…well, you know.
There is no quicker way to our hearts during the holiday season than by covering “Fairytale of New York,” the staggeringly awesome duet between the Pogues and the late, great Kirsty MacColl. So congratulations, Amy MacDonald: we liked your debut album well enough, but this live version of “Fairytale,” recorded at the Barrowlands in Glasgow, permanently puts you in our cool book. Her bassist and duet partner does a mean Shane MacGowan impression to boot.
If you’re a regular reader of Premium Hollywood, then you may recall a time this past summer when I was as giddy as a schoolgirl about having met Elvis Costello…not only because I’m a huge fan, but also because it gave me a chance to redeem myself for the fool I made of myself the first time I’d met him. The reason the summer encounter came about was Elvis’s appearance at the TCA Press Tour, where he had turned up to promote his then-upcoming Sundance Channel series, “Spectacle: Elvis Costello with…”
That was July. Now, it’s December…and the series has finally come up.
The premise of the show is, to simplify it to the most basic pop culture terms, like “Inside the Actors Studio,” except the focus is on music rather than film. The good news, however, is that Elvis Costello is rather less fawning than James Lipton, and the guests – at least for the most part – appear to have been taken not from the latest Billboard charts but, rather, from Elvis’s own rolodex. Certainly, there are some former chart-toppers to be found amongst the 13 episodes of the series (which will hopefully prove to be the first of many seasons), but the variety of musicians involved is such that it’s clear the scheduling was the work of an individual rather than by committee. With that said, it never hurts to kiss the ass of your executive producers, so it’s possibly not a coincidence that the first guest on “Spectacle” is Sir Elton John, whose name appears in the show’s production credits, but, hey, everybody likes Elton!
If you consider yourself to be a music geek, then you’ll go nuts over “Spectacle,” since Elvis sits down with some of the biggest-selling and/or most acclaimed musical performers of the 20th and 21st centuries…plus Bill Clinton…and basically just gets geeky with them. Yes, he’s a fine interviewer, having at least honed his skills a bit by guest-hosting an episode of “The Late Show with David Letterman,” but in truth, the best parts of the conversation with Elton are when the two of them wax nostalgic about Leonard Cohen, Laura Nyro, and Leon Russell, among others.
It would be cruel and unusual punishment to have these artists onstage without ever playing a note, of course, so you will be unsurprised to hear that there’s a fair amount of music performed as well. The episodes start with Elvis performing a song by that evening’s guest, so you’ll be hearing a nice version of Elton’s “Border Song” tonight (come next week, prepare to have Elvis serenade you with one of Lou Reed’s finest ’60s compositions), but Elton himself takes to the piano and has a bit of fun with demonstrating the similarity between his own style and that of the aforementioned Mr. Russell, and the two of them duet nicely on David Ackles’ “Down River,” an American singer-songwriter who never earned quite as much fame Stateside as he did in the UK. (The first time I’d ever heard of him was when Howard Jones covered his song, “Road to Cairo,” on the Elektra Records’ anniversary set, Rubaiyat.)
Beyond Mr. Reed’s appearance next week and President Clinton’s chat the following Wednesday, you can look forward to upcoming episodes which feature James Taylor, Tony Bennett, the Police, Rufus Wainwright (whose praises are sung by Elton tonight, as it happens), Herbie Hancock, and many others. I’ll offer up another post next week with a bit more specifics as to what you can expect with Laughin’ Lou, but if you catch the show with Elton, be sure to leave your thoughts.
Oh, and ignore Elvis. You should tell everyone about “Spectacle.”
If you’ve already purchased the Paul Simon “Live at the Tower Theatre” DVD that was released in 2003, then there’s no need to bother with “Live from Philadelphia,” because it’s exactly the same concert, transferred from grainy video footage to present the same truncated 10/7/80 show – something Eagle really should have done a better job of making clear on this “new” title’s packaging. If, however, you don’t own “Tower Theatre,” and don’t mind suffering through the vagaries of the poorly aged footage, then “Live from Philadelphia” isn’t a bad way to spend $10. For one thing, Simon was touring with a terrific band: Steve Gadd on drums, Tony Levin on bass, Richard Tee on keyboards, and Eric Gale on guitar, offering the same New York-spun mellow urban vibe that typified Simon’s recordings of the era. For another thing, Simon – usually not the most scintillating live performer – was in high spirits during this show, stopping to interact with the audience a time or two (at one point, he even tells someone whose view he suspects may be obstructed to just come down and stand in front of the stage, joking that he isn’t sure whether it’s against the rules, but “it’s okay with me”). The set list might dwell a little too heavily on One Trick Pony for some, and it certainly doesn’t include any must-hear versions of the 11 songs presented here, but it does provide a glimpse of Simon during a time when he was beginning what was to become a decades-long struggle to redefine himself, the performances are uniformly tight, and the price is right. Just make sure you don’t already own it.
Morel is an acclaimed remix artist who as worked with Pink, Depeche Mode, Cyndi Lauper and about a dozen or so other platinum artists. He’s also well known in house music circles for his club singles and his work with the dance music duo Deep Dish. But his career as a solo artist has been noticeably less successful, and The Death of the Paperboy probably isn’t going to change that. Too much of this album has Morel going away from his strengths, and experimenting with ballads and rock-driven pop songs. It occasionally works; “Anymore, Anymore” sounds like some fabulous combination of Erasure and Oasis, and the upbeat “Flawed” sounds like Hot Fuss-era Killers with a dozen or more synthesizers plugged in, but for the most part it all straddles the line into either generic dance music or down-tempo electronic pop. But let’s be honest, Morel makes music predominately for (gay) club play, and there are a few songs here that work great in that regard. But if that doesn’t interest you, then there is no reason to even glance at The Death of the Paperboy. (Outsider Music 2008)
He is without question one of the most gifted singers in rock history, but there’s something depressing about The Definitive Rod Stewart; granted, 15 of the songs on this two-CD/one-DVD set were Top 10 hits, yet one can’t help but think that Stewart has spent the majority of his career squandering his talent, hit singles be damned. Fans will point to his versatility, but it’s more like bandwagon jumping, from mellow gold to disco to new wave to the inevitable unplugged session (his mining of the Great American Songbook, thankfully, is not included here). To his credit, Rod could sell ice to the Eskimos, which is why “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” and “Infatuation” were such massive hits. Warner Bros. definitely picked all of the right songs for this set – though we would have included anything else from his catalog, even his cover of Free’s “All Right Now,” if it meant the exclusion of “Love Touch” – and the inclusion of a DVD featuring a bunch of his promotional videos is a nice plus. But the fact that this is Stewart’s definitive work is more damning than cause for celebration. (Warner Bros.)
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