Wednesday, September 22, 2010

BACK TO THE FUTURE: Elvis Releasing 4 New Songs... On 78 rpm discs! (What does that Latin mean, anyway?)

One more off-the-politics-track (a fun lunch, indeed):

Elvis Costello is releasing a new album in November.  To get a little buzz going, part of his team (Shorefire Media, also of Bruce Springsteen fame) sent out a release announcing that four of the songs will be released on limited edition 78 RPM discs.  (Although, they put a question mark at the end of the announcement, so did the LA Times get sucked in to treating it as a serious idea?)

The LA Times gave it some attention yesterday, but conspicuously did not address this part of the release (Lupe-o-Tone is the name of the fictional record company):

LUPE-O-TONE,



PURVEYORS OF FINE FLAT PHONOGRAPH RECORDS & CYLINDERS SINCE 1913


OUR MOTTO IS “EGO SUM SATUS INFREMO”

That motto has GOT to be a joke, or a clue to a joke.  So, I brushed off my old Latin skills - and/or consulted an online translator.  The motto:  "I am beginning to growl."

Ah, well.  I remember that some of those backward-masked messages were not as funny or clever as hoped for, either.

I wonder if you can turn a 78 backwards. Hmmmmm, maybe Elvis will bring that back, too.





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