Revisiting Armed Forces - Elvis Costello & The Attractions (1979)

 Armed Forces - Elvis Costello and The Attractions

Radar (UK)

Columbia (USA)

Produced by Nick Lowe

Released 5th January 1979

UK Chart #2

US Chart #10

A1 Accidents Will Happen    
A2 Senior Service    
A3 Oliver's Army    
A4 Big Boys    
A5 Green Shirt    
A6 Party Girl    
B1 Goon Squad    
B2 Busy Bodies    
B3 Sunday's Best*    
B4 Moods For Moderns    
B5 Chemistry Class    
B6 Two Little Hitlers 

* The Columbia Edition in the US removed this track and replaced it with (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding? which became the last track on the album.

A Limited Edition Live EP was also included with the album.

Live At Hollywood High EP
A1 Accidents Will Happen    
A2 Alison    
B Watching The Detectives

1993 Rykodisc CD Reissue Tracklisting

1 Accidents Will Happen    
2 Senior Service    
3 Oliver's Army    
4 Big Boys    
5 Green Shirt    
6 Party Girl    
7 Goon Squad    
8 Busy Bodies    
9 Sunday's Best    
10 Moods For Moderns    
11 Chemistry Class    
12 Two Little Hitlers    
13 (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?    
    Extended Play
14 My Funny Valentine    
15 Tiny Steps    
16 Clean Money    
17 Talking In The Dark    
18 Wednesday Week
19 Accidents Will Happen (Live)    
20 Alison (Live)    
21 Watching The Detectives (Live)

2002 Rhino Records CD Reissue

(US CD Cover)

Bonus Track CD1

13 - (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?

 Bonus Disc Tracklisting

     2-1 Tiny Steps
2-2 Busy Bodies (Alternate Version)    
2-3 Talking In The Dark    
2-4 Big Boys (Alternate Version)    
2-5 Clean Money    
2-6 Wednesday Week
2-7 My Funny Valentine (Solo)
2-8 Accidents Will Happen (Live)    
2-9 Mystery Dance (Live)    
2-10 Goon Squad (Live)    
2-11 Party Girl (Live)    
2-12 Stranger In The House (Live)    
2-13 Alison (Live)    
2-14 Lipstick Vogue (Live)    
2-15 Watching The Detectives (Live)    
2-16 You Belong To Me (Live)    
2-17 Chemistry Class (Live Solo)

2-8 to 2-16 Recorded live at Hollywood High School, Hollywood, CA (4 June 1978).
2-17 Recorded live at The Warner Theatre, Washington, DC (28 February 1978)

2007 Hip-O Records CD Reissue

Bonus Track

13 - (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?

UMe Back To Black Series

12" Vinyl and 7" EP

2015

Returned to the Original Tracklisting but included
(Whats So Funny 'Bout) Peace Love And Understanding? and The Hollywood High EP

A1 Accidents Will Happen    
A2 Senior Service    
A3 Oliver's Army    
A4 Big Boys    
A5 Green Shirt    
A6 Party Girl    
B1 Goon Squad    
B2 Busy Bodies    
B3 Sunday's Best    
B4 Moods For Moderns    
B5 Chemistry Class    
B6 Two Little Hitlers

B7 Whats So Funny Bout Peace Love And Understanding? 

   
    Live At Hollywood High EP
C1 Accidents Will Happen    
C2 Alison    
D Watching The Detectives

Personnel
    Elvis Costello – guitar, vocals
    Steve Nieve – piano, organ, synthesizer
    Bruce Thomas – bass
    Pete Thomas – drums

Singles Released From Armed Forces

A-Side: Oliver's Army (with The Attractions)

B-Side: My Funny Valentine (Solo)

Released 2nd February 1979

UK Charts #2

A Accidents Will Happen
B1 Talking In The Dark    
B2 Wednesday Week

Released 4th May 1979

UK Chart #28

Other Notes regarding Armed Forces

The inclusion of (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding? was an interesting move because it was not a song that was originally released under the name of Elvis Costello and The Attractions.

