This Year's Model

Do talk back
User avatar
bobzilla77
Posts: 16280
Joined: 23 Jun 2006, 02:56
Location: Dilute! Dilute! OK!

Re: This Year's Model

Postby bobzilla77 » 03 Jan 2009, 00:06

What's funny is, according to Lorne Michaels, SNL never told him what song they wanted him to do!!

They didn't care WHAT song he did as long it had no obscenities.

Way to play the "they don't want you to hear this - but I'm gonna do it ANYWAY!" card.

Every once in a while, when I'm playing with my cover band I'll say "The owners of this venue told us if we do this next song, we're gonna be banned for life. WELL LET'S SHOW EM WHAT WE THINK OF THEM TRYING TO TELL YOU WHAT YOU CAN LISTEN TO!" It's amazing, the attention being paid toward the stage always kicks up a notch.
Jimbo wrote:I guess I am over Graham Nash's politics. Hopelessly naive by the standards I've molded for myself these days.

User avatar
Matty Red Sox
Shameless Canonist
Posts: 8246
Joined: 02 Nov 2003, 16:57
Location: from NYC done with Jakarta and Hiroshima - currently hiding in Switzerland!

Re: This Year's Model

Postby Matty Red Sox » 03 Jan 2009, 03:42

Well I picked up a copy of this today, and will give a listen later! Why didn't J. Epstein need her copy anymore? It's mine now.
the Eagles suck.

User avatar
soundchaser
Rokster & Rollster
Posts: 9243
Joined: 20 Jun 2006, 10:55

Re: This Year's Model

Postby soundchaser » 03 Jan 2009, 08:27

Lance Matthew wrote:Perhaps the best album of 1978.*


You may well be right: it was an astonishing album to listen to at the time. Costello was absolutely on fire as a songwriter, with every song on the album being a winner. Radio Radio was a brilliant stand alone single, but for me, possibly the best track of all was on the b-side to Pump It Up and that was the incredible Big Tears. The Attractions had to be one of the best and tightest bands to come out of the new wave scene: I was a particularly big fan of Steve Nieve. I loved the albums either side, but This Years Model was by far Costello's best in my opinion.

User avatar
Leg of lamb
Jane Austen enthusiast
Posts: 9466
Joined: 19 Oct 2003, 11:33
Location: Crying in the chapel
Contact:

Re: This Year's Model

Postby Leg of lamb » 03 Jan 2009, 12:04

The Rokster wrote:but for me, possibly the best track of all was on the b-side to Pump It Up and that was the incredible Big Tears.


True, 'Big Tears' is immense. Amazing that it was cast away as a b-side, but it usually comes up on Elvis Costello best-ofs these days, so perhaps it's getting its due.

Of those first four albums, This Year's Model is easily the tightest and most consistent. As is usually mentioned, it's also the album where the Attractions really excel. I prefer aspects of all the others but I can't argue with the white-hot attack sustained over 12 tracks on this album.
Brother Spoon wrote:I would probably enjoy this record more if it came to me in a brown paper bag filled with manure, instead of this richly illustrated disgrace to my eyes.

User avatar
Thesiger
Posts: 20156
Joined: 08 Aug 2003, 17:12
Location: Old Meadow

Re: This Year's Model

Postby Thesiger » 03 Jan 2009, 12:13

Leg of lamb wrote:
The Rokster wrote:but for me, possibly the best track of all was on the b-side to Pump It Up and that was the incredible Big Tears.


True, 'Big Tears' is immense. Amazing that it was cast away as a b-side, but it usually comes up on Elvis Costello best-ofs these days, so perhaps it's getting its due.


Mick Jones played guitar on Big Tears.
BCB Cup - R.U. 2010: W 2012

User avatar
Martial Lawniz
BCB Troll
Posts: 6772
Joined: 14 Apr 2005, 20:09

Re: This Year's Model

Postby Martial Lawniz » 03 Jan 2009, 12:33

This was the album that turned me from a lukewarm music person listening to Boston, ELO and Hair to music that actually pertained to your life.

I even started a scrapbook on him because of it!
I was eating Strawberry. Hello.

User avatar
Matty Red Sox
Shameless Canonist
Posts: 8246
Joined: 02 Nov 2003, 16:57
Location: from NYC done with Jakarta and Hiroshima - currently hiding in Switzerland!

Re: This Year's Model

Postby Matty Red Sox » 03 Jan 2009, 17:59

DWD wrote:
Matty Red Sox wrote:Well I picked up a copy of this today, and will give a listen later! Why didn't J. Epstein need her copy anymore? It's mine now.


I don't know why she didn't want it anymore, but J. Epstein provided some ideas for the cover

Image

With regards to your LP, what's the track listing?
The US release on Columbia, two months after the original UK release, dropped "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" and "Night Rally" (reportedly as being "too English") and added "Radio Radio" to close side two.


:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

This is the US release...so to my knowledge, none of them ever had I Don't Want to Go to Chelsea or Night Rally...we had to wait for 10 Bloody Marys & 10 How's Your Fathers or one of those sort of collections....I think the collection was cassette only originally...mine was.

