Elvis Costello Takes More Liberties

Elvis Costello : Crawling to the USA

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In September of 1980, Elvis Costello And the Attractions were the subject of an odds'n'sods compilation released in America. With Taking Liberties, American fans got their hands on 20 B-sides, UK album cuts and outtakes. It also includes three previously unreleased cuts — "Clean Money," an alternative take of "Black And White World" and "Hoover Factory."The UK counterpart is a cassette-only release called 10 Bloody Marys and 10 How's Your Fathers.

Here's an ad for the album plucked from Trouser Press magazine

Among the highlights are "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea," from the English version of This Year's Model and Costello's reclaiming of "Girls Talk", best known by the Dave Edmunds cover version on Repeat When Necessary.

The Village Voice's Greil Marcus wrote of Taking Liberties:

Costello's great theme is hardly exhausted, though it may, for the time being, have exhausted him, or closed in on him. I think it remains the key to his career: that will to take revenge on the guilty conscience he has received from the past. The question now is whether Costello can find the music, recreate the craft, to keep the key turning. Yes, he's a star, with a year or so of free ride left in his name, but he's never given the slightest evidence he's interested in stardom for its own sake.

NME's Nick Kent sums it up :

 I'm glad I've got the record end I don't feel shortchanged. I see no reason why you should feel differently.