 Rather it first raised its head in November 1978 as the B-Side to Nick Lowe's American Squirm single and was credited to Nick Lowe and His Sound

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Armed Forces is the third album from Elvis Costello and the first to credit his backing band The Attractions (who had already played on the This Year's Model album). The album became his best selling at the time with it reaching #2 on the UK Album Chart and also unleashing one of the great singles of 1979 in Oliver's Army (also one of his most successful singles peaking at #2 in the UK). I was somewhat surprised that Accidents Will Happen (which was the second single taken from the album) did not do better chartwise.

With a working title of Emotional Fascism it's quite easy to see that theme unfurled throughout the album (some have called it a concept album because of that). Dave Quantick, writing for The Ultimate Music Guide: Elvis Costello said, "almost every song on Armed Forces seems to fit the main theme of human relationships as tiny wars, militarism as a similie for love, and the whole linking up of love, war and fascism...it's also an album that's of its time and stands outside of its time. And it contains one of the greatest singles ever made. And it's a concept album". Elvis Costello seemed to be a master of this particular style of song as he managed to combine a whole raft of bitter and twisted emotion into a song.

In the US Elvis Costello had seen his first two albums hover around the thirties in the Album Chart but Armed Forces catapulted him and The Attractions to the Top Ten. Singles wise he hadn't done so well with Watching The Detectives just outside the charts and Accidents Will Happen would also find itself one place short of making it to the Hot 100. A radio hit of (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding? surely carried the album up the charts (it was not included on the UK version of the album until the 1993 CD Reissue) and they even made a video for MTV, which again would have given a further surge in the Billboard Album Charts.

As I mentioned above (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding? had not even been originally released under the Elvis Costello and The Attractions name before and it was a song penned by Nick Lowe for his band Brinsley Schwarz in 1974! It's funny that today many people seem totally unaware that it's not actually an Elvis Costello song but it is one that he does continue to perform in concert. He often introduces it as "A song that Nick Lowe wrote, but I stole!" Check out the performance with Elvis and Nick singing together.

Most of the songs for the album were written on tour buses and hotels (Oliver's Army was pretty much sketched out, according to Costello, on the flight back to London from Belfast) so come studio time it was just the point of getting them down onto tape (many of songs being done in a single take!). Nick Lowe once again is at the helm producing and showed once again how vital he is to bringing the sound of the band to its best.

In 2000 Q magazine placed Armed Forces at number 45 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.

The accompanying music video for Accidents Will Happen, by Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, was one of the 35 videos selected for the Museum of Modern Art's "Golden Oldies of Music Video" exhibition in 2003.

Whilst Elvis Costello and The Attractions are often associated with the New Wave Scene, Armed Forces would be the last of his albums that really could be classed as such as in the years following Costello would branch out and dip his toes in the waters of Country, 60s Soul, Classical etc.

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 328 - Elvis Costello

Girls Girls Girls - Elvis Costello

Demon

Released 1989

UK Chart #67

Album Notes

This compilation was released in three formats: Double Vinyl Album, 2CD and Double Cassette. All three had different tracklistings and the amount of songs. I have included all the songs above in the playlist. Each format also had songs that were exclusive to it:

Double Vinyl - 31 Tracks

2 Songs Exclusive to it:

I'll Wear It Proudly

Stranger In The House 

2CD Tracklisting

2CD - 47 Tracks

9 Songs Exclusive to it:

Uncomplicated

Black and White World

Big Sister's Clothes

Motel Matches

Tiny Steps

Love Field

Possession

Sunday's Best

Less Than Zero

Double Cassette Cover

Double Cassette - 51 Tracks

15 Songs Exclusive to it:

Honey, Are You Straight or Are You Blind?

