VOLUME 9 The Coward Brothers 3rd Reunion Tour

In November 1984, Howard Coward and his brother Henry embarked upon a reunion tour playing all of their smash hits to a captivated audience...

1. Twist And Shout - The Isley Brothers
2. His Latest Flame - Elvis Presley
3. She's A Woman - The Beatles
4. I Got Loaded - Los Lobos
5. Don't Get Above Your Raising - Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs
6. Ragged But Right - George Jones
7. She Thinks I Still Care - George Jones
8. Somebody's Back In Town - The Wilburn Brothers
9. Tom Dooley - Doc Watson
10. The Wild Side Of Life - Hank Thompson
11. Image Of Me - Conway Twitty
12. Mental Revenge - Waylon Jennings
13. Baby's In Black - The Beatles
14. Tennessee Blues - Rita Coolidge & Kris Kristofferson
15. They'll Never Take Her Love from Me -Hank Williams
16. I'll Make It All Up To You - Jerry Lee Lewis
17. No Reason To Quit - Merle Haggard
18. The End Of The Rainbow - Richard & Linda Thompson
19. My Youngest Son - Eric Bogle
20. Georgia On My Mind - Ray Charles
21. I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know - Johnny Cash
22. Shake Yourself Loose - T Bone Burnett
23. From a Jack To A King - Jim Reeves
24. Hit The Road Jack - Ray Charles
25. Midnight Oil - Barbara Mendrell
26. Living A Little, Laughing A Little - The (Detroit) Spinners
27. All You Need Is Love - The Beatles

RUNNING TIME 77:44

Track Notes

1,2, 6-10 & 13-15 The Coward Brothers 1984-86. It was a tough call which version of ‘Twist And Shout’ to include here, The 1961 original by The Top Notes ? The Beatles ?... in the end I went for The Isley Brothers version.

2-3 Performed live with The Attractions 1986.
4 Guest appearance with Los Lobos, London May 1985
5 Guest appearance with Ricky Skaggs, London May 1985 http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Don%27t_Get_Above_Your_Raising
11,12, 16, 22 & 25 From Costello’s 1984 solo tour.
15 b-side to the Coward’s 1985 single ‘The People’s Limousine’.
17 Played at a miner’s benefit with The Attractions, London 1985
18 A demo version of this with unauthorised overdubs was released on a charity album in 1986. http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/End_Of_The_Rainbow
19 Another demo from this period that didn’t make the cut from The King of America sessions.
20 Played with his father Ross in a 1985 TV appearance
21 Tom Waits & Lou Reed joined Elvis for a live version of this in 1986
23-24 Audience singalongs and crowd banter from 1986
26 Duet appearance with John Hiatt on his 1985 single.
27 Performed for the first and last time solo, at Live Aid, London 1985.

VOLUME 8 The Sick Bed of MacGowan

In Nov 1985 Elvis took over vocal duties for a sick Shane MacGowan at a concert in Malmo. Costello's Pogues connection of course runs a lot deeper, He produced the bands debut album and married bass player Cait O’Riordan in May 1986. Elvis spent much of 1985-1986 with the band on tour and in the studio, so there are likely to be other unknown EC / Pogues collaborations not included on this disc. Here are the songs performed on that Malmo date. For the record, Elvis sang lead on tracks 9-11, 14 & 15 and backing vocals on 7 & 16. To make up the numbers, I’ve tagged on the remaining Pogues tracks that were produced, but not performed by Elvis, at least not publicly. The final track "Danny Boy" was sang by the cast including Elvis, The Pogues and Joe Strummer in the 1986 film ‘Straight to Hell’.

All tracks performed by The Pogues unless stated.

1. The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn #
2. Repeal of the Licencing Laws (Instrumental)
3. Jesse James #
4. Whisky, You’re The Devil
5. I'm a Man You Don't Meet Everyday #
6. Wild Cats of Kilkenny (Instrumental) #
7. Billy's Bones #
8. Waxie’s Dargle
9. The Old Main Drag #
10. A Pair Of Brown Eyes #
11. Dirty Old Town #
12. Muirshin Dirkin
13. The Battle of Brisbane (Instrumental)
14. Boys From The County Hell
15. The Band Played Waltzing Matilda #
16. A Pistol for Paddy Garcia (Instrumental) #
17. The Wild Rover - The Dubliners
18. Sally Maclennane #
19. Navigator #
20. The Gentleman Soldier #
21. A Rainy Night in Soho
22. The Body of an American
23. Plantxy Noel Hill (Instrumental)
24. Danny Boy

RUNNING TIME 77:34

Track Notes

1-17 Performed Malmo 1985 (same running order as setlist)

Additional tracks produced by Elvis Costello

18-20 Remaining tracks from “Rum Sodomy & The Lash” LP (Produced by EC)
21-23 “Poguetry in Motion” EP, Jan 1986. Elvis was producing this until tensions grew and his involvement in the project ended.
24 From the film “Straight to Hell’.

