Elvis Costello: Buy Louis Armstrong's Music Instead Of Mine

Selling music these days is hard. It’s even harder when an artist is unwilling to do a publicity tour, but it’s damn near impossible when the musician himself tells everyone who will listen not to buy the LP. Luckily for record labels, creators tend to be willing to promote their work, but in the case of Elvis Costello, he has other ideas.

The singer’s website, ElvisCostello.com, has lashed out against the pricing for the upcoming Return Of The Spectacular Spinning Songbook. The set features live performances by Elvis Costello and the Imposters, as well as pictures, artwork and other cool trinkets. The whole thing sounds pretty cool, but unfortunately, the list price is more than two hundred dollars. That’s entirely unacceptable, at least in the website’s eyes, and they’ve decided to recommend fans buy Louis Armstrong’s Ambassador Of Jazz set instead. Here’s an excerpt of why Satchmo is a better alternative…

Unfortunately, we at www.elviscostello.com find ourselves unable to recommend this lovely item to you as the price appears to be either a misprint or a satire.

All our attempts to have this number revised have been fruitless but rather than detain you with tedious arguments about morality, panache and book-keeping - when there are really bigger fish to filet these days - we are taking the following unusual step.

If you should really want to buy something special for your loved one at this time of seasonal giving, we can whole-heartedly recommend, “Ambassador Of Jazz” - a cute little imitation suitcase, covered in travel stickers and embossed with the name “Satchmo” but more importantly containing TEN re-mastered albums by one of the most beautiful and loving revolutionaries who ever lived – Louis Armstrong.

Elvis Costello has always played by his own rules, and this aggressive middle finger to ludicrous pricing is completely in character. It’s nice to see an artist put his foot down, and it’s even nicer to see Louis Armstrong get some love.

In case you’re hellbent on buying some Costello music, the aforementioned post went on to mention the music contained in the box set will be available for purchase separately in a few months for a vastly reduced price. Like Armstrong, Costello is also a wonderful musician; so, Pop Blend highly recommends you look into buying some of his music then.