Girls Talk

Poor Napoleon

Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head

Turning the Town Red

Sleep of the Just

Our Little Angel

The Long Honeymoon

Crimes of Paris

Jack of All Parades

Little Palaces

Night Rally

American Without Tears

Suit of Lights

Clowntime is Over

***********************

(Elvis Costello in Derry 2013. Photo from The Belfast Telegraph)

I appear to have more than a few compilations of Elvis Costello and I thought today's choice I'd go for the 1989 offering Girls Girls Girls. I actually still have this on vinyl despite not having a record player these days and managed to keep in pretty good condition as well.

One of the things I really love about this particular album is that Elvis Costello chose all the songs for it, he laid out the order he wanted them in (not chronological by any means) and he also wrote extensive liner notes for the album. It's absolutely nothing like a conventional "Best Of" and I think that's why I find it a charming album because you get such a wide range of styles and you come to grasp just how good he was/is as a songwriter. Like he says below, a lot of credit goes to The Attractions "without whom this would be a blank record".

The thing I was not particularly keen on with regard to it was the fact that the three different formats it was released in had very different tracklistings. So if you wanted all the songs you would have had to have purchased it three times!

Now, if I was one of those crazy dudes who feels they must own every release (including those from other countries), in every format, every coloured vinyl, or different coloured sleeve etc I probably would have indulged myself and splashed out on all three but as I am not like that at all (with any artist that I enjoy!) I stuck with the Vinyl Edition and although unable to play it to my heart's content these days I am happy to know that I have pretty much all the tracks scattered throughout the extensive discography that I own of Declan P. MacManus, his Attractions and pretty much most of the other guises that he has released under.

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 259 - Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Blood and Chocolate - Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Imp Records

Produced by Nick Lowe

Released 15th September 1986

UK Chart #16

US Chart #84

Tracklist

A1 Uncomplicated    
A2 I Hope You're Happy Now    
A3 Tokyo Storm Warning    
A4 Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head    
A5 I Want You    
B1 Honey Are You Straight Or Are You Blind?    
B2 Blue Chair    
B3 Battered Old Bird
B4 Crimes Of Paris    
B5 Poor Napoleon    
B6 Next Time Around

Personnel
    Elvis Costello – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals, harmonium, tambourine, bellows, canes, knives, bass, Vox Continental electric organ
    Steve Nieve – piano, organ, harmonium
    Bruce Thomas – bass, electric guitar, saxophone
    Pete Thomas – drums, alto saxophone

Additional personnel
    Nick Lowe – acoustic guitar
    Cait O'Riordan – vocals on "Crimes of Paris" and "Poor Napoleon"

Singles on Blood and Chocolate

Tokyo Storm Warning Parts 1 & 2 / Black Sails In The Sunset

Imp Records

August 1986

UK Chart #73

I Want You / I Hope You're Happy Now

Imp Records

November 1986

Did Not Chart!

Blue Chair was released as a single but it was a different version to the album as it had been recorded earlier during the King of America sessions with The Confederates band.

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Now, I have a lot of love for the early Elvis Costello and The Atrractions  (Armed Forces and Get Happy!!) and Elvis Costello (My Aim is True and This Year's Model) albums but Blood and Chocolate is probably my favourite EC and Attractions album of all time.

Whilst I had enjoyed the previous five albums including King of America, I always felt that Nick Lowe brought something great out of EC and so it was great to see he was back at the controls having had a hand in the first 5 studio albums and absent for a few releases.

Not a great need to talk about it as the test of its quality is in the playing. I will say though in passing that I Want You has to be one of the most amazing songs ever to come from the pen of Declan P. MacManus. I am still stunned that it was never a hit record! He recorded a version of it for a recent project with The Roots which was pretty tidy as well I thought.

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

 

The Soundtrack4Life Concert Series: Elvis Costello

I think it's about time to unleash some Elvis Costello live footage on The Soundtrack4Life Concert Series. I honestly thought I had posted at least one concert of his as part of this series but it seems not.

Let us rectify that with not one but two Elvis Costello shows, the first from 1978 featuring The Attractions. This was filmed in Germany as part of the Rockpalast Series for German TV.

