Insults And Flattery: Elvis Costello Song-By-Song Thread

Today’s song is “I’m Your Toy”



Written by Chris Ethridge and Gram Parsons

Elvis Costello Wiki entry – I’m Your Toy

Personnel
Elvis Costello – vocals, guitar
Steve Nieve – keyboards
Bruce Thomas – bass
Pete Thomas – drums
John McFee – guitar
Tommy Millar – fiddle

Cover of the Gram Parsons/Flying Burrito Brothers song, known as “Hot Burrito #1".

 

Music video

 

Gramercy, New York

 

I'm Your Toy (a/k/a Hot Burrito #1) - 4/5

Elvis' take of this tune is more like a jazz torch song than a country ballad, but he makes it work for him. Finally Bruce Thomas is given a little room to move. The pedal steel is great again. But... I have to say I feel like the piano/organ stuff is a little distracting/too-much. Also the drums here are more straight forward which is fine but the original rhythm kind of helps the song move. Here the song is a bit more plodding which turns it into more of a jazz torch song I guess. Nevertheless... I like this version and think it's one of the better tracks on the album thanks to Elvis' vocal and the steel.

 

Flying Burrito Brothers, “Hot Burrito #1

 

I have to post the vid with Gram & The Bros in their "Nudie" suits...

 

I'm Your Toy - rating 3.5/5

I had no idea how great Gram Parsons was, let alone the Flying Burrito Brothers, until Almost Blue came out. I remedied that quickly after hearing Elvis wrap his comforting voice around this gorgeous song with the odd original title of "Hot Burrito #1."

This arrangement strikes a perfect balance of pedal steel and keyboards. And wow, I only just yesterday realized how seamlessly Steve transitions from piano to Vox Continental around the 1 minute mark and again toward the end, cleverly echoing the sound of John McFee's solos.

 

I`m Your Toy 4/5.

Intro piano sounds like it could have come off Trust, the whole thing could have been a hit in the `sophisti-pop` 80s, steel guitar and all. More like a `country-soul` track Dusty Springfield could have tackled. The arrangement feels a bit aimless sometimes, and the chorus doesn`t `pop` the way it could. Not a great song imo, I`ve heard better Parsons song-wise, but this is where Almost Blue raises its game...and all band-members are allowed room to breathe.

 

"I'm Your Toy" - 5/5

I love this song. Beautiful tune. I feel it has a little New Orleans swamp pop in it. my music terminology isn't great, but I love the weepy structure of the verses. "I Hope" has something similar.

This may be the one case on the album where I think Elvis' version is right up there with the great Flying Burritos Brothers original. Supposedly this was a recording where Billy Sherrill didn't exert as much on the recording, and Elvis & The Attractions don't sound as restrained. Elvis' singing is great, and all music is nicely played.

I only got to see this at the Gramercy.....and this got one of the bigger ovations over the 10 nights.

Maybe controversial opinion:
If asked to pick one (and only one) favorite Elvis cover recording, this is it............(even over "Peace Love & Understanding").

 

I’m Your Toy

Elvis really does well with this one, but I will always love Gram’s tender and bruised vocal the best. The live version is fantastic as well, and I give EC great points for raising the Burritos to the same level of Country Classics as Loretta Lynn and Hank Williams and George Jones et al. I’m not sure if they had that kind of profile in the early 80s and I’m thinking this put them on the radar of a lot of “alternative”/“college rock” folks as it did for me. 4/5

 

I`m Your Toy

Elvis & the band really do this one justice. Such a great song, and kudos to EC for choosing it.. it's a "modern classic" compared to many of his choices, and anything that brings attention to Gram & The FBBs is a very good thing.
Their version is one of my favourte "newer" country songs... Gram at his vulnerable best.

4/5

 

Today’s song is “I’m Your Toy” 5.0

Probably my favorite off the album, I had never heard (or knew of) the Parson's original. So there was no comparisons going on. Excellent vocal and playing thru-out. Sounds like something EC could have written.

