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Elvis Costello - Biography

Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello Biography


Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello

Declan Patrick Aloysius McManus (born August 25, 1954), better known by his stage name, Elvis Costello, is a popular British musician, singer, and songwriter of Irish descent. He was an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s, and later became associated with the punk rock and new wave musical genres, before establishing himself as a unique and original voice in the 1980s. His output has been wildly diverse: One critic has written that 'Costello, the pop encyclopedia, can reinvent the past in his own image.'1 (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:ly09kect7q70~T1)

Born into a musical family (his father, Ross McManus, sang with Joe Loss), McManus moved with his mother to Liverpool in 1971. It was there that he formed his first band, Flip City, which had a style very much in the pub rock vein. They lasted until 1975–1976, by which time McManus was living in London with a wife and child. McManus worked a number of dead-end jobs, during which time he continued to write songs, and began aggressively looking for a solo recording contract, which led to an incident in which he was arrested while busking outside a conference of record executives. On the basis of a demo tape, he was signed to Stiff Records. His manager at Stiff, Jake Riviera suggested a name change (using Presley's first name and his mother's maiden name to form 'Elvis Costello') and teamed him with a country/soft rock band named 'Clover' (who would later back Huey Lewis as 'The News').

Contents
1 Music

1.1 1970s
1.2 1980s
1.3 1990s
1.4 2000 to Present

2 Discography

2.1 Albums
2.2 Collections
2.3 Reissues
2.4 Tribute Albums

3 Filmography
4 External links

Music

1970s

Costello's first album, My Aim Is True (1977) was a moderate commercial success (No. 14 in the UK and Top 40 in the US) with Costello appearing on the cover in his trademark glasses bearing a striking resemblance to Buddy Holly. Its release saw Costello marketed by Stiff as a new wave artist or a punk, despite the fact that the album featured the ballad 'Alison' (one of his most enduring songs). The same year, Costello recruited his own band, The Attractions (Steve Nieve, born Steve Nason, piano; Bruce Thomas, bass guitar and Pete Thomas drums; the Thomases are unrelated). He released his first major hit single, the cinematic 'Watching The Detectives', recorded with Nieve, plus Steve Goulding (drums) & Andrew Bodnar (bass), both members of Graham Parker & The Rumour.

Following a whirlwind tour with other Stiff artists (captured on the Live Stiffs album, notable for Costello's recording of the Burt Bacharach standard 'I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself') the band recorded This Year's Model (1978), a frenetic record filled with raucous energy and Costello's barbed lyrics. Stand-out tracks include the British hit '(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea' and 'Lipstick Vogue', on which the rhythm section excel. A tour of the US and Canada also saw the release of the much bootlegged promo-only 'Live At The El Mocambo' which finally saw an official release as part of the '2 1/2 Years' boxset in 1993.

In 1977, Costello appeared on Saturday Night Live. During rehearsal, he and the Attractions played 'Less Than Zero' but when the live performance came, Costello played the introduction for that song, then--to the shock of the program's producers--he stopped the song, apologized to the audience, then broke into a rendition of 'Radio, Radio' depite being asked not to play the song because of its anti-corporate message. Costello has also stated that he thought 'Less Than Zero' would not make much sense to American audiences. He was banned from Saturday Night Live for nearly fifteen years, and didn't appear on any American television programs for several years.

1979 would see the peak of Costello's commercial success with the release of the album Armed Forces (suitably subtitled 'Emotional Fascism'). Inspired by the constant touring, the band were in fine form and Elvis had further honed his lyrical wit, tackling subjects both personal and political. Both the album and the single 'Oliver's Army', with a piano hook self-admittedly borrowed from Abba's 'Dancing Queen', went to No.2 in the UK. Costello also found time in 1979 to produce the debut album for ska band The Specials. His success in the US was severely dented, however when Costello called Ray Charles a 'blind, ignorant nigger' during an argument with Bonnie Bramlett in an Ohio bar (the comment being particularly odd, since Elvis worked extensively in Britain's 'Rock Against Racism' campaign both before and after). A contrite Costello apologised at a press conference, claiming that he had been drunk, and had said it only to annoy Bramlett (at which he was successful, since Bramlett punched him in the face).

1980s

Possibly as another statement of his oft-stated debt to black music, Costello and the Attractions' next album, Get Happy!! was an inventive pastiche of new wave pop and soul music. It would be the first, and - along with King Of America - possibly most successful, of Costello's many experiments with genres beyond those with which he is normally associated (the single, 'I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down' was an old Sam and Dave song, though Costello increased the tempo considerably). The brevity of the songs (20 tracks in about 45 minutes) suited the band's new style (the Thomas' typically melodic rhythm section and Nieve's reasonable impersonation of Booker T) as well as the frantic and stressful conditions under which it was written and recorded, crammed between live dates and fuelled by excessive drinking. Lyrically, the songs are full of Costello's signature wordplay, to the point that he later felt he'd become something of a self-parody and toned it down on later releases.

