I was at dinner with some friends the other night, when talk turned to Elvis Costello’s new book, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink
I also told the story of hanging at the bar with Joey Ramone, talking about just how sucky the Tuff Darts (opening act) were.
But then I told the story of seeing Costello and the Attractions on Saturday Night Live, and I got the whole story totally wrong. In my head, the label wanted Elvis to play Allison, and he instead played Radio Radio.
But the clips are clear. He was scheduled to play Less Than Zero, a track about British fascist Oswald Mosely, and who could know it would later become a Bret Easton Ellis post teen drug romp novel and movie, but played instead the insolent and immature but uberly catchy Radio Radio.
For this, Lorne Michaels or NBC, I’m not sure which, banned Costello from NBC shows. Wow.
But on the 25th anniversary of SNL, Costello was back, recreating the moment (equally awkwardly) and played Radio Radio with the Beastie Boys. It’s cool, and I think shows just how tight the Attractions were.
Good story. I can only assume that the Tuff Darts you saw were the non-Robert Gordon version, who were indeed sucky. I maintain that the Robert Gordon version was one of the best CBGB bands, like a punkier Bad Company/Mott the Hoople with rockabilly roots.
Not sure I would have known Robert Gordon at that point, but my guess it wasn’t him.
Bob Ross, the local DJ who pioneered punk here in the Lehigh Valley with a weekly show in the late 1970s, used to play this one a lot. It seemed a little on the corny side back then and seems way cornier now:
https://youtu.be/UlpW6lCVuSs
Yes, that’s the Tommy Frenzy-of-the-steel-teeth version. The Robert Gordon version only ever released this, as far as I know:
Good ol’ rocker.
Sounds like KISS to me. I mean that in a good way.
Yeah it does. It’s not an especially representative example of their style but it was the obvious single from their sets at the time. I said Bad Company/Mott because their lead guitarist Jeff Salen had this spare but raunchy style. They used to do outstanding Elvis covers that they never recorded.