Gratuitous Video Feed
Posted on | July 22, 2006
YouTube hosts this little gem, supposedly the only remaining video from Elvis Costello’s first TV appearance (must be from Granada TV ‘77, then). He’s all alone with the reverb cranked on his signature Fender Jazzmaster, and his voice, acquired taste though it be, is thoroughly affecting. The song is “Alison,” perhaps his prettiest melody.
Compare it to the VH1 Storytellers version from twenty years later. Here he speaks a little about the sad inspiration for the song before fulfilling the promise of his seventies vocal performance. He’s backed by a piano.
The pace of the second clip is a bit too slow for my taste. I prefer the raw original.
Lest I get too sentimental, here are Elvis and The Attractions at the Netherlands’ Pinkpop festival (4 June 1979), ripping into “Lipstick Vogue.” It was a simpler time, a time of shiny sportcoats, white shoes and sneers.
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