1981's Trust had a more pop sound, but the overall result was clearly affected by the growing tensions within the band, particularly between Bruce and Pete Thomas. Despite its eclecticism ('Different Finger' had a distinct country feel) and pop hooks, Trust was not a major success and the first album since his debut to generate no hit singles.

Following the commercial disappointment of Trust, Costello took a break from songwriting and the band decamped to Nashville to record Almost Blue, an album of country music ballads written by the likes of Merle Haggard ('Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down') and Gram Parsons ('How Much I Lied'). Receiving mixed reviews, some of which accused Costello of growing soft, the record was released with a sticker bearing the message:

'WARNING: This album contains country & western music and may cause offence to narrow minded listeners'.

Almost Blue did spawn a surprise UK hit single in a version of George Jones' 'Good Year For The Roses.' Although the album was entitled Almost Blue it didn't include the song by that name, which would appear on 1982's Imperial Bedroom release. (Jazz Trumpeter Chet Baker would later perform and record a beautifully morose version of this song.)

Imperial Bedroom (1982) marked a much darker, almost baroque sound for Costello, due in large part to the production of Geoff Emerick, famed for engineering several Beatles records. Featuring a superior set of songs - both musically and lyrically - it remains one of his most critically acclaimed records but again failed to produce any hit singles.

1983 saw another sidetrack with the Pop-Soul of Punch the Clock, featuring female backing vocals courtesy of Afrodiziak and a four piece brass section, The TKO Horns, alongside The Attractions. Clive Langer, who co-produced with Alan Winstanley, provided Costello with a melody which eventually became 'Shipbuilding', an oblique and articulate look at the political contradictions of the Falklands War, with the military build-up providing jobs for the struggling shipyards of Britain; the song featured a striking solo by Chet Baker. (An affecting, emotive cover version of the song was a minor UK hit for former Soft Machine drummer and political activist, Robert Wyatt). Equally political was 'Pills And Soap' -- a UK hit for Costello himself under the pseudonym of 'The Imposter' -- an attack on the changes in British society brought on by Thatcherism, released to coincide with the run-up to the 1983 UK general election. (The electorate were seemingly not swayed.)

Punch the Clock also generated an international hit in the single 'Everyday I Write the Book,' aided by a prophetic music video featuring lookalikes of the Prince and Princess of Wales undergoing domestic strife in a suburban home.

Tensions within the band were beginning to tell, and with Costello starting to feel burnt out he announced his retirement and the disbandment of the group shortly before they were to record Goodbye Cruel World (1984). Costello would later say of this record that they had 'got it as wrong as you can in terms of the execution'. With a number of poor songs, and with even the better ones damaged by muddy production, the record was slated on release, an opinion which even many of Costello's most ardent fans still share. However, even though this is generally regarded as one his worst records, some songs such as 'The Comedians' (which was quoted in Alan Moore's seminal comic series Watchmen) are very highly regarded. The retirement, although short-lived, was accompanied by two compilations, Elvis Costello: The Man in the UK, Europe and Australia and The Best Of Elvis Costello in the USA.

In 1985, Costello teamed up with good friend T-Bone Burnett for a single called 'The People's Limousine' under the moniker of The Coward Brothers. That year, Costello also produced Rum, Sodomy and the Lash for the punk/folk band the Pogues.

By 1986, Costello was preparing to make his comeback. Working in the US with Burnett, a band containing a number of Elvis Presley's sidemen (including James Burton and Jerry Scheff) and minor input from the Attractions he produced King Of America, an acoustic guitar-driven album with a country sound, augmented by some of his best songs for some time. Around this time he legally changed his name back to Declan McManus, adding Aloysius as an extra middle name.

Later that year, he returned to the studio with the Attractions and recorded Blood and Chocolate, heralded for a post-punk fervor not heard since 1978's This Year's Model. It also marked the return of producer Nick Lowe, who had produced Costello's first five albums.

In 1987, Costello, with a new contract with Warner Bros., began a long running songwriting collaboration with Paul McCartney. They wrote a number of songs together including Costello's 'Veronica' and 'Pads, Paws and Claws' from Spike (1989), 'So Like Candy' and 'Playboy to a Man' from Mighty Like A Rose (1991) and McCartney's 'My Brave Face', 'Don't Be Careless Love', 'That Day Is Done' and 'You Want Her Too' from Flowers in the Dirt, and 'The Lovers That Never Were' and 'Mistress and Maid' from Off The Ground. In 1989, he appeared on the HBO special, Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night that featured his long-time idol, Roy Orbison and was invited back to Saturday Night Live for the first time since 1977.

1990s

In 1991 Costello released the aforementioned Mighty Like A Rose, during which time he infamously grew a long beard.

