max abelson's super groovy music video spectacular

1960s on mon
1970s on tues
1980s on wed
1990s on thurs
2000s on fri

featuring the fine musical stylings of: the beatles, the rolling stones, serge gainsbourg, yo la tengo, the kinks, harry nilsson, ike & tina turner, antony, aretha franklin, wilco, elvis, talking heads, stephen foster, dr. dre, bonnie 'prince' billy, elvis c., neil young, the smiths, dusty springfield, al green, jimi hendrix, r.e.m., ray charles, belle & sebastian, randy newman, cat power, the cure, queen & pavement

i write for the observer, email me at mabelson at observer.com

"mtv makes me want to smoke crack." -beck

see the archives, or a random post.

"i just happen to be here, and it's okay." -caetano veloso

"it took me about three or four weeks to toilet train my cat, nightlife. most of the time is spent moving the box very gradually to the bathroom. do it very slowly and don't confuse him." -charles mingus

"sing a simple song but keep the swing strong." -de la soul

"his wife was a spent piece of used jet trash, made good bloody marys, kept her mouth shut most of the time, had a chihuahua named carlos that had some kind of skin disease and was totally blind." -tom waits

"i’ve still got things inside me—sad things, happy things—that people don’t know about." -loretta lynn

"after cheesecake with all of your friends and family, who's gonna front the bill? me... say you want to take first-class trips, well i want to work those first-class hips. yes i do." -r. kelly

"i drive a rolls-royce, cause it's good for my voice." -t.rex

gotta think straight, keep a clean plate." -joanna newsom

"keep a clean nose, watch the plain clothes." -bob dylan

"my mother used to tell me about vibrations. i didn't really understand too much of what that meant when i was just a boy. to think that invisible feelings, invisible vibrations existed scared me to death." -brian wilson

"i'll be the wind, the rain and the sunset." -lou reed

"hey there, hey now, well, you can make a pacemaker blink, yeah, easy thing, make a man's heart go bibbity bom like a gentle drum: dirty ass rock and roll. -john cale

"i'm dealing in rock and roll. i'm not a bonafide human being." -phil spector

"at a certain point phil approached me with a bottle of kosher red wine in one hand and a .45 in the other, put his arm around my shoulder and shoved the revolver into my neck and said, 'leonard, i love you.' i said, 'i hope you do, phil.'" -leonard cohen

"we were having coffee or something to drink, i forget, at 2 am at the plaza hotel. phil had this long hair, down to his shoulders, he’s a very strange looking guy, it’s, well, anyway, this was before longish hair was everywhere, it goes back. i could see at this table nearby, there were two couples, i remember, they were older people, at least in the 60s, they’d whisper at each other and look at phil and whisper at each other. finally this lady, tanked, comes over to phil and says, 'alright, sonny, what’s your problem?' and he said, 'premature ejaculation, what’s yours?'" -tom wolfe

"i bite my nails and if that fails i go get myself stoned, but when i do i think of you and head myself back home" -gram parsons

woody allen's reasons to live: "i would say groucho marx, to name one thing, and willie mays, and the second movement of the jupiter symphony, and louis armstrong’s recording of potatohead blues, swedish movies, naturally. sentimental education by flaubert, marlon brando, frank sinatra, those incredible apples and pears by cézanne, the crabs at sam wo’s, tracy’s face."

"i'm going to boogie my scruples away" -lowell george

"the first time i got stoned on grass was with john paul jones of led zeppelin. we'd been talking to ramblin' jack elliott somewhere and jonesy said to me, 'come over and i'll turn you on to grass.' he had a huge room with nothing in it except this huge vast hammond organ, right next door to the police. i ate two loaves of bread. then the telephone rang. jonesy said, answer that for me will you? so i went downstairs to answer the phone and kept on walking right out into the street." -david bowie

brian eno songs that will make good book titles for my 10-volume memoir, in order: here he comes, baby's on fire, golden hours, brutal ardour, taking tiger mountain, events in dense fog, through hollow lands, some of them are old, everything merges with the night, dead finks don’t talk

ry cooder albums that every man should own: into the purple valley, boomer's story, paradise and lunch

#1 song on the white album (tie): long long long, happiness is a warm gun

"the only word is love." -john lennon

thelonious monk's middle name: sphere

"think about something else. was art tatum talented?" -charles aznavour in shoot the piano player

"really, we don't want people twiddling their goatees over our stuff" -radiohead

"i don't rap fast, i rap slow, 'cause i mean every letter in the words in the sentences of my quotes." -lil' wayne

"i love songs about horses, railroads, land, judgment day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation, home, salvation, death, pride, humor, piety, rebellion, patriotism, larceny, determination, tragedy, rowdiness, heartbreak and love. and mother. and god." -johnny cash

"the moon is clear, the sky is bright, i'm happy as the horse's shite." -the pogues

"i hope that you all out there, young, old, tall, short, fat or thin, quick or slow, no matter what kind or color or shape or person you are, if you like to make music, why, go ahead, don't let the microphones and loudspeakers faze you, make some yourself.” -pete seeger

"but chuck berry isn't merely the greatest of the rock and rollers, or rather, there's nothing mere about it. say rather that unless we can somehow recycle the concept of the great artist so that it supports chuck berry as well as it does marcel proust, we might as well trash it altogether." -robert christgau

mashable.com says about the spectacular: "you can expect the unexpected with this awesome gem. groovy."

the 33 1/3 book series' blog says: "whenever i start playing around on youtube i always end up watching that lady fall over while stomping grapes, so it's nice to have someone steer me in a more worthwhile direction."

see album covers, photos, posters, quotes & staches

make a tumblr!

2008: j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d.

2009: j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d.

2010: j. f.

Archive / RSS

March 2

#540: elvis costello - watching the detectives and you belong to me (1979)

i’m awfully excited about my cover story in tomorrow’s observer about the sad limbo that private equity prince steven rattner has been suffering through lately. while i was writing the article, i couldn’t help but think about the incredibly slight physical resemblance between mr. rattner and elvis costello & the attractions’ bassist bruce thomas. frankly, that would get me thinking about lots of costello-related topics, especially, as it happens, the time he started an all-lady new wave dance party on stage by telling the crowd, “now, we think there’s rather too many tall people in the audience, so the young ladies in the audience can’t see all that well. and what we want all those guys to do is move away from the front here, so all the girls can come down front.” actually, now that i think about it, the bassist and investor don’t really look alike. but who’s really counting.

Comments (View)

February 1

#522: willie nelson - mr. record man (1965)

the fact that all five of last night’s grammy rock nominees are older than 50, and that their average age, according to my calculations, is 61.4 years, would lead a reasonable viewer to conclude that young people were not interested in (or good at) making superlative rock music last year. that is wrong.

so in january 2011, instead of nominating bob dylan, john fogerty, bruce springsteen, eric clapton, steve winwood, jeff beck, stevie wonder, booker t. jones, david byrne, elvis costello, levon helm, rambin’ jack elliott, loudon wainwright iii, willie nelson and (of course) neil young for grammys again, the academy should spend some of the ceremony showing clips of these glorious veterans in their prime (see above), take a few minutes to bring everyone up to speed on what they’ve been up to lately, and then dedicate the rest of the broadcast to serious quality time with the gloriously gaga and grizzly youth of today.

Comments (View)

November 11

#479: elvis costello & the attractions - big sister’s clothes (1983)

even though trust isn’t as good as get happy!!, which isn’t as ferocious as this year’s model, which isn’t as pretty as almost blue, which isn’t as catchy as armed forces, which isn’t nearly as interesting as imperial bedroom, which isn’t as entirely and completely perfect as my aim is true, elvis costello’s first seven albums are all so wonderful that the least impressive one has songs that sound like carl perkins covering toots hibbert.

also, the green sweater he’s sporting here is almost better than his green shirt.

Comments (View)

“i used to be disgusted, and now i try to be amused.” - elvis costello

Comments (View)

September 22

#449: nick lowe and rockpile - so it goes (live, 1978)

producing elvis costello’s my aim is true and this year’s model got nick lowe into heaven, producing armed forces got him into the section where there’s really good conversation, writing (what’s so funny ‘bout) peace, love and understanding earned a permanent angelic massage, which was then jeopardized when his debut solo album was named jesus of cool, which, if your an american like poor old me, you know as the worse (but not by much) title pure pop for now people. but then he got at least ten cloud foot rubs for this performance of so it goes, where he wears ringo starr’s first hair cut, elvis c.’s gap tooth and the riddler’s thin green suit while singing about international relations (hoped they listened to this at the u.n. today) and casually inventing new wave.

Comments (View)

August 4

#423: elvis costello - accidents will happen (1979)

who needs a-ha’s icky take on me (or for that matter max headroom, who was created by this video’s directors) when elvis costello’s late-70s wonderland had invisibly buttered toast, smashed teacups, de stijl hourglasses, flower pots casting shadows, roy lichtenstein bathtubs, filled-up cacti, automated drum mallets, moving banana peels, footless stilettos, big derrieres on polka-dotted couches, red undies on clotheslines, falling wedges of cheese, lousy mouse tracks, sploshing ketchup bottles, speeding trains, beeping globes, and pushed red buttons?

Comments (View)

elvis costello is the silly champion.

Comments (View)

January 28

it’s always seemed unfair that the police were called new wave. isn’t new wave too cool to include the police? from now on only elvis costello, nick lowe and the talking heads can be called new wave, plus these guys on the cover of le new wave, plus maybe the cure’s first album, plus whichever members of blondie that is who’s standing far right on the cover of parallel lines. he had good hair. everyone else has to find a new genre name, like sad old synth-pop, or maybe something like power-mod, sire-squeeze, or electro-plastic.

Comments (View)

January 12

last month’s three elvis costello EP covers (and video) were probably enough, but this one has a giant pen, so there you go.

Comments (View)

December 16

#274: elvis costello - green shirt (1979)

WHY VIDEOS IN 2009 SHOULD LOOK LIKE VIDEOS FROM 1979: (1) because neon animation is never a bad idea. (2) because listing the star’s astrological sign (virgo), his lens size (4mm), his likes (guitars), his loves (acting), what he hates (clocks), and what he adores (hot sauce) is never, ever a bad idea. (3) because making a video out of clips from previous videos is time-saving, and it’s possible that no one will notice if you add neon amination over the old footage. (4) because the phrases “fave rave,” “fave flavour,” “dance crave,” and “best woolly” are nice.

Comments (View)

elvis costello ≥ elvis presley ≥ the fall

Comments (View)

elvis costello ≥ juergen teller

Comments (View)

elvis costello ≥ warhol.

Comments (View)

May 28

image #36: elvis costello in st. paul, 1982

if i had been alive in 1981 (and living in minnesota), i’m pretty sure i’d have paid $8.50 to go see this. he even played songs by elvis presley and sonny boy williamson.

Comments (View)

#130: elvis costello - everyday i write the book (1983)

setting aside the epic awesomeness of the actual music video—with a tv-watching princess diana ignoring prince charles, who does the dishes and swashbuckles and then jumps through a ring of fire—i would stand on a pile of thriller LPs wearing simon le bon’s boat shoes and say that everyday i write the book is the catchiest pop song of the 80s.

and this live version, with its summer resort brass section and swaying pink-wearing back-up singers, is so good that i don’t mind that reagan-era over-funky bassline and the super-80s drum hits.

what really gets me giddy are the lyrics. “when you find strange hands in your sweater” is the best line about infidelity i’ve ever heard, and those literary lovestory puns (“when your dreamboat turns out to be a footnote,” “all your compliments and your cutting remarks/ are captured here in my quotation marks”) are even better than the glorious dyspeptic insults (“he’s got a mind like a sewer and a heart like a fridge”) in man out of time.

note! not that i’ve been keeping track or anything, but this is the 130th video that the super groovy spectacular has put up. i think that’s 2x more than mtv has played this year?

Comments (View)