September 10, 2012

We Return From Hiatus With A Provocative Claim:

Probably the best thing about Elvis Costello* is the fact that "Beyond Belief" is nearly impossible to sing.

Right?



Also, I suggest that while it is a Thing to see Elvis Costello Live, the album version is creepier.  I suppose it backs up my theory that he can't sing the full-on song live, with tricky rhythms and octave-plus spans.  So, for comparison:







*Feel free, in comments, to guess whether I am an Elvis Costello fan, and what my commentary about his TOTAL RACISM and etc. might read like.


2 comments:

  1. No comments on that, but you remind me that there's this acoustic version of "Veronica" that's all Everly-Brothers-sounding, and I have no idea how to find it. Anybody know what I'm talking about?

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  2. This is one of my favorite Costello songs - one of the few that seems to have survived a massive dying of any interest I ever had in his work - but I've never heard a live version I liked. The keyboards are always way too loud and fruity, like a Nintendo soundtrack, and the rest of it just never comes together - along with the aforementioned vocal issues. The vocal lines on the studio version slightly overlap each other, which I imagine must contribute to the live difficulties. I wonder if live performances of this song would benefit from a) a stripped-down arrangement and b) multiple singers. The original is far more intimate and subdued, which makes it creepy and awesome.

    As to what you'd say about his TOTAL RACISM, I'm curious! Is he still a racist? I thought that was a one-off.

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