The second is pretty much an acoustic performance from Woodstock 99. It's interesting seeing the difference between the two and how much confidence Costello has mustered over the course of 21 years!

 Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Rockpalast
15th June 1978
 

Elvis Costello
Woodstock 99 East Stage
25th July 1999
 

Setlist:
Pads, Paws And Claws/Mystery Dance
Accidents Will Happen
(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea
New Amsterdam / You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
Veronica
Everyday I Write the Book
I'll Never Fall In Love Again
(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
Radio Sweetheart / Jackie Wilson Said
God's Comic
(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding
Alison
Pump It Up

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 169 - The World of Broken Hearts

This is a bit of a departure from the norm today but I feel it is something worth saying.
 
I have no album to celebrate today, no particular person to turn the spotlight on just a thought about the world in which we are living.

In the past week we have witnessed a young singer have her life extinguished by a lone gunman in Florida whilst signing autographs for fans after a concert, and then the tragic scenes in Orlando, Florida of people gunned down in a night club because of their sexuality, a crime that was so filled with hate and rage that all across the globe people were moved to standby and offer support to those who survived. But on the other hand there were those who gave the impression that this act of murder should be applauded. Instead of being horrified that someone with a weapon of destruction that had wiped out 49 lives and injured many more, they went out and bought thousands of the very same weapon and thus we await the next scene of carnage and loss of life on a grand scale. Welcome to The World of Broken Hearts!

Yesterday a 41 year old woman, Jo Cox, a Member of Parliament was going about her business, as she had often done since being elected last year, not knowing that her days on this earth were about to end and her family were about to enter The World of Broken Hearts. Here was a woman who had stood in defence of child refugees, had believed that in some small way that she could be a part of the change in this world and yet her life was snuffed out at the hands of a possible racist thug with a gun. He was arrested and will stand trial but the carnage he has left behind with lives of family and friends shattered is something he will never be called to account for!

It is not just the victims of gun crime though that enter this World of Broken Hearts, turn on the news or open the daily newspaper and it you will see them everywhere. From refugees fleeing their war torn lands in search of a better life having their lives shattered by the waves of a raging sea to the rising racism in our own land against those who have sought refuge here and have begun to rebuild their lives in one way or another, to the lives wrecked by child abuse, it's there in black and white for all to see.

I would not pretend even for a moment that I have the answers as to the whys and wherefores that these things happen. I can only look into my own heart and long that hatred for anyone does not dwell there and rise above the fear and show love especially to those in this World of Broken Hearts.

The World of Broken Hearts

Elvis Costello & The Attractions

1982 B-Side

 

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 47 - Get Happy!!

Elvis Costello's first three Albums had all been Top Twenty Albums: My Aim is True (#14), This Year's Model (#4) and Armed Forces (#2). 

For the fourth, Get Happy!!, the band went almost a different route soundwise. Some of the songs had been performed live on the Armed Funk Tour but felt that they sounded too new wave and so when it came to recording the album a more R&B, Soul, Ska direction was called for. Even the album artwork (designed by Barney Bubbles) had a real Retro type of feel to it and yet this new sound perfectly fitted the times.

Twenty songs, or '20 Great Hits' as the album sticker declared brought forth three fantastic singles from EC and the Attractions. First up was the cover of Sam & Dave's 'I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down' that saw Elvis and the band laying down some nifty dance moves of their own! The single was originally going to be released on Two Tone but legal issues curtailed that plan. It was a huge hit becoming their 2nd Top hit, #4 (Oliver's Army had reached #2). High Fidelity I thought should have been a huge hit, it only reached #30. New Amesterdam was another that I thought should have been at least Top 20 but it stalled at #36!

'You'll have noticed that there are ten tracks on each side of this, Elvis' new LP, making it a real "long player".