# From the album “Rum Sodomy & The Lash”

VOLUME 7 Hello Cruel World

Covering the period 1983-1984, many selections were played on Elvis’ first solo tour in April 1984.

1. Tomorrow's Just Another Day - Madness
2. Stand Down Margaret - The (English) Beat
3. The Werewolves of London - David Lindley
4. My Ever Changing Moods - The Style Council
5. Tears, Tears And More Tears - Nicolette Larson
6. Walking on Thin Ice - Yoko Ono
7. I Wanna Be Loved - Teacher's Edition
8. She Loves The Jerk - John Hiatt
9. What I Like Most About You - The Specials
10. Cruel - Prefab Sprout
11. A Smiling Shore - June Tabor
12. Sleepless Nights - The Everly Brothers
13. Withered And Died - Linda Thompson
14. Get Yourself Another Fool - Sam Cooke
15. Baby It's You - The Beatles
16. Girl Don't Come - Sandy Shaw
17. Hopelessly Devoted To You - Olivia Newton John
18. I Love Her Too - Aaron Neville
19. The Love You Save (May Be Your Own) - Joe Tex
20. So You Wanna Be A Rock 'N' Roll Star - The Byrds
21. Stage Fright - The Band
22. A Drunk Can't Be A Man - George Jones
23. The Captains And The Kings - Ronnie Drew

RUNNING TIME 78:09

Track Notes

1. Elvis teamed up with Madness in 1983 for this single, providing the vocal for a slowed down arrangement on the B side and a couple of live appearances.

2. Worked into a medley with 'Big Sister’s Clothes', also recorded for a BBC Radio session in June 1983

3. Elvis Joined David Lindley on stage in June 1984 to guest on this number, made famous by Warren Zevon.

4. Another guest appearance here with Paul Weller in Dec 1983. Weller’s album version is preferred here to the single version.

5. This was regularly played in a 'Pump it Up' medley along with 'Ain’t That a Lotta Love', long before it was recorded with Allen Toussaint for 'The River in Reverse' album.

6. "A small eternity with Yoko". Notable for being the first collaboration with Allen Toussaint in Sep 1983 for a Yoko Ono tribute album. This 6 minute epic is the shortest mix available.

7. An exceptionally obscure track recorded by an equally obscure group. Elvis’ version was released as a single in 1984.

8. Elvis recorded a demo of this track in Dec 1983 which eventually appeared on the 'Goodbye Cruel World' re-issue. He also performed it live with John Hiatt in Mar 1985.

9-12 Elvis’ first solo tour in April 1984 was the perfect vehicle to showcase many new covers, some were only heard once as Elvis played some of his favourite songs. His own live versions of ‘What I Like Most About You’ & ‘Sleepless Nights’ appeared on the Goodbye Cruel World re-issue.

13-15. The recording of ‘Withered And Died’ was a gesture to Richard Thompson, who was on stand-by for the 'Goodbye Cruel World' sessions but not called upon. ‘Baby It's You’ was recorded as a duet with Nick Lowe and appeared as a 1984 B-side for both artists, while ‘Get Yourself Another Fool’ was the B-side of another cover released by Elvis in 1986, “Please, Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.” All the Elvis’ recordings can be found on the 'Goodbye Cruel World' re-issue.

16-18. More one– off covers from the 1984 solo tour. ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You’, played once in Melbourne, was a nod to Australian star Olivia Newton John.

19. Worked into a medley of 'Alison' in 1984.

20. Played in some Attractions concerts in 1984 and also later with Roger McGuinn.

21. Another cover from the 1984 solo tour.

22. Elvis played this in a medley with the Conway Twitty song ‘Image of Me” in 1985

23. Elvis performed this in Boston April 1984 as well as producing Phil Chevron’s recorded version.