When You Don’t Really Need It: Costello Fans About to Learn What Ike Turner Recently Learned the Hard Way

Old habits die hard, as medical examiners have concluded Ike Turner learned the hard way.

Speaking of old habits, a Townsman passed along the following press release of interest to more than a couple of us with a need for more, more, more and extra money to burn! Personally, I think the real oversight in the Costello reissue market is the lack of a remastered Taking Liberties. Back in the day, you were pretty cool – at least as cool as a Costello fan could be – if you owned that one. Read on!

From: name
Date: Jan 17, 2008 10:46 AM
Subject: Costello’s This Year’s Model Deluxe Edition Out March 4
To: Costello Fans

Today’s news…Take care, name

DELUXE EDITION OF ELVIS COSTELLO’S LANDMARK ’70S ALBUM THIS YEAR’S MODEL PUMPS IT UP WITH SECOND DISC FEATURING PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED CONCERT

Elvis Costello’s sophomore release, his first album with the Attractions, This Year’s Model was voted Album of the Year in 1978 in The Village Voice Jazz & Pop critics poll, was ranked #11 on Rolling Stone’s list of the best albums of 1967-1987, and in 2003 was in the Top 100 of Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” Led by the anthemic “Pump It Up,” This Year’s Model, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, remains one of the most important albums of the punk/new wave era.

The two-CD This Year’s Model Deluxe Edition, released March 4, 2008 (Hip-O/UMe), adds 11 b-sides, demos, live tracks, and alternate takes to the original album plus a second disc comprised of a previously unreleased concert recorded at the Warner Theater in Washington, DC, on February 28, 1978. Taped on the Starfleet mobile studio, this show was originally broadcast on WHFS in Maryland and only “Chemistry Class” has ever been issued before. Along with performances of several songs from This Year’s Model, including “Pump It Up,” “Radio, Radio,” “The Beat” and “No Action,” this concert also features such Costello favorites as “Watching The Detectives,” “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes,” “Less Than Zero” and “Waiting For The End Of The World.”

This Year’s Model, produced by Nick Lowe, was harder and rawer than Costello’s debut album, 1977’s My Aim Is True, partly thanks to the singer-songwriter-guitarist’s newly recruited band of keyboardist Steve Nieve, bassist Bruce Thomas and drummer Pete Thomas (no relation). The album outcharted its predecessor by reaching #30 in the U.S. and #4 U.K. This Year’s Model ­ Deluxe Edition includes the U.K. album-only album tracks “(I Don¹t Want To Go To) Chelsea” and “Night Rally” plus the U.S. album-only “Radio, Radio.”

The added selections, subsequently issued in a 2001 two-CD package, include the b-sides “Big Tears” and “Tiny Steps”; Americathon soundtrack contribution “Crawling To The USA”; demos for “Running Out Of Angels,” “Greenshirt” and “Big Boys”; live “Neat Neat Neat” and “Roadette Song”; and alternate takes of “This Year’s Girl” and “(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea.”

Following This Year’s Model, Costello would crack the Top 10 in America and become a major pop culture figure. He would go on to spread his musical wings by delving into everything from country to sophisticated pop, classical to jazz, and collaborating with everyone from Paul McCartney, Burt Bacharach and Diana Krall to, most recently, R&B great Allen Toussaint. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him among its “100 Greatest Artists of All Time.”

Elvis Costello has proved that he was not just this year¹s model.

ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE ATTRACTIONS:
THIS YEAR¹S MODEL

DISC ONE:

1 No Action
2 This Year’s Girl
3 The Beat
4 Pump It Up
5 Little Triggers
6 You Belong To Me
7 Hand In Hand
8 (I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea
9 Lip Service
10 Living In Paradise
11 Lipstick Vogue
12 Night Rally
13 Radio, Radio

Bonus material: b-sides,demos, live tracks, alternates, etc.

14 Big Tears
15 Crawling To The USA
16 Tiny Steps
17 Running Out Of Angels (demo version)
18 Greenshirt (demo version)
19 Big Boys (demo version)
20 Neat Neat Neat (live)
21 Roadette Song (live)
22 This Year¹s Girl (alternate Eden Studios version)
23 (I Don¹t Want To Go To) Chelsea (alternate
Basing Street Studios version)

ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE ATTRACTIONS
Live At The Warner Theater, Washington, DC, February 28, 1978

DISC TWO:

1 Pump It Up*
2 Waiting For The End Of The World*
3 No Action*
4 Less Than Zero*
5 The Beat*
6 (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes*
7 (I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea*
8 Hand In Hand*
9 Little Triggers*
10 Radio, Radio*
11 You Belong To Me*
12 Lipstick Vogue*
13 Watching The Detectives*
14 Mystery Dance*
15 Miracle Man*
16 Blame It On Cain*
17 Chemistry Class

* Previously Unreleased