Elvis and I talked long and hard about the wisdom of taking this unusual step and are proud that we can now reassure hi-fi enthusiasts and/or people who never bought a record before 1967 that with the inclusion of this extra music time they will find no loss of sound quality due to "groove cramming" as the record nears the end of each face (i.e. the hole in the middle).

Now get happy.

Your friend,

Producer, Nick Lowe'

Get Happy!! - Elvis Costello and the Attractions

F-Beat Records

Producer Nick Lowe

Released 15th February 1980

UK Chart #2

US Chart #11

Track Listing
(All songs written by Elvis Costello unless otherwise indicated.)
Side one
"Love for Tender"
"Opportunity"
"The Imposter"
"Secondary Modern"
"King Horse"
"Possession"
"Men Called Uncle"
"Clowntime Is Over"
"New Amsterdam"
"High Fidelity"
Side two
"I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down" (Homer Banks, Allen Jones)
"Black & White World"
"5ive Gears in Reverse"
"B Movie"
"Motel Matches"
"Human Touch"
"Beaten to the Punch"
"Temptation"
"I Stand Accused" (Tony Colton, Ray Smith)
"Riot Act"

Personnel
    Elvis Costello – vocals, guitar, organ on "Possession", all instruments on "New Amsterdam"
    Steve Nieve – piano, organ
    Bruce Thomas – bass, harmonica on "I Stand Accused"
    Pete Thomas – drums

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

Rewind: 1986 Blood and Chocolate - Elvis Costello and the Attractions

Blood and Chocolate -  Elvis Costello and the Attractions

Demon (UK)/Columbia (US)

Produced by Nick Lowe and Colin Fairley

Released 15th September 1986

UK Chart #16

US Chart #84

Personnel
    Elvis Costello – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals, harmonium, tambourine, bellows, canes, knives, bass, Vox Continental electric organ
    Steve Nieve – piano, organ, harmonium
    Bruce Thomas – bass, electric guitar, saxophone
    Pete Thomas – drums, alto saxophone

Additional personnel
    Nick Lowe – acoustic guitar
    Cait O'Riordan – vocals on "Crimes of Paris" and "Poor Napoleon"
    Jimmy Cliff – vocals on "Seven Day Weekend"
    Mitchell Froom – organ on "Blue Chair" single version
    Tom "T-Bone" Wolk – electric guitar, bass on "Blue Chair" single version
    Mickey Curry – drums on "Blue Chair" single version

Side One
   1. "Uncomplicated" – 3:28
   2. "I Hope You're Happy Now" (Elvis Costello) – 3:07
    3. "Tokyo Storm Warning" (MacManus, Cait O'Riordan) – 6:25
    4. "Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head" – 5:07
    5. "I Want You" – 6:45

Side Two
    1. "Honey, Are You Straight or Are You Blind?" – 2:09
    2. "Blue Chair" – 3:42
    3. "Battered Old Bird" – 5:51
    4. "Crimes of Paris" – 4:20
    5. "Poor Napoleon" – 3:23
    6. "Next Time Round" – 3:28.

Seven Months after the release of the magnificent King of America album Elvis Costello and the Attractions unleashed what would be their last album together for eight years (1994's Brutal Youth) after relationships between Costello and the band having soured after recording the album and a tour. Nick Lowe returned to Production duties (Trust in 1981 was the last time he had taken that post) for the Eleventh Studio album from Elvis Costello who credits himself on the album as Elvis Costello, Declan MacManus and Napoleon Dynamite.

The album uses Esperanto to list musician credits and LP sides!

Blood and Chocolate is one of my favourite albums by Elvis Costello and the Attractions, but don't let that deter you from giving it a listen! 

The single I Want You, although it never charted, is right up their in my mind with the very best singles he's ever released. In 2013 he did a version of it with The Roots that's worth checking out. Click Here. There's also a great live version of it from the Spectacular Spinning Songbook shows with The Imposters that again is worth spending eight minutes and twelve seconds of your day to enjoy. Click Here.

Live at The Royalty Theatre, London

- November 1986.