I recently completed a viewing of Ken Burn's Country Music documentary on PBS. It took me back to the shock of punk/new wave icon Elvis Costello releasing an album of country covers.
Elvis Costello - Almost Blue (Columbia 1981)
Elvis and the Attractions descended on Nashville and worked out of CBS studios. Elvis' fondness for county music lyrics should come as no surprise. His work to date contained many of the same sensibilities and stories.
The back cover states the recording has 'no spoiler signal.' A spoiler signal was a tone placed on recordings that supposedly made them unable to be home recorded. The record companies believed home taping was killing music. This was never true in my book. Home taping was a way of getting to know an artist before making a commitment. Greed was killing music.
Witness CD's when they were released. At the onset they were expensive. A promise was made once they hit total acceptance, the economy of scale would bring the price down. We all know that didn't happen.
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