YouTune was started by Rich way back in July 2008 (those halcyon days of not yet impending doom) with the stated purpose of providing links to ‘music videos of songs both well known and little heard’ accompanied by ‘occasional commentary’. Or, as it quickly became and Rich noted at the time: ‘my reminiscences of music that meant a lot to me as a teenage boy’.
There’s a teenage boy within all of us, readers, and this week’s humble offering is from someone who meant as much as anyone to Pimply Phil: the man with the massive lungs and the marmite voice, Elvis Costello.
The thing about teenage music tastes is they’re obsessional: having discovered Costello, I literally listened to nothing else for months: learning all the lyrics and impressing myself and no girls at all with how advanced and sophisticated my audio urges had become.
And Elvis Costello’s music is sophisticated. It’s adult. It’s modulated. It forces itself upon you rather than inviting you in. And most of the songs are about sex, or at least sound like they’re about sex. What more could a young man want?
So I hope you enjoy this as much as I did: a superlative live performance of my favourite Costello song, Couldn’t Call It Unexpected No. 4.
arbitrary constant 