Elvis Costello And The Attractions – Live At Lane County Civic Center, Eugene Oregon – KEZL-FM – February 9, 1978.
Vintage Elvis this weekend. Elvis Costello and The Attractions during a quick (3 month) tour of the U.S., landing in Eugene Oregon for two nights at Lane County Civic Center and broadcast by KEZL-FM.
One of the lynchpins of the first wave of Punk from the UK, Costello quickly became a household name and a staple in the diets of most FM stations around the country. He’d eventually transition over to New Wave and his audience broadened as a result. It also didn’t hurt that his appearance on Saturday Night Live catapulted his career to new heights with his abrupt stopping of a song producer Lorne Michaels required him to sing, instead opting for a high-voltage rendition of Radio, Radio which Michaels specifically forbid Costello to perform on Live television. Moral of the story: never tell someone not to do something because you don’t want them to – it guarantees they will do it.
But the searing rebelliousness didn’t last all that long. Elvis Costello was a fan of a lot of music, particularly Country-Western and he jumped into it head first.
The one thing that Elvis Costello guaranteed his audiences was his unpredictability. It kept people on their toes – it lost some fans along the way, but it gained a lot of others. If you went along for the ride you were going to come away with an almost complete knowledge of musical genres and that was something Elvis Costello was brilliant at.
But if you, like many people, miss the early days and the Punk aesthetic, this concert by Elvis Costello and The Attractions should do wonders for your weekend.
Hit Play and enjoy.
As you know, we’ve suspended indefinitely our ads in order to make Past Daily a better
experience for you without all the distractions and pop-ups. Because of that, we’re relying more on your support through Patreon to keep us up and running every day. For as little as $5.00 a month you can make a huge difference as well as be able to download all of our posts for free (news, history, music). You’ll see a banner just below. Click on that and become a subscriber – it’s easy, painless and does a world of good.
