good topic for another thread! 
Elvis Costello is one of those artists I need to hear more of, but I like what I’ve heard. I’m not a huge fan of “Pump It Up” though.
Another recommendation for Nick Lowe. The only thing of his I have is Basher, but I like it quite a bit. If you want to hear specific songs, “Heart of the City”, “American Squirm”, and “Marie Provost” are my favorites. He sounds a lot like David Bowie in some songs.
David Bowie might also be worth checking out, but he’s got a large and varied catalogue. It’s hard to recommend a specific album to start with. Maybe either “Hunky Dory” or “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”.
You might like Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Their music also varies. “Let Love In” might be a good starting place, and it’s also a great album.
I’m hesitant to recommend more until I have a better idea of what your tastes are.
I saw him in Rome in 1997/8! It was an acoustic performance, just him on the guitar and Steve Nieve (sp?) on the piano. He sang a few new songs, then some of his old ones which he had changed a bit, and then spent a good hour singing whatever song people would call out for. It was wonderful.
Not sure about a favourite album, but, favourite song is definitely ‘Shipbuilding’ and favourite cover: ‘My Funny Valentine’.
Am going to put a cd on now!
[EC on SNL]
A true punk rock moment, eh?
I frequently consider it fortunate I was that my years of greatest interest in music - late 70s early 80s - corresponded with Elvis and the Stiff gang, and all that fun punk, new wave stuff. Saw him 5 or 6 times in various venues from outdoor arena to solo acoustic in a school gym with T-Bone Burnett opening.
One of my fave EC memories was actually by a cover band. I remember the first time I saw The Rave in Champaign Urbana. The Shah of Iran had just been deposed, and they opened by dedicating their first song to the Shah - Welcome to the Working Week.
Alum - I also was a bass player at the time, amazed at those bass lines. Have a bootleg tape with a KILLER version of Lipstick Vogue.
Fave album - This Year’s Model
Fave Song - Red Shoes (1st lines used to be my SDMB sig)
- honorary mention to Radio Sweetheart
Fave cover - My Funny Valentine
I remember watching it and thinking, “Oh, he just decided to play a different song. That’s different.” A few days later we learned he’d been banned from NBC over the incident. Silly rabbit, er, peacock.
Elvis Costello is my all time favorite. What I love about him as that he didn’t get stuck in one type of music like so many others do. He has experimented with so many things, and I sort of feel like I have grown along with him. He has the most amazing voice, and his lyrics can’t be matched.
I saw him in concert at the Berkeley outdoor theater. It was very fitting. I think it would have been about 1984. He played stuff from his new album Goodbye Cruel World, and the crowd kept shouting for some old stuff. He got mad, yelled at us for ever thinking that that earlier stuff was any good. Told us we had lousy taste. We LOVED it! Thought it perfect for “our angry young man” to despise us so.
So hard to pick one favorite album. He has something for every mood, and I usually chose based on that. If I had to pick one, I would say King of America. “I’ll Wear It Proudly” still gives me chills, and “The Big Light” still makes me laugh.
I had never heard any country music until I bought Almost Blue. I remember hating it at first, but then learning to appreciate it. It now is also one of my favorites when in that mood. I just love “I’m Your Toy.” I now have quite a bit of country music in my collection as well.
Favorite song would also be too hard to pick. My favorites of his go along with what I was going through at the time I think. But some are:
Everyday I Write the Book
Blue Chair
From a Whisper to a Scream
Girls Talk
Deep Dark Truthful Mirror
Tramp Down the Dirt
Worthless Thing
Uncomplicated
For covers, I also think My Funny Valentine is great, and love:
Head to Toe.
Leave My Kitten Alone
Running out of Fools
My Resistance is Low
Sleepless Nights
There really are too many to name. Just today I was enjoying Elvis singing What Do You Get When You Fall in Love. It’s all good.
Other artists that Elvis has led me too include Squeeze, T Bone Burnett, Graham Parsons, Nick Lowe and John Hiatt.
How about favorite Elvis Costello lines?
“He made the girl’s all turn their heads, and in turn they made him miserable.”
“She said that she was working for the ABC news, it was as much of the alphabet as she new how to use.”
“You have this expression dear no words could take its place
And I wear it like a badge that you put all over my face.”
