Elvis Costello: Difference between revisions

Costello was initially associated in the public mind with [[Punk Rock (Music)|Punk Rock]], and in terms of attitude there was a resemblance. (He had enjoyed seeing the [[Sex Pistols (Music)|Sex Pistols]] go head to head with morning TV host Bill Grundy.) Musically his closest kinship was to classic [[The Sixties|sixties]] pop: [[The Kinks (Music)|The Kinks]], [[Bob Dylan (Music)|Bob Dylan]], early [[The Who (Music)|Who]] and especially [[The Beatles (Music)|The Beatles]]. While he had a [[Creative Differences|troubled relationship]] with his backup band the Attractions, they were fully able to keep up with his musical vision.

 

 

 

He also hosted [[Too Good to Last|two seasons]] of a music/interview show called ''Spectacle: Elvis Costello with...'' which aired on the Sundance Channel in the US and [[Channel Four]] in the UK.

* [[Creator Backlash]] - Costello's liner notes to the 1993 reissue of ''Goodbye Cruel World'' open with the sentence "Congratulations, you've just bought our worst album". His stance toward the album has softened over time; he still considers the album to have been poorly recorded, but believes the songs themselves were strong.

* [[Creator Breakdown]] - While creating ''Blood and Chocolate'', Costello had just had a messy divorce, was going through some trouble with his backing band The Attractions, and was rumored to be drinking an absolutely heroic amount of alcohol to cope. It's one of his bitterest albums, and (to some) [[True Art Is Angsty|one of the most underrated]].

* [[Genre Adultery]] - Costello doesn't just commit Genre Adultery—he commits Genre Nymphomania. To cite a few examples, he's done an album of country covers (''Almost Blue''), chamber music (''The Juliet Letters''), roots rock (''King of America'', ''The Delivery Man''), jazz (''My Flame Burns Blue''), classical (''Il Sogno''), and bluegrass (''Secret, Profane & Sugarcane'').

** His debut album tends toward a soft, country-rock style (probably due to the backing band, the pub-rock band Clover), and ''Get Happy'' is largely based on mid-sixties pop styles such as Tex-Mex, and Motown and Memphis Soul.

* [[I Have Many Names]] - Names he's used in his songwriting credits include: Declan McManus, The Imposter, and Napoleon Dymamite<ref>No relation to [[Napoleon Dynamite|the movie]], apparently</ref>.

* [[Ink Suit Actor]] - On ''[[The Simpsons (Animation)|The Simpsons]]''.

* [[Lyrical Cold Open]] - "Mystery Dance", "Accidents Will Happen", "I Hope You're Happy Now", "Next Time Round", "Indoor Fireworks", "Poisoned Rose", and more.

* [[Lyrical Dissonance]] - The upbeat music that Costello tends to employ often masks how dark the lyrics are. One example is "Veronica", whose tune is so happy and poppy that you have to pay close attention to the lyrics to get that the song is about an elderly woman with Alzheimer's Disease.

* [[Murder Ballad]] - His cover of Leon Payne's "Psycho", which overlaps with [[Nightmare Fuel]].

* [[Nerd Glasses]] - One of his visual trademarks.

** "The Long Division" from the Burt Bacharach collaboration also qualifies.

** "Room With No Number" is technically an example of this. The refrain is always sung as "room without a number", never as the exact title phrase.

* [[Stoic Spectacles]]

* [[Stop and Go]] - "God's Comic".

** There's probably only a few songs in Costello's catalogue that ''aren't'' [[Take That|Take Thats]].

* [[Textless Album Cover]] - ''King of America''