WHAT'S
NEW
December
6, 2022Elvis reveals some tantalizing details about Songs of Bacharach and Costello, the long-promised compilation of his work with Burt Bacharach, in the February 2023 issue of Uncut magazine
It's Painted From Memory [1998] and Taken From Life, which is a collection of songs that Burt and I wrote over the last 15 years for a proposed Painted From Memory
musical. So you'll hear other people singing a couple of those original
songs, but also a bunch of songs that have never been heard before.
We've compiled them with a couple of the songs from Look Now
[2018] and some recordings that were piano/voice explorations of what
the songs would sound like if they were sung by other people. We've put
them all together to create an impression of what it would have been
like to have that score.
There's another disc of live performances of Painted From Memory songs, mostly with Steve Nieve and myself, a couple of them orchestral. Finally, a whole album of Bacharach/David songs, which I thought would be fun to include. This is a love letter to Burt. We went into the studio last September and recorded two songs with Vince Mendoza conducting a 30-piece orchestra. So the bookends for this Taken From Life record are newly recorded. The Imposters and I recorded a third song, in Capitol Studios with an orchestra. It was a few years since we'd worked together, but it didn't take very long before I'm in the booth and he was on the call-back saying, "Elvis, you're not singing the right melody." So I had to be on top of it!"
There's another disc of live performances of Painted From Memory songs, mostly with Steve Nieve and myself, a couple of them orchestral. Finally, a whole album of Bacharach/David songs, which I thought would be fun to include. This is a love letter to Burt. We went into the studio last September and recorded two songs with Vince Mendoza conducting a 30-piece orchestra. So the bookends for this Taken From Life record are newly recorded. The Imposters and I recorded a third song, in Capitol Studios with an orchestra. It was a few years since we'd worked together, but it didn't take very long before I'm in the booth and he was on the call-back saying, "Elvis, you're not singing the right melody." So I had to be on top of it!"
The four-album set is expected in 2023.
October 2, 2020
The Complete Armed Forces (as it turns out to be called) has been officially announced. In addition to the vinyl releases mentioned below, it will be available on download and streaming services, but there is no indication of a CD release.
October 1, 2020
The track listing for the Armed Forces super deluxe edition has been revealed. It will be released November 6 on black vinyl and color vinyl. There is not yet any word on whether it will be available in other formats, but an announcement should be imminent.
Armed Forces 12" LP
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. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding?
Sketches for Emotional Fascism 10" LP
A1. Clean Money
A2. Talking In The Dark
A3. Wednesday Week
A4. Tiny Steps
B1. Crawling To The U.S.A.
B2. Big Boys (Alternate Version)
B3. Green Shirt (Demo Version)
B4. My Funny Valentine
Riot At The Regent — Live In Sydney '78 10" LP
A1. Oliver's Army
A2. Waiting For The End Of The World
A3. Big Boys
B1. This Year's Girl
B2. You Belong To Me
B3. Pump It Up
Europe '79 — Live At Pinkpop 12" LP
A1. Goon Squad
A2. B-Movie
A3. Green Shirt
A4. (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea
A5. Opportunity
A6. So Young
A7. High Fidelity
B1. Lipstick Vogue
B2. Watching The Detectives
B3. Big Boys
B4. Pump It Up
B5. You Belong To Me
B6. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding?
Christmas In The Dominion - Live 24th December '78 10" LP
A1. (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
A2. No Dancing
B1. I Stand Accused
B2. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding?
Live at Hollywood High & Elsewhere 1978 12" LP
A1. Accidents Will Happen
A2. Mystery Dance
A3. Goon Squad
A4. Party Girl
A5. Stranger In The House
B1. Alison
B2. Lipstick Vogue
B3. Watching The Detectives
B4. You Belong To Me
B5. Chemistry Class (Live at The Warner Theatre, Washington D.C.)
"Oliver's Army" 7"
A1. Oliver's Army
B1. Big Boys (Demo)
"Accidents Will Happen" 7"
A1. Accidents Will Happen
B1. Busy Bodies (Alternate)
Nick Lowe & His Sound "American Squirm" 7"
A1. American Squirm
B1. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding?
September 22, 2020
The November issue of Mojo quotes Elvis with a few details about the Armed Forces reissue:
-
The upcoming box set reissue, he says, includes "facsimiles of my
original notebooks, all handwritten, lines scrawled out, half verses
not used and all these subtle changes. It was a way of learning the
songs as I wrote them, how to sing them, and also to understand the
story the album told."
There are also comic books, postcards and six discs, including two 10-inch live records, the entirety of their June 4, 1979 Pinkpop festival show and the original album remastered directly from the studio tapes. "It sounds as close to the way it sounded to us in the studio as we could make it," says Costello. "That's a beautiful thing."
September 21, 2020
A list of upcoming music releases at CBS News says the Armed Forces super deluxe edition box set will be released November 18 — but take that with a grain of salt, because November 18 is a Wednesday, and music releases are usually on Fridays.
September 18, 2020
In a Billboard interview, Elvis teases major reissues news, beginning with "a six-record set based on Armed Forces" that "includes three live recordings ranging from the summer of '78 to the summer of '79, so it traces the development of the Attractions as a live act, from a club combo to a successful pop group — it's quite interesting to hear. I had expert help in photographing my handwritten notebooks. So you're getting something."
Asked if his other albums will receive similar reissues, Elvis answers: "If we can."
Also planned is "a compilation based on [Costello's 1998 album with Burt Bacharach] Painted From Memory, in the hope that we'll complete the picture with some other songs we've written that people still haven't heard." This would presumably include songs intended for the proposed Painted From Memory musical.
He also mentions "a new version of one of the albums from my catalog, and that's going to come out next April." This is probably the same project he mentioned in a January interview, when it was planned as a 2020 release: "Sebastian's [Look Now producer Sebastian Krys] just finished remixing an album of ours from the very beginning of our career. And the nature of that remix is going to be so surprising to you when you hear it, because it involves taking my voice off the record and replacing it entirely with Spanish singers from across 12 Latin countries and Spain. And that's something that will come out later in the year as apart of a revisiting of our catalogue." He did not specify the reinterpreted album in the January interview, but he told a March concert audience that it was This Year's Model.
For older news, see What's Old.
