific performances, especially among the demos.