“Feel the anxious rhythm of a functional stranger.”
“You got to learn from your mistakes
When you got a face like last week’s Cornflakes.”
Another EC fan checking in. I saw him with The Imposters in San Diego a few years ago, he played close to three hours without a break. Good show.
I think The Juliet Letters is a real gem, as is For The Stars, the album he did with Anne Sofie von Otter.
Favorite songs at the moment - “Baby Plays Around”, “Any King’s Shilling”, “Taking My Life in Your Hands”, “All Grown Up”, “Motel Matches”, “Green Shirt”, “Having it All” and on and on…
Favorite albums at the moment - Spike and Mighty Like A Rose.
Covers - “I’m Your Toy”, “End of the Rainbow”, “Must You Throw Dirt in My Face”, “Good Year for the Roses”, “Psycho”…
If you dont love Elvis, you’ve got to respect him. Huge breadth of work over 30 years of a consistantly high standard.
I realised in reading this thread that I dont listen to him anywhere near as much as I used to, and rarely play the more recent albums. The most recent that I play with any regularity is ‘Brutal Youth’ and that was what -'93? I have all his albums but just havent gone back to those over the last 10 years or so with the minor exception of 'The Delivery Man '. Maybe I miss him being quite as angry.
I’ve seen him many times, solo, Attractions, Confederates, Rude 5 and Imposters. The Confederates show was amazing and he seemed very different; for the first time that I’d seen he was messing about on stage, laughing with the band and engaging positively with the audience. I cried 3 songs into the show - a new record! (Since surpassed by Steve Earle - 2 songs in)
When we saw the Rude 5, Mrs Macau was pregnant with the boy who somersalted and kicked his way through the loudest gig Ive seen.
When the boy was at pre-school the teacher told me all the kids are invited to give a tune on the ‘singing mat’ and my 4 year old son sang a tune she didnt know - she thought it was called ‘13 Steps Lead Down’ I was so proud.
Never met him, but have been him.
In recent years Ive got to know Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook and have been called up on stage by him a few times to sing the EC part of ‘Whisper to a Scream’.
Glenn does the ‘Glenn’ part.
Album - Blood and Chocolate
Song- blimey…Man Out of Time / 13 Steps / Hope You’re Happy Now
Cover - my band used to play ‘Getting Mighty Crowded’ - always stormed.
The Attractions were the best band I’ve seen - seeing them for the first time was a Damascus moment of realisation; that all the bands I’d seen previously were musicians playing together;- this was a BAND. They were locked tight. Last time I saw them was exactly the same. Imposter’s are close of course but Bruce Thomas’ virtuosity is missed.
MiM
I just wanted to report that I bought the best of Nick Lowe CD and have been enjoying it - he sounds a little more 60s than Elvis, not that that’s a bad thing!
I’ve decided it’s impossible to pick a single favourite lyric (though maybe ‘the wages of sin are an expensive infection’ (Love For Tender) is it). The lyrics in general to ‘The Other Side of Summer’ and ‘Brilliant Mistake’ must be up there. And I admit a fondness for ‘I wish you luck with a capital F’ from ‘Love Went Mad’ and ‘everytime I phone you I just wanna put you down’ from ‘No Action’. I guess I like angry Elvis best, too - tho not just young angry Elvis. His most recent album is pretty darn angry!
OK, EC afficionados, I have a question - does anyone have a clue what Elvis means in the chorus of ‘King Horse’? I love the song, but ??? on that.
Today’s current favourite songs: ‘God’s Comic’, ‘Possession’ and ‘No Action’.
I think in the liner notes to the re-release he says it’s a veiled attack on ‘A VERY FAMOUS ROCK STAR’. I always had a sneaky feeling (thank you) that it referred to Springsteen - they did the Roy Orbison Black and white night together, but that is entirely speculation.
After posting this am I put 6 costello cd’s in the car. Lots of memories.
Fave lines - I said Im so happy I could die - she said drop dead then left with another guy.
- tho the passion still flutters and flickers - it never got into her knickers
- when they finally put you in the ground i’ll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down.
MiM
Also note EC wrote an entire album for Wendy James, formerly of Transvision Vamp- I forget the name.
“Now Aint The Time For Your Tears.” Released in 1993.