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| From | Michael vg <govango@yahoo.com> |
| Subject | Re: Love is the middle word in Clover: Elvis Costellos Aim is truer than ever... |
| Date | Fri, 9 Nov 2007 13:58:19 -0800 (PST) |
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THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.
As a long time east coast EC fan, I have been drooling
over all the reports of this show. My Aim Is True ranks
up there as one of my all time favorite/life changing/
never grow tired/ etc. etc. works.
Now I just have to hope that this show surfaces somewhere
somehow.
thanks,
michael vg
--- Paul Myers <pulmyears@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Auditeers, I wanted to share what I wrote on my blog at www.pulmyears.com,
> I just saw one of the best shows of my life and I'm still buzzing about it
> today.
> If any of you in the Bay Area are around at my book launch tonight at
> Booksmith (7 pm) ask me to tell you more about it.
>
> Everyone else, read on....
>
> ELVIS COSTELLO, CLOVER at GREAT AMERICAN MUSIC HALL, SAN FRANCISCO November
> 8th 2007
>
>
> *Love is the middle word in Clover: Elvis Costello's "Aim" is truer than
> ever...*
>
> Last night, I witnessed an historic event, the reunion of Elvis Costello (my
> songwriting hero) with the Marin county band Clover, who played on his first
> album, My Aim Is True . On stage Thursday at the Great American Music Hall,
> they played every song, in order,with the same licks, tempos and even then
> same vocal melodies (a rare thing if you've seen EC as much as I have). The
> event was a benefit for Richard DeLone the afflicted son of keyboard whiz
> Austin DeLone. Mr. DeLone and his guitar whiz pal Bill Kirchen (formerly of
> Commander Cody's band), opened the show as a dynamic duo and later joined EC
> and Clover at times through out the set. Drummer Mickey Shine was absent but
> we were thrilled that his "fill-in" for the night was Attractions drummer
> Pete Thomas. Otherwise the band featured Clover's original members: bassist
> John Ciambotti, keyboardist Sean Hopper and guitarist John McFee (whom Elvis
> fans will recall also appeared on Almost Blue).
> A charming host, Elvis vowed that for the evening he wouldn't play any song
> after 1977, so after performing the entire album in sequence (he even
> simulated turning over the vinyl platter to herald "side two") the band did
> a few encores and even played songs that EC had demoed for This Year's
> Model. He did some solo acoustic songs he said he hasn't played ever on a
> stage, explaining how he wrote them in different styles (such as that of
> John Prine) before he had found his own voice He peppered (padded) the
> evening with detailed anecdotes from his days working in the computer room
> of a cosmetics company in Hounslow and other stories. For instance, he
> recalled that on one tour, bass player Bruce Thomas had sliced his hand open
> and the late Phil Lynott from Thin Lizzy was brought in for a few shows.
> This year's model of the Costello show finds him in his best ever voice,
> with greater power in the upper "operatic" range, but losing none of the
> snarl and bite of his younger, more pill-fuelled days. When he picked up his
> signature model Fender Jazzmaster (the one with his name written across the
> rosewood fretboard in pearl-inlays) he told us the story of how Fender
> finally put out a replica model - 30 years after he put the guitar on the
> map in rock. He also shared a story about how Nick Lowe had gotten Clover to
> play on that first album, and admitted that the band had found themselves in
> England illegally and snuck around the UK as The Shamrocks. McFee copped all
> his signature guitar licks from thirty years ago and even played a hot pedal
> steel on "Waiting For the End of the World" and "Stranger In The House" --
> one of the encores. (No it wasn't on My Aim, but who cares!?) At one point
> he and the band wished Bonnie Raitt, who was there at side of stage, a happy
> birthday and closed the third encore with a full cast finale of Nick Lowe's
> "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" that had me up on
> my feet thrusting a peace sign high over my head. It was a magnificent night
> of music and after the show I got to tell him so. As he stood there in his
> buckskin fringe jacket and porkpie hat, I pointed out to him that "love" was
> the middle word in "Clover" to which EC replied, "Oh damn, I wish I'd
> thought of that before the show, I would have said it onstage!" To have
> beaten the brilliant Mr. Costello to a play on words, who could ask for
> more?
>
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