Elvis brings back the Wheel of Songs

[www.rollingstone.com]

According to Pollstar, EC is skipping Colorado on this tour. Oh well.

Cool idea if he leaves out all of his songs past 1991 or so.

Include rarely performed tracks from 77-82 and I'm on board.

Nooooooooooooooo, entropy, he can't leave out stuff from When I Was Cruel !! That was a dynamite one I thought - as close to a return to form as we're likely to get.

Brutal Youth was kinda cool, I guess. I thought Useless Beauty just kinda laid there, Painted From Memory just kinda laid there, Cruel just kinda laid there, then I was fucking appalled by North and pretty well gave up. For me, I think it has a lot to do with EC's famous quote: "I'm not gonna be around for my artistic decline." That quote tainted my EC experience. His current stuff strikes me as major label wallpaper made even more repellant by his promise.

In all seriousness, can anyone truly say that any album or song he's done since the mid 90s stands with his 77-82 work? Honestly. I would love to know.

For me his truly great period ends with Trust so it's '77-'81. I know Imperial Bedroom is considered a classic EC album and I admire it but never warmed to it really beyond that.

King of America, Blood & Chocolate and When I Was Cruel are all a full notch below Trust for me (which is the weakest of the first 5 but I still love it).

His first 5 are the best first 5 of anybody in Rock imo. One thing I'd say I really miss from EC, even in the records I think are pretty good is he lost the ability to say a lot in a few words. I'm not sure when that started but at some point he seemed to just drone on and on lyrically, where in his heyday he could devastate you in 2 minutes 41 seconds.

I wouldn't mind hearing Costello belt out Richard Hell's "You Gotta Lose" - a song of course he has a history with......

I thought Momofuku had some good ones on it.

I'm going to pass this showcase, Bob.

Regarding the original story, I think it would be cool if he had some interesting covers... say by Springsteen circa 74-78, Van Morrison, Joe Jackson, Graham Parker. EC doing a Squeezing Out Sparks song would be killer, no? I imagine the covers are predictable, well-known classics.

Also, it's cool that Elvis' bassist is one of the Faragher Brothers. Does anyone remember them?

I've only seen EC once. His medley of "Alison" and "Suspicious Minds" was worth the ticket price.