 

I’m Your Toy. This kind of pleading EC vocal in the opening verse is not my thing, and this vocal style is revisited a bit in later albums. It’s a bathetic side to his persona that I’m not very fond of. (Is Gram Parsons then to blame for it?) Having said that this song is still not Costello doing it in full flight so I was able to listen all the way through and the piano middle section is good. So I can’t give it a bad mark. 3/5

As an aside, I decided the other night to listen to Ringo Starr’s Beaucoup of Blues album - a very different rocker attempt at country music. Quite a contrast as the songs were written for Ringo (and there’s at least one cringey clunker among them) and Ringo’s thoroughly artless singing is nowhere close to Elvis while still conveying a certain charm.

 

I'm Your Toy

Despite the fact that I love this album and have known it for 30+ years, I surprisingly don't have a heck of a lot to say about each song individually. The songs are remarkably consistent in tone, so I feel like I'm going to mostly be repeating myself each day.

This is another great song, with an excellent yearning vocal by Elvis, and the keening steel guitar adds just the right amount of melancholy.

4/5

 

I'm Your Toy: One of the few songs I can handle with this album! Even then, I find the arrangement a bit syrupy. (It's the piano flourishes, but it's also the pedal steel, which normally makes a country song for me.) I would gather this was right in Elvis' wheelhouse in his early 70s musical development. (Returning once again to that ill-fated hotel bar in Columbus ... it must have blown his mind to be caught in a drunken brawl with one of his early 70s idols!)

It took me awhile to get my mind around Gram Parsons. I seem to recall "Love Hurts" with Emmylou Harris getting played on radio occasionally, and that was the open door. When I finally got the Burritos' first album, this was the song! I think I resented him for a long time because everyone in the 70s and early 80s would always unfavorably compare The Eagles' massive success to Gram Parsons less well-renowned body of work. Wasn't his fault, or theirs. And I still listen to both of them today. (I usually play this song in tandem with "All About You" by The Rolling Stones.)

 

I’m Your Toy is one of my favorites on this stellar record! A strong 5/5
The first three songs also deserve that same rating..

 

This song was certainly a highlight for me at the Gramercy run. He then rolled right into How Much I Lied, which blew me away.
P.S. I make an appearance at the end of this video. Glasses, phone, bottom left. That’s me! I had a good seat…

 

I'm Your Toy

Well, Gram's original is one of the many highlights from The Gilded Palace Of Sin, and it's a slightly less obvious choice for this album too. So I'm more inclined to enjoy this a little more than some of the other material here. But really, I just love the song rather than this performance, and thankfully it emerges relatively unscathed from the Elvis treatment.

3.5/5

 

I'm Your Toy

I love the selection of tracks on the album, there is a lot of variety within the country boundaries. Elvis's version of "I'm Your Toy" is more of an atmosphere and mood piece than a conventionally structured track. It takes it's time getting to its destination, and that breathing room allows Elvis to stretch out vocally. The band shines brightly in support. 5/5

 

Nice one, I didn't know there was a video of that song. Very enjoyable. Rhetorical question, why the shenanigans with the sunglasses? Parsons looks remarkably good there considering the cocktail of booze, weed and illicit substances he was already regularly ingesting!

 

I'm Your Toy

For some reason I find the slower songs on this record to be a bit less impactful, with a few exceptions. I like this one but it never sticks with me the way many of the other songs do. 3/5

 

5/5. Saw them with John at LA Sports Arena for this lp and was great. Not as great as 78,79…

 

He usually looked pretty good, (less paparazzi back then?). He had this baby face... His pal Keith R. said somethng like
"He had this baby face man, all the chicks wanted to cuddle him and take him home".
Sigh, another of those sad "what might have been" stories.

 

He still left a great body of work - and like Nick Drake, Judee Sill and a few others - went before he got fat and started to repeat himself.

 

I'm Your Toy 2.5/5

I used to like this more but after I bought The Gilded Palace Of Sin I just see that as really definitive and EC's version as a little mannered. Good taste as usual in cover.