Elvis Costello and the Attractions | Get Happy!! (Sessions)

Elvis Costello found a new blueprint for his album Get Happy!! after buying a bunch of Stax singles and a copy of Motown Chartbusters Volume 3, as this massive bootleg of session demos displays.

The Press brings you this 40-track collection of Get Happy!! demos recorded at Wisseloord Studios in The Netherlands, and Eden Studios in London in late-1979. Hot off the Armed Forces tour, these recordings capture Elvis Costello and the Attractions finding their sonic direction.

Looking for a new musical approach after he’d felt the New Wave thing had gone stale, Costello immersed himself in the 2-Tone scene and the soul music he enjoyed as a teenager, purchasing several soul records at London’s Camden Town, including various artists’ compilations Motown Chartbusters Vol. 3 and Atlantic Records’ This Is Soul, which he gave to the band as inspiration.

While far from a genre exercise, Costello’s obsession is audibly apparent as they gallop through multiple version of these classic Get Happy!! tracks in a variety of styles and early takes.

The whole set highlights Costello and his crack band’s remarkable pop and soul chops, and the performances are constantly, deeply engaged and committed. The Attractions, Steve Nieve (keyboards), Bruce Thomas, (bass) and Pete Thomas (drums), are as tight and blistering a rock trio if ever there was one, and production duties were handled by Nick Lowe.

Some songs, such as ‘Riot Act’, ‘Possession’, and ‘Opportunity’ retain their shape, sketched out in demo form, while other tracks find the band donning a series of musical disguises to sound like their favourite Motown, Stax or Atlantic soul records, trying them in different styles such as ska (‘Human Touch’), reggae (‘King Horse’), Northern Soul (‘B Movie’), and sophisticated pop (‘Secondary Modern’).

The quality is good, with the exception being the first few songs which have the lead vocal track buried deep in the mix, almost inaudible, and many of these recordings have been made available on the 1994 and 2003 reissues of Get Happy!! bonus material.

Sessions were often far from coherent and anything but analytical: A song or singer would be mentioned and it was sheer luck if we all handsome response to a direction such as: “Play it like a Garnet Mimms tune”. In other cases it is hard to imagine who, or what, we were thinking of. Having said that it is fairly obvious that “Temptation” is based on the Booker T. and the MG’s hit “Time is Tight”, while “Love for Tender” and “High Fidelity” both quote in different ways from Supremes songs. I could also point out that “King Horse” uses the guitar figure from the Four Tops’ “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)”, but after that you are on your own. – Elvis Costello 

A key song missing from this set is ‘New Amsterdam’ which came out of an earlier demo session in a fifteen-quid-an-hour studio in Pimlico. Attempts to recreate the mood with the entire band failed, so Elvis’ entirely solo performance was included on the album.

The 20-track Get Happy!! was released in February 1980 reaching number 2 on the UK charts and 11 in the US. It remains one of the greatest albums of all time, capturing an artist and his band at the top of their game.

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Elvis Costello and the Attractions – Get Happy!! (Sessions) mp3

1. Love For Tender (Version 1)
2. Secondary Modern (Version 1)
3. Men Called Uncle (Version 1)
4. Clowntime is Over (Version 1)
5. Human Touch (Version 1)
6. Riot Act (Version 1)
7. 5ive Gears in Reverse (Version 1)
8. King Horse (Version 1)
9. King Horse Version 2)
10. Love For Tender (Version 2)
11. Opportunity
12. The Imposter
13. Secondary Modern (Version 2)
14. Secondary Modern (Version 3)
15. King Horse (Version 3)
16. Possession
17. Men Called Uncle (Version 2)
18. Clowntime is Over (Version 2)
19. High Fidelity
20. I Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down
21. Black and White World
22. 5ive Gears in Reverse (Version 2)
23. B Movie (Version 1)
24. Motel Matches
25. Human Touch (Version 2)
26. Human Touch (Version 3)
27. Beaten to the Punch
28. Temptation
29. I Stand Accused (Version 2)
30. Riot Act (Version 2)
31. I Stand Accused (Version 2)
32. Riot Act (Version 3)
33. 5ive Gears in Reverse (Version 3)
34. Love for Tender (Version 3)
35. Men Called Uncle (Version 3)
36. King Horse (Version 4)
37. Human Touch (Version 4)
38. Clowntime is Over No.2
39. B Movie (Version 2)
40. Getting Mighty Crowded

Further Listening:

♥     Buy Elvis Costello and the Attractions’ Get Happy!!

♥     High Fidelity | The Best of Elvis Costello in the ’80s

♥    Didn’t Know It Was A Cover | Elvis Costello’s Shipbuilding

♥    More Album Cover Outtakes | Get Happy!!