Born in St Mary's Hospital, Paddington in London, Costello is the son of trumpeter, vocalist and band-leader Ronald (“Ross”) MacManus and record store manager Lillian Costello. His family had roots in Merseyside and he moved to Birkenhead at age 16, with his mother, when his parents separated. While he is better known as 'Elvis Costello', a stage name referring to the legendary Elvis Presley suggested by Stiff Records manager Jake Riviera, he has used many other aliases, including 'The Imposter' and 'Napoleon Dynamite'.
In the early 1970s Costello was a participant in London's pub rock scene with the group Flip City. Then in 1977 along with fellow Pub-Rockers Nick Lowe and Ian Dury he made his first releases on the independent label Stiff, tailoring his work towards the burgeoning punk, power pop, and new wave scenes. From 1980's Armed Forces onwards, however, other influences including soul, country, 1960s pop, and classical music began to re-emerge, and he soon became established as a unique and original voice. His output has been wildly diverse: one critic has written that "Costello, the pop encyclopedia, can reinvent the past in his own image".
His prolific and varied 30-year career has been marked by two constants: sharp songwriting and musical restlessness. The latter has seen him dabble in almost every musical form, from country to jazz to orchestral. This stems from the fact that, at heart, Costello is a fan. His desire to work with his musical heroes has attracted collaborators as diverse as Burt Bacharach and Paul McCartney, Anne Sofie von Otter, Allen Toussaint, Aimee Mann, Bill Frisell, and Brian Eno.
But his most successful partners were his long-term band The Attractions. They comprised Steve Nieve (keyboards), Pete Thomas (drums) and Bruce Thomas (bass). Between 1978 and 1983, this outfit produced a peerless series of albums: This Year's Model; Armed Forces; Get Happy!!; Almost Blue; Trust; Imperial Bedroom and Punch the Clock.
These recordings drew on styles spanning soul, country and western and commercial pop. It was only with 1984's Goodbye Cruel World that Costello started to stumble. An album he concedes was one of his worst, it ushered in a period which produced interesting music but lacked the consistent quality of his halcyon days. Interestingly, although he enlisted the other Elvis's band for King of America in 1986, it was a reunion with The Attractions and former producer Nick Lowe that produced his best album of the late 1980s in the form of the scabrous Blood and Chocolate.
The following albums, Spike and Mighty Like a Rose were uncompromising and difficult solo works, as was the string quartet collaboration The Juliet Letters in 1993. It was only reconvening the Attractions for Brutal Youth the following year that gave his fans another glimpse of what first attracted them to him: punchy, angry pop songs, tightly played by an impeccably taut ensemble.
Since then, Costello has become a career dilettante, true to his inner musical quest, but never again returning to heights he scaled in the early 1980s. Maybe the best work of this latter period was 1998's Painted from Memory. This joint effort with Burt Bacharach matched restrained writing from Costello with stately Bacharach arrangements.
Subsequent career nadirs such as the tune-free North (2003), and instrumental orchestral works such as Il Sogno (2004) led many long-term admirers to conclude that Costello had retained his integrity at the expense of his real musical strengths. However, he has given occasional evidence of his former fire. The ballsy bar-room atmosphere of the collaborative The Delivery Man (2004), suggests that he is still capable of giving his fans what they want, in between his more esoteric experiments.
Elvis is married to jazz vocalist Diana Krall and they have twin sons.
*Upon the film's release, it was noted that the name "Napoleon Dynamite" had originally been used by musician Elvis Costello, most visibly on his 1986 album Blood and Chocolate, although he had used the pseudonym on a single B-side as early as 1982. Filmmaker Jared Hess claims that he was not aware of Costello's use of the name until two days before the end of shooting, when he was informed by a teenage extra. He later said, "Had I known that name was used by anybody else prior to shooting the whole film, it definitely would have been changed ... I listen to hip-hop, dude. It's a pretty embarrassing coincidence." Hess claims that "Napoleon Dynamite" was the name of a man he met around the year 2000 on the streets of Cicero, Illinois while doing missionary work for the Mormon Church.
Costello believes that Hess stole the name: "The guy just denies completely that I made the name up... but I invented it. Maybe somebody told him the name and he truly feels that he came about it by chance. But it's two words that you're never going to hear together." To date, Costello has taken no legal action against the film.
Elvis Costello and Elton John to Make a Television 'Spectacle'
Two of the most respected musicians in the world will collaborate on an extraordinary new television series.
"Spectacle: Elvis Costello with..." is hosted by its namesake and produced in conjunction with Sir Elton John's Rocket Pictures. Elton John will be one of the program's Executive Producers.
The series begain airing in 2008 on CTV in Canada, Channel 4 in the UK and Sundance Channel in the US. FremantleMedia Enterprises, will handle sales of the show to the rest of the world.
Conceived to provide a forum for in-depth discussion and performance with the most interesting and influential artists and personalities of our time, the show fuses the best of talk and music television.
