Customer Reviews

Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach: Sessions From W. 54th [VHS]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Or better yet, Blu-Ray. This is music magic. Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach partner to bring an evening of relaxing music filled with beautiful melodies and poignant lyrics. If you haven't seen this - you owe it to yourself...

I was fortunate to see one of the few concerts Elvis and Burt did to promote the Painted from Memory album. This video captures the magic of that concert. These great songwriters share an absolute dedication to the craft of great songwriting and musicianship. Don't miss this video!

A truly breathtaking video...Elvis continues his incomparable genre-bending career, singing his heart out, along with the suberb accompaniment of Burt Bacharach, ace Attraction Steve Naive, out-of-this-world background singers and many talented musicians.

This is great stuff. The only complaint I have is that Costello got a bit carried away here and there, overextending some frases. I learned to care about details, and these things can negatively affect the shape of the song. On the other hand, these are geniuses at work, and the video is just sensational. Please pay attention to how things fit together in the songs and arrangements -- how something that is alluded to over here appears again but changes into something else over there, and so on. It amazes me that the best music in the world seems to me so obviously as much an intellectual as an artitic project.

If on the one hand it is a pitty that God Give Me Srength has not been included, on the other hand it is nice that the final credits come to the sound of Make It Easy On Yourself, and, as another reviewer mentioned, there is still a nice surprise after that.

Taped for PBS's Sessions at West 54th during 1998, this new video includes music from the critically acclaimed album Painted From Memory as well as some of Costello and Bacharach's classic music. Backed by a full orchestra and Elvis's longtime musical companion Steve Nieve from the Attractions, the pair perform a long list of beautiful ballads including "In the Darkest Place," "Toledo," and "Painted from Memory" and the Grammy Award winning single "I Still Have That Other Girl". Steve Nieve contributes a special arrangement of "Accidents Will Happen" to cap off a brilliant performance. This video is a must for all Elvis Costello fans, and Elvis Costello Online gives it five stars.

You should not be too quick to pass on this rare gem! Two days after attending the Chicago Theater show there were a couple of songs rolling around in my head that I could not place on the PFM album.

Several of these unrecorded efforts turned out magnificantly on this video (which is vastly more impressive than the television aired West 54th ver.) "Little Red Book" and the absolutely stunning "Anyone Who Had A Heart" which incidently cascades to a capitulating end, rewards the viewer to all the thought, feeling and intelligence that this Bacharach and Costello collaboration could hope to offer.

It is that good!

P.S. Don't rewind the video too quickly, as there is a bonus waiting for the patient viewer who watches to the sweet end.

This is a way cool collaboration. Shortly before the taping of this sessions I had the pleasure of seeing EC&BB at Radio City. It was a one night concert and many of his (ECs) fans missed it. The video is a close second to the live show. Do not miss this one if you like cleaver intellegint lyrics and melodic orchestrations by two masters.

I wrote the review titled "Geniuses at Work." I certainly did not mean to give the video less than 5 stars.

this is absolutely the best collection of songs I have ever heard. A truely amazing and moving show. My only complaint is that "God Give Me Strength" and a few other songs were left out. Other than that, MAGNIFICENT!!