My public library had the LP (somebody had decent taste, it's also where I first heard Televison), so I really didn't have to buy it, I just went, and inevitably they had it...and the Firesign Theater!
the Eagles suck.

User avatar
Matty Red Sox
Shameless Canonist
Posts: 8246
Joined: 02 Nov 2003, 16:57
Location: from NYC done with Jakarta and Hiroshima - currently hiding in Switzerland!

Re: This Year's Model

Postby Matty Red Sox » 03 Jan 2009, 18:14

Okay...The Stones Last Time and You Belong to Me openings....direct steal? Jeeez, I remember being bothered by that as a kid.
the Eagles suck.

User avatar
Quaco
F R double E
Posts: 47382
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 19:41

Re: This Year's Model

Postby Quaco » 03 Jan 2009, 18:16

goldwax wrote:As for NYM, it's my go-to EC album.

New Year's Model? :mrgreen:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

User avatar
Matty Red Sox
Shameless Canonist
Posts: 8246
Joined: 02 Nov 2003, 16:57
Location: from NYC done with Jakarta and Hiroshima - currently hiding in Switzerland!

Re: This Year's Model

Postby Matty Red Sox » 03 Jan 2009, 18:22

Quaco wrote:
goldwax wrote:As for NYM, it's my go-to EC album.

New Year's Model? :mrgreen:

The New York Mets!!!!

Boy, J. Epstein must have cleaned her records with Brillo...between tracks it sounds like someone's frying eggs in here.
the Eagles suck.

User avatar
Leg of lamb
Jane Austen enthusiast
Posts: 9466
Joined: 19 Oct 2003, 11:33
Location: Crying in the chapel
Contact:

Re: This Year's Model

Postby Leg of lamb » 04 Jan 2009, 20:45

Matty Red Sox wrote:Okay...The Stones Last Time and You Belong to Me openings....direct steal? Jeeez, I remember being bothered by that as a kid.


He cops to it in the liner notes to the Rhino reissue, I think. Or was that 'This Year's Girl' I'm thinking about? Yes, he said that 'This Year's Girl' was an attempt to update 'Stupid Girl' and, if I remember right, there was a general mission for the Attractions to update that mid-60s Stones sound.
Brother Spoon wrote:I would probably enjoy this record more if it came to me in a brown paper bag filled with manure, instead of this richly illustrated disgrace to my eyes.

User avatar
12stringbassist
Posts: 3025
Joined: 11 Jun 2004, 09:10
Location: Irrelevance.

Re: This Year's Model

Postby 12stringbassist » 05 Jan 2009, 00:16

di Maio wrote: I do like the Attractions backup better than the News on the earlier recording. It has a bit more in the way of dynamics.


The backing band on 'My aim is true' was actually CLOVER, which contained Huey Lewis,
but I think none of the others from THE NEWS were in there.

:mrgreen:
The world was holding its breath waiting for me to post that, obviously......

User avatar
bixhenry
Posts: 1600
Joined: 20 Jul 2003, 04:59
Location: Santa Monica, CA

Re: This Year's Model

Postby bixhenry » 05 Jan 2009, 00:48

I remember seeing/reading all the hype around Elvis Costello when My Aim Is True came out, and before I'd heard any of it, I remember thinking 'Wow, this guy looks like a deranged Buddy Holly - hope it sounds like he looks!" Imagine my disappointment when 'Alison' was the first song I heard by EC; I thought it was a really MOR-sounding song and not nearly as ferocious as I'd hoped. The following year, when I went to the comic book store across the street from my high school, the clerk was playing This Year's Model and thinking, "now this is more like it!" It is definitely one of my favorite EC records, and has the perfect combination of craft and bile, melody and fury. And does anyone notice that Costello starts each of his first three albums with a briefly unaccompanied vocal ('Now that your...' from My Aim Is True's 'Welcome To The Working Week; 'I don't wanna kiss you, I don't wanna touch' from TYM's 'No Action', and 'Oh, I..." from Armed Forces' 'Accidents Will Happen?' It's a nice trick that made those records really urgent-sounding.

I went a lot further with EC than most here, evidently; though hit and miss, I love records like [iImperial Bedroom[/i], Blood and Chocolate, and Delivery Man. Where Costello loses me is when he starts thinking he's a singer of lieder and jazz balladry. North is a pretentious, unlovable bore rivaled only by Lou Reed's The Raven - an utter stinkbomb.
Wu-Tang Clan's Rza, on his non-rap influences: "Pink Floyd, Beatles, Yes...all them niggas!"

User avatar
Matt Wilson
Psychedelic Cowpunk
Posts: 32516
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 20:18
Location: Edge of a continent

Re: This Year's Model

Postby Matt Wilson » 05 Jan 2009, 01:02

12stringbassist wrote:
di Maio wrote: I do like the Attractions backup better than the News on the earlier recording. It has a bit more in the way of dynamics.


The backing band on 'My aim is true' was actually CLOVER, which contained Huey Lewis,
but I think none of the others from THE NEWS were in there.

:mrgreen:


It's the other way around.
Huey wasn't on My Aim is True.


Return to “Yakety Yak”