What's your favorite Elvis Costello album/song?

[Bucky__Badger]

Mine:
Album- Armed Forces
Song: "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love and Understanding" (same album)

Close Second: "Man Out of Time" from Imperial Bedroom

[Dhalgren]

1. "Watching the Detectives"

and "Living in Paradise"

[Brucey]

2. Album: Armed Forces

Song: Allison/My Aim is True and Veronica

[supernova]

4. You beat me to it

Allison is my personal fav. I understand Veronica is about his grandma?

[Iris]

8. Veronica

A great song. And I believe it was about his grandma. The video showed an old woman in a nursing home with flashbacks to when she was a young woman.

Funny, I was a teenager when MTV first came on. I thought I'd never hear songs without thinking of videos, but now I only hear songs and never see vidoes!

ok -- that was kind of off-topic, but I caught a hell of a cold from my niece and nephew and I'm pretty out of it right now!

[On the Road]

3. Either "King of America" or "Get Happy"

"Allison" has got to be my favorite song -- one of the greatest pop songs ever written IMO.

But there are so many others that I just love. "Radio Sweetheart" is one. "Our Little Angel" and "This Poison Rose" are a couple of others.

[Bucky__Badger]

5. yes, King of America is great...

vastly under-rated.

Our Little Angel is a personal fave too...

"You try to love her
But you're so contrary
Like a chainsaw runnin' through a dictionary..."

[Whitacre D_WI]

6. Blood and Chocolate/Imperial Bedroom

Love 'em both, hard to pick a fave.

Song? Sheesh --
"Radio, Radio" from This Year's Model
"Oliver's Army" from Armed Forces
"Fish 'n' Chips Paper" or "Big Sister's Clothes" from Trust
"Let Them all Talk" or "Everyday I Write the Book" from Punch the Clock
"Little Fool" or "Human Hands" from IB
"Crimes of Paris" from B&C

I pretty much dig everything Mr. McManus did during the first decade of his career. The stuff since has been good, but there have been a few missteps.

[BurtWorm]

7. This Year's Model is my favorite album

Waiting for the End of the World may be my favorite EC song. But there are a lot of them from those first two albums in particular.

[Plaid Adder]

9. I think I gotta say "Imperial Bedroom," for nostalgia

Takes me right back to my college days when I first met my partner. But I also like the double "best of" set a lot. Hard to pick a favorite, but I really like a lot of the bitter ones, like "I Hope You're Happy Now," more than I thought I would...also like "Tokyo Storm Warning" though I have no idea WTH it means.

C ya,

THe Plaid Adder

[SiouxJ]

10. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalison

I know this world is killing you, Oooooooooh, Aaaaaaaalison, My aim is true.

Always has been, probably always will be my favortie Elvis song.

Diana Krall - you bitch! ;-)

[Nevernose]

11. The Margaret Thatcher Song

"Tramp the Dirt Down"

"When England was the whore of the world, Margaret was her madame / and the future was as bright and as clear as the black tower MacAdam."

What the hell is the black tower MacAdam, anyway? Sounds like one of those medieval places where the beheaded people.

[XNASA]

16. I think EC was maybe referencing the MacAdam who......

...invented the macadam road which was basically a crowned road made of gravel and pebbles covered in tar. Up until then, most roads were just muddy ruts.

Nowadays, we call it asphalt. So Black = Tar = macadam = MacAdam.

I don't think that there is really a black tower called MacAdam. But I guess I could be wrong.

[XNASA]

12. Get Happy!! and "Beyond Belief"

Where to start? It's impossible for me to single out just one EC ablum, or even album, to call my very favorite. They're all fantastic.

How in the world can one be expected to pick just a song that stands out.

Like I said, I love them all, but "Get Happy!!" is one of those albums that causes me the reminisce. I just look at the cover and I feel 22 again. Look at songs on GH:

Love for Tender, King Horse, Clowntime is Over, New Amsterdam, High Fidelity, I Can't Stand Up (for Falling Down), Motel Matches, I Stand Accused, Girls Talk, Riot Act............

And that's only half of what's on the disc.

Favorite Song? If I had to pick one, it might be "Beyond Belief" from Imperial Bedroom.

History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies the same defeats
Keep your finger on important issues
With crocodile tears and a pocketful of tissues
I'm just the oily slick
On the windup world of the nervous tick
In a very fashionable hovel
I hang around dying to be tortured
You'll never be alone in the bone orchard
This battle with the bottle is nothing so novel
So in this almost empty gin palace
Through a two-way looking glass
You see your Alice
You know she has no sense
For all your jealousy
In a sense she still smiles very sweetly
Charged with insults and flattery
Her body moves with malice
Do you have to be so cruel to be callous
And now you find you fit this identikit completely
You say you have no secrets
And then leave discreetly

I might make it California's fault
Be locked in Geneva's deepest vault
Just like the canals of Mars and the great barrier reef
I come to you beyond belief

[NashVegas]

13. Spike / Uncomplicated

The song is not on Spike, but Blood & Chocolate.

[Gato Moteado]

14. fav costello album = "my aim is true"

it's so hard to have a fav costello tune.....they're all so good.

"does the extinguished candle care about the darkness?"

[peekaloo]

15. King of America/Lipstick Vogue

at this moment......:D

[soleft]

17. Great, now Oliver's Army is stuck in my head

And I would rather be anywhere else than here today.

[CanuckAmok]

18. Hands down: "God Only Knows" w Brodsky Quartet, or...

From the "Live at New Your Town Hall" EP. I know it's not an Elvis Costello composition, but I love it. I also like their version of Weill's "Lost in the Stars".

Costello's voice accompanied by strings gives me shivers!

I think my favourite original Costello track is "I Want You", from Blood and Chocolate. It is sooo creepy.

Fave album: Hmmm... either "Blood and Chocolate" or "This Year's Model".

edit= Did I mention Elvis and Diana just bought property less than five miles from where we live? :hi:, neighbour!