Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello (born Declan Patrick Aloysius McManus on August 25, 1954, Liverpool) is a popular singer, musician and songwriter.
Having first started to write songs as part of London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s, he became primarily associated punk rock, which never really suited him, before establishing himself as a unique and original voice in the 1980s.
From a musical family (his father, Ross McManus, sang with Joe Loss), he moved with his mother to Liverpool in 1971. It was there that he formed his first band, Flip City, very much in the pub rock vein. They lasted until 1975, by which time McManus was living in London with a wife and child. After a number of dead-end jobs, during which time he continued to write songs, he began looking for a solo recording contract, which involved an incident when he was arrested 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 McManus' mother's maider name to become "Elvis Costello" and teamed him with a country/soft rock band named "Clover" (who would later back Huey Lewis).
The resulting album, My Aim Is True (1977) was a moderate commercial success (#14 in the UK and Top 40 in the US) with Costello appearing on the cover bearing a striking resemblance to Buddy Holly. Its release saw Costello marketed as a new wave artist or a punk, despite the inclusion of the ballad "Alison" (one of his most enduring songs). The same year, Costello recruited his own band The Attractions (Steve Naive, born Steve Mason, piano; Bruce Thomas, bass guitar and Pete Thomas drums) and released his first major hit single, the cinematic "Watching The Detectives", recorded with Naive.
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 Years 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 Thomas brother's rhythm section excel. A tour of the US and Canada also saw the limited release of "Live The The El Mocambo".
1979 would see the peak of Costello's commercial success. 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 both the personal and the political. Both the album and the single "Oliver's Army", with a piano hook borrowed from Abba's "Dancing Queen", went to #2 in the UK. 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).
Possibly as another statement of his oft-stated debt to black music, their next album Get Happy was an inventive pastiche of 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). The brevity of the songs (20 tracks in about 45 minutes) suited the bands new style (the Thomas' typically melodic rhythm section and Naive'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 sound is clearly affected by the growing tensions amidst 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 contain no hit singles.
With the Attractions, he hit the charts Britain and the U.S. with songs like "Watching the Detectives", "Oliver's Army" and "Everyday I Write the Book".
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.
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, "So Like Candy" and "Playboy to a Man" from Might Like A Rose and McCartney's "My Brave Face", "Don't Be Careless", "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 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.
Now a solo performer, he performs with a more lyrical style than the choppy, punchy fairground-music style associated with the Attractions. In 2001, Costello began teaching music at UCLA.
Discography
- My Aim Is True, 1977
- This Year's Model, 1978
- Live at the El Mocambo, 1978
- Armed Forces, 1979
- Get Happy!!, 1980
- Trust, 1981
- Almost Blue, 1981
- Imperial Bedroom, 1982
- Punch the Clock, 1983
- Goodbye Cruel World, 1984
- King of America, 1986
- Blood and Chocolate, 1986
- Spike, 1989
- Mighty Like a Rose, 1991
- The Juliet Letters, 1993
- Brutal Youth, 1994
- Kojak Variety, 1995
- All This Useless Beauty, 1996
- Painted from Memory, with Burt Bacharach, 1999
- When I Was Cruel, 2002