Performing with newly recorded beats and loops and other electronic doo-dads recently created with Costello’s producer Sebastian Krys in anticipation of these shows, Elvis and Steve took a journey to a moody, haunted place tonight, expanding the song to over 8 minutes. Checking The Elvis Costello Wiki (where massive amounts of data are stored for easy reference), I see that he has performed the song in concert on 14 prior occasions. I missed it by two shows in either direction, before and after I saw them play Central Park Summerstage. In 2003, Costello was touring with The Imposters and “My Dark Life” started to re-appear in the set lists. The song has popped up on a handful of occasions in concert since then. (We both grew up in Missouri, a state now ruled by some of the most twisted MAGA politicians in the whole country this portentous song somehow feels prescient to have name-dropped it then, amongst the song’s many intriguing and ominous details.) If you listen carefully to that recording, when he gets to the line about the town of “Peculiar, Missouri,” you can hear a brief yelp from the audience, emanating from my friend Jeff Falzone, who was the person who introduced me to Costello’s music back in high school. It sounds like lounge music from Venus.”Īlso Read Elvis Costello, Night Eight: ‘To Lands At The Edge Of Everywhere That We Have Still To Discover’Ĭostello played “My Dark Life” in concert only one time in 1996, in San Francisco, and that performance was released on the limited edition Costello & Nieve box set that sold out almost immediately. It’s like a map of miasma.” Bono was another admirer, saying: “This is the fucking shit. Greil Marcus once wrote about it at length, saying “the song sucks you into it and then gets you lost so quickly it might be describing not an incident but a lifetime. It’s clearly a song that Costello is proud of, having included it on his Warner Bros-era “Best of” collection, Extreme Honey, as well as the companion soundtrack to his memoir, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink. ![]() On record, it’s a six-and-a-half minute epic produced by Brian Eno for a now-obscure X-Files tribute CD from 1996, Songs In The Key Of X. For the first time in this series of concerts, we began the evening with fewer shows ahead than there are behind us, but that didn’t mean that this evening was short on surprises and musical derring-do.Īdmittedly, this was the show I had my sights set on from the start, thanks to the pre-announced inclusion of my personal all-time favorite Elvis Costello song: “My Dark Life.” Night Seven was the second (and final) Friday night show of Elvis Costello’s 10-night stand at New York City’s Gramercy Theater, and it found our intrepid performer (and his keyboard assassin, Steve Nieve) delving even deeper into his songbook in front of an adoring and appreciative crowd. ![]() Catch up on his reports from Night One, Night Two, Night Three, Night Four, Night Five, and Night Six here. Costello superfan (and comedian) Connor Ratliff is bringing us the highlights from every night of the historic run. ![]() and.Elvis Costello is performing 200+ songs from his 600+ songbook over 10 nights at the Gramercy Theater in New York from Feb. I think I saw the principal wearing moon boots. It's all in good fun, and as you teach your students this tune, you'll want to use the CD tracks because they're filled with great spaceship "fly overs" and cool synths. Phrases like "What?" or "No way!," etc., should model the students' amazement at the newly realized condition of their school. The long, rhythmic crescendos of the chorus should culminate in a fortissimo shout - a feat we're sure you'll have NO trouble getting your performers to accomplish! (They're also great reinforcement for dynamics.) At measure 25, your kids sing the eight bar chorus again, but this time, the repeat adds spoken solo interjections. All the while, your singers keep the ship steady with quarter note rhythms in the verses. ![]() The pulsing bass rhythm throughout mimics the rumble of the rocket engine, while the syncopated riffs are the jolts of the takeoff. What's going on? The vocal crescendos in the chorus are just the thing to get listeners believing their school just might have enough, um, "strange" things happening that it will definitely have them thinking similar thoughts! Seat belts in the classroom, aliens in the gym, teachers with their moon boots. Imagination runs wild in this upbeat, fun song that has kids (and parents on the PTO galaxy planet search committee) thinking their school is actually capable of interplanetary travel.
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