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Post by Partridge on Sept 3, 2023 22:48:54 GMT -5
Billboard, March 1, 1980    CashBox, March 1, 1980       Record World, March 1, 1980
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Post by RobGNYC on Sept 4, 2023 8:43:32 GMT -5
The Cashbox “Mad Love” review—should be “has her board,” not “has her broad.” I love the over-the-top style of these trade publications—“Malibu thrush.”
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Post by erik on Sept 4, 2023 9:01:52 GMT -5
Billboard was right about Mad Love--it was indeed a controversial album; and as has been said (seemingly) thousands of times over, Elvis Costello was the "angry young man" about Linda having the audacity to record several of his songs on the album. Of course, he wasn't angry enough to refuse the royalty checks he got from having those songs on an album that, however controversial it obviously was, sold in the multi-Platinum range. But it did take EC an unconsciously long time to acknowledge that truth--too long in the minds of many on the dais, and some will probably never forgive him, though I personally am willing to let bygones be bygones.
As for "Rambler Gambler"--It must have seemed strange that country radio wasn't willing to touch this traditionalist folk/country song, given the fact that it stalled out just underneath the Top 40 (on Billboard) at #42. But then again, Linda was never strictly a "country" artist per se, if you define that term the same way the bigwigs in Nashville do.
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Post by eddiejinnj on Sept 4, 2023 10:43:36 GMT -5
Yeah, I say let bygones be bygones too. Costello would have had to give permission for her to record it. He can say what he wants but he made money. Period. Over. He apologized. eddiejinnj
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Post by Partridge on Sept 4, 2023 16:30:42 GMT -5
I still have Elvis on the enemies list. I bought his first 4 albums but then I decided he did not deserve my money. link |
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Post by MokyWI on Sept 5, 2023 17:30:58 GMT -5
Can’t wait to see Mad Love rise on the charts. I remember going into the record store in Belfast Maine on my way home from school to look through the bins and I remember watching Mad Love rise on Cash Box.
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Post by Partridge on Sept 29, 2023 14:27:43 GMT -5
I still have Elvis on the enemies list. I bought his first 4 albums but then I decided he did not deserve my money. linkI found this offhand remark Costello made in an interview with Musician magazine. This is late 1983 and that horses' ass still drags on Ronstadt for no apparent reason.  |
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Post by RobGNYC on Sept 29, 2023 17:39:10 GMT -5
His criticism seems misdirected and prejudged. Yes, there are a few songs that Linda maybe shouldn’t have done (she herself says “Sail Away”) but “Many Rivers to Cross” isn’t one of them. It’s like he made up his mind that she wasn’t worthy of covering Jimmy Cliff and no matter how good or bad her recording,, he was going to hate it. What didn’t he like about her version? Did he even listen to it? I think it’s beautiful, and in 1975, I didn’t know Jimmy Cliff’s work or influence. Linda introduced me to that song.
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Post by erik on Sept 29, 2023 23:35:28 GMT -5
Quote by RobGNYC:
I think he was both still an angry young man and still "pandering"--not that it was doing him a whole lot of good in terms of putting him in good standing with rock and roll fans, the ones who buy the records/CD's and the concert tickets. Linda's song choices may not have all been perfect, but Costello's judgment about Linda as a singer and an artist was hypocritical to say the least. The fact that he eventually, finally, and sensibly put that animus to bed is obviously never going to satisfy everybody, and I can't blame them for feeling that way; he took way too long to do it. Just speaking for myself, I am willing to let bygones be bygones; but I know where people with wildly different opinions come from on this point.
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Post by MokyWI on Sept 30, 2023 6:34:10 GMT -5
For me the whole Elvis Costello thing is like beating a dead horse at this point. It was forty-five years ago, I for one forgive him. I saw it for what it was even back in the day. A young cocky hip musician (who I found talented) throwing shade to a mainstream artist that was popular and went platinum with every release. I took it a bit more personally back then, but it never really bothered me. Besides his opinion then had more to do with appearing new wave and hip. He knows it, and my guess is he knew it then as well. It was his hip snotty attitude that was clouding his judgment, probably mixed with a little jealousy as well. I even bought three of his albums through the years and the lengthy apology he gave a decade ago I appreciated.
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