In 1993, Costello tested the waters of classical music with a critically acclaimed collaboration with the Brodsky Quartet on The Juliet Letters. Costello would return to rock and roll the following year with a project that reunited him with The Attractions, Brutal Youth. An album of cover songs recorded 5 years previously was released in 1995, Kojak Variety, followed in 1996 by an album of songs he had originally written for other artists, All This Useless Beauty. This was the final album of his Warner Bros. contract.

He collaborated with Burt Bacharach in 1996 on a song called 'God Give Me Strength' for the movie Grace of My Heart. That collaboration led the pair to write and record an album together, Painted From Memory, released in 1998 under his new contract with Mercury Records

For the 25th anniversary of Saturday Night Live, Costello was invited to the program, where he re-enacted his abrupt song-switch: This time, however, he interrupted the Beastie Boys' 'Sabotage', and they acted as his backing group for 'Radio, Radio'

2000 to Present

In 2001, Costello began teaching music at UCLA and wrote the music for a new ballet. He produced and appeared on an album of songs for opera singer Anne Sofie von Otter, For The Stars.

In 2002 he released a new album, When I Was Cruel, and toured with a new band, the Imposters (the Attractions with a different bass player, Davey Farragher, formerly of Cracker).

In March 2003, Elvis Costello & The Attractions were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In May, his engagement to Canadian jazz singer and pianist Diana Krall was announced. September saw the release of North, an album of piano-based ballads. In December, Costello and Krall married at the London estate of Elton John. In 2004, the song 'Scarlet Tide' (co-written by Costello and T-Bone Burnett and used in the film Cold Mountain) was nominated for an Academy Award.

In July 2004 Costello's first full-scale orchestral work, Il Sogno, was performed in New York. The work, a ballet after Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream, was commissioned by Italian dance troupe Aterballeto, and received critical acclaim. Whilst composing it, Costello deliberately avoided listening to the previous interpretations by Mendelssohn and Britten in order to ensure his own originality. A range of musical moods and styles are used to represent the different elements of the cast - satyrical pomp for the courtiers, jazz for the faeries, and for Bottom a deliberately intrusive 'brass band' motif. It was released on CD in October by Deutsche Grammophon.

Costello released another album in July of that year: 'The Delivery Man', a rock album recorded in Oxford, Miss. Mainly blues, country, and folk, 'The Delivery Man' received early acclaim as one of Costello's best albums, and continues Elvis' personal quest to release an album on each and every one of Universal's record labels.

Discography

Albums

  1. 1977 - My Aim Is True
  2. 1978 - This Year's Model
  3. 1979 - Armed Forces
  4. 1980 - Get Happy!!
  5. 1981 - Trust
  6. 1981 - Almost Blue
  7. 1982 - Imperial Bedroom
  8. 1983 - Punch the Clock
  9. 1984 - Goodbye Cruel World
  10. 1986 - King of America
  11. 1986 - Blood and Chocolate
  12. 1989 - Spike
  13. 1991 - Mighty Like a Rose
  14. 1993 - The Juliet Letters
  15. 1994 - Brutal Youth
  16. 1995 - Kojak Variety
  17. 1996 - All This Useless Beauty
  18. 1996 - Costello & Nieve
  19. 1998 - Painted from Memory, with Burt Bacharach
  20. 2002 - When I Was Cruel
  21. 2003 - North
  22. 2004 - The Delivery Man
  23. 2004 - Il Sogno

Collections

  1. 1980 - Taking Liberties
  2. 1980 - Ten Bloody Marys & Ten How's Your Fathers
  3. 1987 - Out of Our Idiot
  4. 1993 - 2½ Years
  5. 2003 - Singles, Volume 1
  6. 2003 - Singles, Volume 2
  7. 2003 - Singles, Volume 3

This section is complete.

Reissues

Many of the earlier albums (all of the ... and the Attractions ones) were reissued from 2001 to 2003, under the guidance of Mr. Costello himself and featuring, in each case, a bonus disc of b-sides, outtakes, live tracks, alternate versions and / or demos of songs. The sound was remastered in each case as well.

The Almost Blue and Kojak Variety bonus discs were particularly notable as each contained, essentially, an entire new album's worth of material also performed but either not issued, or released as b-sides on singles originally.

The Get Happy bonus disc was also of note, with 30 additional tracks, bringing the total for the 2-disc set to 50 songs.

Tribute Albums

  1. 1998 - Bespoke Songs, Lost Dogs, Detours & Rendezvous - (various artists)
  2. 2002 - Almost You: The Songs of Elvis Costello - (various artists)
  3. 2003 - The Elvis Costello Songbook - Bonnie Brett
  4. 2004 - A Tribute to Elvis Costello - Patrik Tanner

Filmography

External links



This biography is published under the GNU Licence




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