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Elvis Costello Plays Ric
Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:30 pm
by rickboy88
I was trolling around youtube tonight for old Elvis Costello videos (girlfriend out of town with her folks) and came across the old promo video for "Possession" from Get Happy. I still have that LP with all those short catchy tracks. There are a handful of "Get Happy" videos on youtube that I remember seeing when I was much, much younger.
He's playing a guitar in the car and I noticed the shiny fretboard. Yep, it was a Ric guitar, but I can't recall ever seeing the TRC in view. I thought I'd include the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nnWucKAsiI
Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 1:18 am
by randyz
The guitar in question is a 21-fret 335 FG with toasters. It's definitely an original sixties guitar, because Rick wasn't into making reissues by 1980 (when that video was shot). I recently read that Costello bought lots of classic American-built guitars during his early touring days. I believe he said that he never cared for the way this guitar played, but he loved the look of it. This same Rick can be seen in another video shot in 1989 for "This Town" from the Spike album. Both of this videos are available on his recent DVD release 'The Right Spectacle'.
Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 2:32 am
by randyz
Ooops! I forgot to mention the Beatle connection on "Possession". The opening lines are "If there's anything that you want, if there's anything that you need" from "From Me To You". I wonder if that's why he chose to mime the song using his Rick?
Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 9:26 am
by rickboy88
Nice comments, Randy. I've noticed that sometimes you'll see one use of a Ric for the look. Didn't Bryan Adam's use one in "Cut's Like a Knife?. That video (if I have it right) is the only time I've seen him play one, and now he seems more into bass.
Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 4:39 am
by twangs
"This Town" off of Spike is a treasure trove of Rickenbackers. The player listing on the liner notes includes....
Roger McGuinn - Rickenbacker 12 string
Paul McCartney - Rickenbacker bass
Elvis - Rickenbacker 6 string
Needless to say the track sounds great. I also believe this is the album that Elvis convinced Paul to dust iff the old Hofner and play it on "Veronica." He's been using it as his main bass (again) ever since, and neglecting the Ric...
Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 2:53 am
by randyz
Tony: When Elvis appeared on Saturday Night Live promoting 'Spike', he played "Veronica". While Elvis strummed an acoustic (breaking a string and then smiling wildly), GE Smith played lead guitar on a 360/12 FG. Although his Beatle influences aren't as obvious as his country and Motown influences, I think his work with McCartney certainly brought them out for a while.
Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 3:22 am
by firstbassman
Randy,
I didn't know GE had a 360/12. That must have sounded great.
[Warning - thread drift . . . ]
I've seen GE do some spectacular things - like play delicious sounding lead guitar for an entire concert as a 'drop-in' artist without having heard any of the songs before.
And speaking of GE and 12 strings...
Some of you might remember that I asked GE to "back me up" last year during my student performance at the Ranch. I had my Martin 12 with me as we were going over the song. GE asked to try out my guitar so I handed it over. That thing never sounded so good in its life (in my hands).
It's amazing how different an instrument can sound in a master's hands.
I have a couple of photos of that I'll have to post here.
Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 5:51 am
by twangs
Hey Randy - Here's that appearance.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=z8XVijFdyug
A great song off of a great album...
Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 4:56 pm
by firstbassman
Here is the photo of GE playing my Martin 12:
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Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 7:21 pm
by ric330
Thanks for posting that Tony. I really enjoyed that Rick!
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Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 2:44 am
by rickboy88
twangs wrote:"This Town" off of Spike is a treasure trove of Rickenbackers. The player listing on the liner notes includes....
Roger McGuinn - Rickenbacker 12 string
Paul McCartney - Rickenbacker bass
Elvis - Rickenbacker 6 string
Needless to say the track sounds great. I also believe this is the album that Elvis convinced Paul to dust iff the old Hofner and play it on "Veronica." He's been using it as his main bass (again) ever since, and neglecting the Ric...
That is a great observation, Tony. We may indeed have Elvis Costello to thank for McCartney returning to the Hofner. I think the whole "branding" aspect of it being the more visible "Beatle" bass also contributed.
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Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 1:08 pm
by paologregorio
rickboy88 wrote:Nice comments, Randy. I've noticed that sometimes you'll see one use of a Ric for the look. Didn't Bryan Adam's use one in "Cut's Like a Knife?. That video (if I have it right) is the only time I've seen him play one, and now he seems more into bass.
Yeah, BA plays a JG 360 in that video. I remember a friend and I being a bit disappointed that he used a RIC in the video because we didn't like the song and didn't think he was "cool" enough to play a Rickenbacker. Then he came out with "Run To You" and we liked that song, but we were disappointed that he chose to use a black Stratocaster in the video instead of the Rickenbacker.