"Spectacle: Elvis Costello with..." is an unpredictable and unprecedented television experience. The series of 13 one-hour programs features everything from intimate one-on-ones with legendary performers and notable newcomers to thematic panel discussions, with a variety of performance elements including unique collaborations, acoustic and impromptu "illustrative" demonstrations of the creative process, and some original interpretations of others' songs by Costello.
Dissolve
Elvis Costello Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
What makes the world just waking up
Resolve?
Dissolve
Who knows where on earth it's going to stop?
I can't hear you 'cause we're breaking up
Dissolve, dissolve
And the birds all fly from the branches in a panic
And a back-fire echoes down the hillside
As the last headline report dies
Dissolve, dissolve
Ice is melting at the distant Pole
The gin and tonic glasses overflow
Dissolve, dissolve
The precious little else that I could say
Your stupid tears of laughter washed away
Dissolve, dissolve
While the poisonous light pours from the picture palace
And it flickers on, tries so hard to be scandalous
A child keeps beating on a toy drum
And the tablets dropped on your tongue
Dissolve, dissolve, dissolve, dissolve
"So salute me in moving frame"
"I might not be there when you look again"
The mourning border card behind the clock
The hour that he passed, unwound and stopped
Dissolve
involves a number of abstract images and ideas that are open to interpretation. The opening lines of the song are about a sugar cube being dropped into a yellow cup, but the significance of this image is not immediately clear. It could be a metaphor for something sweet and fleeting in life - like the world when it's just waking up. The idea of resolve and dissolve may relate to the transient nature of life and how things can disintegrate over time. The line "Who knows where on earth it's going to stop?" speaks to the uncertainty of life and the fact that we don't know what's going to happen next.
Next, the song explores other imagery like stones in the track making work for the mechanic and birds flying away in a panic. This could represent chaos and conflict as well as the indifference of nature to human problems. The line "Dissolve, dissolve" is repeated, as if things are falling apart and breaking down. Then the song discusses the melting ice at the distant pole and how gin and tonic glasses are overflowing. These could be symbols of excess and indulgence as well as the impact of climate change. The final lines offer a sense of closure, as if the singer is saying goodbye and acknowledging the passing of time.
In terms of its musical style, "Dissolve" features a slow and contemplative melody, with sparse instrumentation that emphasizes the lyrics. Elvis Costello's vocals are understated and introspective, further highlighting the abstract nature of the song. Overall, "Dissolve" is a complex and enigmatic track that invites different interpretations and reflects on themes like impermanence, change, and loss.
Line by Line Meaning
Sugar cube drop into a yellow cup
Something small and almost insignificant happening to begin the day
What makes the world just waking up
Questioning what it is that creates the start of a new day
Resolve?
Asking if there is any kind of solution to the unknown beginning of a day
Dissolve
Answering the question of the previous line with uncertainty, dissolution seems likely
Who knows where on earth it's going to stop?
There is no certainty of when anything will end
I can't hear you 'cause we're breaking up
The communication is unclear and fading away to silence
Dissolve, dissolve
The act of things breaking apart and vanishing, repeating
And the stones in the track make work for the mechanic
Small problems accumulate and create big ones that cause people to work harder
And the birds all fly from the branches in a panic
The unexpected and unknown creates fear and chaos
And a back-fire echoes down the hillside
A disruption of the peace and calmness of the environment
As the last headline report dies
The end of an era, the last of something is disappearing
Dissolve, dissolve
The act of things breaking apart and vanishing, repeating
Ice is melting at the distant Pole
The environment is going through a significant and irreversible change
The gin and tonic glasses overflow
Consumption, abundance, and waste
Dissolve, dissolve
The act of things breaking apart and vanishing, repeating
The precious little else that I could say
Almost nothing left to express, reveal or communicate
Your stupid tears of laughter washed away
Shallow, meaningless emotions that fade away quickly
Dissolve, dissolve
The act of things breaking apart and vanishing, repeating
While the poisonous light pours from the picture palace
A place that was once associated with entertainment and escapism is now infected and harmful
And it flickers on, tries so hard to be scandalous
Desperate attempts to cause controversy and shock in order to gain attention
A child keeps beating on a toy drum
The innocence of youth and the simplicity of life contrasts against the complexities of adulthood
And the tablets dropped on your tongue
Drugs consumed and the effects that come with them
Dissolve, dissolve, dissolve, dissolve
The act of things breaking apart and vanishing, repeating
"So salute me in moving frame"
An undervalued self-seeking request for superficial attention
"I might not be there when you look again"
The fleeting and temporary nature of all experience and existence
The mourning border card behind the clock
Remnants of a loss that still linger in everyday life
The hour that he passed, unwound and stopped
The loss of someone and the way their passing breaks the continuity of time
Dissolve
Accepting the end, letting go
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: ELVIS COSTELLO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind