Goodbye Cruel World (Elvis Costello album)

Goodbye Cruel World was Elvis Costello's ninth album overall and the eighth with his backing band the Attractions. It was released in 1984 by F-Beat Records in the UK and Columbia in the US.

Tensions within the band—notably between Costello and bassist Bruce Thomas—were beginning to tell, and Costello announced his retirement and the break-up of the group shortly before they were to record Goodbye Cruel World. Costello later said that in making it, they had "got it as wrong as you can in terms of the execution".

Costello wrote at his official website: "I think the first time we ever got really attacked for a new release apart from when we first started was Goodbye Cruel World, and to be honest I knew it wasn't a good record by the time...It was the only one I was tempted to...I was committed to it. I'd spent too much money on it to not release it and I thought on balance the good things that I'd got wrong in the studio that were in the song writing probably outweighed the bad things that I'd allow to happen in the production, which is not distracting anything from the effort that Clive Langer made to do the best. I mean, I announced to them that it was the last record I was ever going to make before we went in the studio. I decided to quit for all kinds of weird personal reasons...I was really down about lots of other things and I really just decided I wanted to do this one record, and I was asking them to make a record they weren't really set up to do, which was essentially a 'live-in-the-studio' record. And then we had a loss of nerve about that and started to edge it back towards the kind of production they did anyway. But the damage had been done, we'd started out to record a folk-rock record, which is what it originally sounded like, which you can hear in some of the more soulful songs, like Home Truth, which is an unbelievably painful, true song. I made Clive Langer's life impossible, and I take full responsibility for the failure of the production, 'cause I was asking them one time to do one thing and the next to do another, and changing my mind every 15 minutes and driving everybody in the band mad. And really just getting it as wrong as you can in terms of the execution of what are basically a bunch of really good songs."^[1]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[2]
Blender	^[3]
Chicago Tribune	^[4]
Entertainment Weekly	B^[5]
Q	^[6]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	^[7]
The Village Voice	B+^[8]

The album's production (by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, who also produced the previous Punch the Clock), was not in line with Costello's other works, relying heavily on electronics and an overall slick, trendy feel. Thus, the record is not regarded among his better works; Costello's liner notes to the 1995 reissue on Rykodisc open with the statement, "Congratulations! You just bought the worst album of my career."

The album is represented on Elvis Costello compilation The Very Best of Elvis Costello, by the cover song 'I Wanna Be Loved'.

Track listing

"I Wanna Be Loved" is a cover of a Hi Records single by Teacher's Edition and features backing vocals by Green Gartside of Scritti Politti. "The Only Flame in Town" features vocals by Daryl Hall.

All songs written by Elvis Costello, except as indicated.

Side one

"The Only Flame in Town" – 4:01
"Home Truth" – 3:12
"Room with No Number" – 4:13
"Inch By Inch" – 2:29
"Worthless Thing" – 3:04
"Love Field" – 3:26

Side two

"I Wanna Be Loved" (Farnell Jenkins) – 4:47
"The Comedians" – 2:36
"Joe Porterhouse" – 3:29
"Sour Milk-Cow Blues" – 2:50
"The Great Unknown" (Costello, Clive Langer) – 3:00
"The Deportees Club" – 2:54
"Peace in Our Time" – 4:06

Bonus tracks (1995 Rykodisc)

"Turning the Town Red" – 3:14
"Baby It's You" (Burt Bacharach, Hal David, Barney Williams) – 3:11
"Get Yourself Another Fool" (Ernest Tucker, Frank Heywood) – 4:01
"I Hope You're Happy Now" – 2:51
"The Only Flame in Town" (Live) – 4:16
"Worthless Thing" (Live) – 3:11
"Motel Matches" (Live) – 2:39
"Sleepless Nights" (Live) (Felice Bryant, Boudleaux Bryant) – 2:39
"Deportee" (Demo) – 3:22
"Withered and Died" (Richard Thompson) – 3:14

Note: The Rykodisc version has the original tracks and bonus tracks on one CD. The Rhino version has two CDs with the original tracks on the first CD.

Bonus disc (2004 Rhino)

"The Only Flame in Town" (Alternate version) – 4:05
"Young Boy Blues" (Doc Pomus, Phil Spector) – 3:27
"Turning the Town Red" – 3:14
"I Hope You're Happy Now" – 2:51
"Tomorrow's (Just Another Day)" (Mike Barson, Carl Smyth) – 2:54
"Get Yourself Another Fool" (Forrest, Heywood) – 4:03
"Baby It's You (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) – 3:11
"I Wanna Be Loved" (Demo version) (Jenkins) – 3:22
"The Great Unknown" (Demo version) (Costello, Langer) – 2:35
"She Loves the Jerk" (Demo version) (John Hiatt) – 3:10
"Turning the Town Red" (Demo version) – 3:37
"Peace in Our Time" (Demo version) – 3:30
"Withered and Died" (Thompson) – 3:14
"The Comedians" (Demo version) – 2:25
"Inch By Inch" (Demo Version) – 2.11
"Mystery Voice" (Demo version) – 2:23
"Joe Porterhouse" (Demo version) – 3:19
"The Town Where Time Stood Still" (Demo version) – 2:15
"Blue Murder on Union Avenue" (Demo version) – 2:30
"Home Truth" (Demo version) – 3:05
"The Only Flame in Town" (Live) – 4:12
"Worthless Thing" (Live) – 3:10
"Sleepless Nights" (Live) (F. Bryant, B. Bryant) – 2:39
"What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend" (Live) (Jerry Dammers) – 2:10
"Motel Matches" (Live) – 2:39
"Love Field" (Live) – 3:21

Personnel

Elvis Costello – vocals, guitars
Steve Nieve – keyboards
Bruce Thomas – bass guitar
Pete Thomas – drums
Gary Barnacle – saxophones
Jim Paterson – trombone
Luis Jardim – percussion
Daryl Hall – vocals on "The Only Flame in Town"
Green Gartside – vocals on "I Wanna Be Loved"

The album credits keyboard player Steve Nieve with providing "random racket" under the name, "Maurice Worm".

Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1984	Billboard 200	35

Single

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1984	"The Only Flame in Town"	Billboard Hot 100	56

Cultural references

The graphic novel Watchmen quotes from the chorus of the song "The Comedians" at the end of chapter two: "And I'm up while the dawn is breaking, even though my heart is aching. I should be drinking a toast to absent friends instead of these comedians."

Is featured on the 7th episode of Malcolm Gladwell's podcast, "Revisionist History." Particularly the song "Deportees Club" and an alternate version titled "Deportee" from the 1994 Rykodisc reissue.

References

↑ Information page at elviscostello.info
↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Goodbye Cruel World – Elvis Costello / Elvis Costello & the Attractions". AllMusic. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
↑ Wolk, Douglas (March 2005). "Elvis Costello: Goodbye Cruel World". Blender. Archived from the original on 4 February 2005. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
↑ Kot, Greg (2 June 1991). "The Sounds Of Elvis, From San Francisco And Beyond". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
↑ White, Armond (10 May 1991). "Elvis Costello's albums". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
↑ "Elvis Costello – Goodbye Cruel World CD". CD Universe. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
↑ Sheffield, Rob (2004). "Elvis Costello". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian. The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. London: Fireside Books. pp. 193–95. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
↑ Christgau, Robert (30 October 1984). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Retrieved 16 June 2016.

External links

Elvis Costello

The Imposters: Steve Nieve Pete Thomas Davey Faragher The Attractions: Steve Nieve Pete Thomas Bruce Thomas

Studio albums	My Aim Is True This Year's Model Armed Forces Get Happy!! Trust Almost Blue Imperial Bedroom Punch the Clock Goodbye Cruel World King of America Blood & Chocolate Spike Mighty Like a Rose Brutal Youth Kojak Variety All This Useless Beauty When I Was Cruel North The Delivery Man Il Sogno Momofuku Secret, Profane & Sugarcane National Ransom

Live albums	Live at the El Mocambo Deep Dead Blue with Bill Frisell Costello & Nieve My Flame Burns Blue with Metropole Orkest Live at Hollywood High

Collaborations	The Juliet Letters with The Brodsky Quartet Painted from Memory with Burt Bacharach Terror and Magnificence with John Harle For the Stars with Anne Sofie von Otter Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland The River in Reverse with Allen Toussaint Wise Up Ghost with The Roots Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes

Singles	"Less Than Zero" "Alison" "Red Shoes" "Watching the Detectives" "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" "Pump It Up" "Radio Radio" "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" "Oliver's Army" "Accidents Will Happen" "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down" "High Fidelity" "New Amsterdam" "Clubland" "From a Whisper to a Scream" "Sweet Dreams" "You Little Fool" "Man Out of Time" "Pills and Soap" (as The Imposter) "Everyday I Write the Book" "Let Them All Talk" "Peace in Our Time" (as The Imposter) "I Wanna Be Loved"/"Turning the Town Red" "The Only Flame in Town" "The People's Limousine" (as The Coward Brothers) "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" "Seven-Day Weekend" with Jimmy Cliff "Lovable" "Tokyo Storm Warning" "I Want You" "Blue Chair" "A Town Called Big Nothing" (as The MacManus Gang) "Veronica" "Baby Plays Around" "...This Town..." "The Other Side of Summer" "So Like Candy" "Jacksons, Monk & Rowe" with The Brodsky Quartet "Sulky Girl" "13 Steps Lead Down" "You Tripped at Every Step" "London's Brilliant Parade" "It's Time" "Little Atoms" "The Other End of the Telescope" "Distorted Angel" "All This Useless Beauty" "You Bowed Down" "Toledo" with Burt Bacharach "She" "Tear Off Your Own Head (It's a Doll Revolution)" "45" "Still" "Monkey to Man" "She's Pulling Out the Pin" "Brilliant Mistake" "Who Are These People?" with Burt Bacharach "Bedlam" "Complicated Shadows" "My All Time Doll"

Other songs	"Girls Talk" "Lipstick Vogue" "Almost Blue" "Shipbuilding"

Classical works	Il Sogno performed by the London Symphony Orchestra

Scores	G.B.H. with Richard Harvey Jake's Progress with Richard Harvey

Collaborations	Terror & Magnificence by John Harle The Sweetest Punch by Bill Frisell Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland

Compilations	Taking Liberties Ten Bloody Marys & Ten How's Your Fathers The Best of Elvis Costello and The Attractions The Man Out of Our Idiot Girls Girls Girls 2½ Years The Very Best of Elvis Costello and The Attractions 1977–86 Extreme Honey The Very Best of Elvis Costello Cruel Smile Rock and Roll Music The Best of Elvis Costello: The First Ten Years Pomp and Pout In Motion Pictures Unfaithful Music and Soundtrack album

Related articles	Discography Ghost Brothers of Darkland County

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